Two rookie NYPD cops have been arrested for groping and robbing a prostitute inside a Queens brothel they had been assigned to investigate, authorities said Monday.
Officers Justin McMillan, 27, and Justin Colon, 24, surrendered Monday and were suspended from the force without pay. They are accused of turning their body-worn cameras off to hide their alleged misconduct.
They were arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on an eight-count indictment charging them with burglary, forcible touching, petty larceny and official misconduct.
“The allegations in this case are an affront to the shield worn by the countless police officers who serve and protect the residents of this city,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
“The defendants, both sworn NYPD officers, are accused of using their authority to break into a building, steal money and forcibly touch a woman while on duty, with their body-worn cameras intentionally turned off so that their misdeeds would not be recorded.”
The incident happened last July 19 when the officers, rookies on foot patrol in the 115th Precinct, responded to a 311 complaint about prostitution at a residential building on 89th St. in Jackson Heights.
The officers turned on their body-worn cameras then shut them off after indicating they didn’t see anything illegal, Assistant District Attorney Christine Oliveri said in court.
After leaving the building, they lingered for a while then allegedly approached a woman exiting the building and stole her keys.
That woman ran off and McMillan and Colon also left, only to return eight hours later, still in uniform, Oliveri noted, and with their cameras still off.
The officers allegedly used the key to get into the brothel, scaring off a john, then focusing on the woman he had hired for sex.
“They shut the lights off, went in with their flashlights on in the dark, took money from her and…McMillan groped her breast and her buttocks.” Oliveri said.
The woman ran off and called 911, Katz said, sparking an NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau investigation.
The officers were stripped of their guns and shields and assigned to desk duty monitoring video feeds at a Bronx Housing Bureau command last August as authorities continued to investigate.
The officers were released without bail and ordered to surrender their passports.
Michael Cibella, McMillan’s lawyer, said the officer, who lives in Atlantic Beach, L.I., with his parents, both retired cops, denies the allegations and “has every intention of fighting these charges.”
Michael Martinez, Colon’s lawyer, said the officer, who lives in Long Island City, “vigorously denies these allegations.”
Martinez had argued against Colon’s passport be taken away, given a trip he has planned to the Dominican Republic next month.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said it is a privilege to wear the NYPD uniform and that any official who violates the public trust that comes with the job “will be investigated, exposed and held fully accountable.”
The accused officers joined the force in 2023, McMillan in April, Colon in July. Both are probationary officers because they have less than two years on the job.
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