FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
NYPD Officer Indicted for Perjury and Forgery for Allegedly
Claiming He Earned Less Than He Did to Lower Child Support Payments
Allegedly Filed False Payroll Statement to Family Court; Defrauded Child Out of Over $15,000
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a New York City Police Department officer has been indicted for perjury, criminal possession of a forged instrument and related charges for allegedly misrepresenting his salary during Family Court proceedings in 2013. By doing so, the defendant kept over $15,000 in earnings, to which his child was legally entitled.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Perjury and fraud are always wrong, but this case is particularly disturbing because these offenses were allegedly committed by a police officer to deprive his child of needed financial support. I will not tolerate such willful and deliberate deceit of our courts, especially from those who have taken an oath to serve the public.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Police Officer Michael Martinez, 40, an 11-year veteran of the NYPD who is currently assigned, in modified duty, to the Housing Bureau in Manhattan. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on a 20-count indictment in which he is charged with second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, first-degree perjury, third-degree grand larceny and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. The defendant was released without bail and ordered to return to court on September 12, 2018. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of the top count.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on July 8, 2013 and November 21, 2013, during hearings before a Support Magistrate in Brooklyn Family Court, the defendant allegedly filed numerous false payroll statements that indicated he earned less money than he actually earned. During the July hearing, when pointedly asked by the magistrate about the apparent change in his income, the defendant allegedly lied under oath by claiming he was working days instead of nights. In fact, he was still working nights at that time and received additional income for doing so, the investigation found.
It is alleged that the defendant made these false representations to reduce his child support payments. In the period of the magistrate’s order, which relied on these alleged false representations and was in force until the child turned 21 in February 2017, the defendant defrauded the Support Collection Unit and his child out of a total of $15,332.14, according to the investigation.
In July 2017, the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau started investigating other, unrelated allegations against Officer Martinez and became aware of the alleged false filings in Family Court.
The case was investigated by Lieutenant Tony Wong and Sergeant Jermaine Taylor of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Katherine Zdrojeski and Senior Assistant District Attorney Adam Libove of the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michel Spanakos, Unit Chief, and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, Deputy Chief of the Investigations Division, and Mark Feldman, Senior Executive Assistant for Crime Strategies and Investigations.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.