Three Eastern Queens NYPD officers cuffed for bribery racket
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Three police officers from the 105th Precinct were arrested for collecting bribes from a tow truck company on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Photo via Google Maps
By Jacob Kaye
Three police officers were arrested and charged with bribery Tuesday. One of the officers, who racked up a slew of use of force complaints during his time with the NYPD, faces additional heroin trafficking charges, federal prosecutors announced.
The charges of corruption have sparked advocacy efforts from public defenders to vacate convictions in which the officers were involved.
The NYPD officers, Heather Busch, 34, Robert Hassett, 36, and Robert Smith, 44, were arrested on Tuesday, May 11, and were each charged with using interstate facilities to commit bribery and conspiracy to violate the Travel Act. All three officers are from Long Island and worked in the 105th Precinct.
According to prosecutors, in September 2016, Smith and Hasset began to contact an unidentified tow truck and auto repair company whenever they came across a car crash in their precinct, bypassing the NYPD’s Directed Accident Response Program, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Hasset and Smith received thousands of dollars in cash payments for bringing the tow company business, according to the feds.
The scheme lasted for a little less than a year, when in June 2017, the pair stopped reaching out to the company, the charges allege. However, Smith resumed the scheme in November 2019.
In March 2020, Smith, who was allegedly caught on audio recording bragging about his criminal acts and using racial slurs, retired from the NYPD and recruited Busch to help him continue the plot, according to the criminal complaint.
In a separate scheme that began in January 2020, Smith and Hassett allegedly began collecting the names and addresses of recent car crash victims from the NYPD’s database in order to feed the information to the tow company. An unidentified person working at the company would then pass along the information to a physical therapy business and several personal injury attorneys, who would then reach out to the victims, prosecutors alleged.
Both Smith and Hasset, who sent the names of at least 100 people to the company, received cash payments for passing along the information, according to the complaint.
Smith allegedly took his criminal activity one step further in January 2020, when he used his status as a retired officer to transport heroin from Long Island into Queens, according to the feds. Smith, faces additional charges of attempted distribution of heroin and possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.
On Wednesday, The Exoneration Project, The Legal Aid Society and Queens Defenders joined together in a letter to each district attorney in New York City to demand prosecutions in which the three arrested officers were heavily involved be vacated. Additionally, the organizations called for a review of any cases that Smith, Hassett or Busch played a minor role in.
“The indictment makes clear that the charged individuals’ status as police officers was essential to their alleged criminal conduct,” the letter reads. “While we recognize that these are allegations and all of these individuals enjoy the presumption of innocence afforded all criminal defendants, we believe that the allegations are sufficiently serious to warrant your office’s review of all criminal cases involving these officers.”
In a statement to the Eagle, a spokesperson for the office of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the DA was “aware of these arrests and is currently assessing the officers’ case histories in Queens,” in an effort to meet their “disclosure and ethical obligations.”
“Restoring trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve has been and continues to be a priority for DA Katz’s administration,” the spokesperson said. “One of the foundations of that trust is law enforcement accountability.”
Smith has appeared before the Civilian Complaint Review Board numerous times dating back to 1998, data compiled by the NYCLU shows. Though 51 complaints have been made against him, only two were substantiated by the board.
In both cases, Smith was found to have used discourteous or offensive language to a member of the public.
Busch has appeared in front of the Civilian Complaint Review Board on two complaints, both of which were truncated, meaning the board was unable to get an in-person statement from the alleged victim.
Hasset has been accused on seven occasions of using either excessive force or abusing his power by members of the public. The CCRB found all his complaints to be either unfounded or truncated.
Smith, who was ordered to be held without bail on Tuesday, faces life in prison if convicted of the charges.
Hassett and Busch have been suspended from the NYPD without pay and face five years in prison each if convicted.
