NYPD officials acted like personal concierges to members of the Orthodox Jewish community — doing favors from providing free parking at weddings to letting wife beaters off the hook.
“I don’t give a s–t, you’re giving him DAT [desk appearance ticket] and that’s it,” one high-ranking deputy inspector raged after learning that a member of a powerful Hasidic group had been arrested on charges of third-degree assault for attacking his wife, according to a source.
In that case, the charges were downgraded to a desk appearance ticket, allowing the man to avoid arraignment court and more serious penalties, the source said.
“I still remember that as clear as day,” the source said. “That’s against protocol.”
Shady dealings such as these are now at the center of a gifts-for-favors corruption scandal, in which two businessmen are suspected of giving out lavish presents to high-ranking officers.
Jeremy Reichberg, a prominent Borough Park figure, and Jona Rechnitz, a real-estate investor, were familiar faces around Brooklyn’s 72nd Precinct, where disgraced Deputy Inspector James Grant, who was placed on modified duty last week, would let them park in his private spot, according to sources.
Reichberg was even allowed to attend a roll call at the precinct, where he may have footed the bill for repairs, sources said.
Sources said Grant is hardly the only high-ranking officer who has been giving Orthodox community members special treatment.
Commanding officers often assign cops to Orthodox wedding receptions, including ones at the Rose Castle in Williamsburg and the Ateres Chaya Hall in Borough Park, according to sources.
“It’s ridiculous,” a police source said of the practice. “They’ll say you have to assign X amount of cops for this reason.”
One community member said that two blocks were closed off around Ateres Chaya in January, when Reichberg’s daughter got married there.
So far, five high-ranking officers have been modified or transferred as a result of the federal investigation.
