A Brooklyn Shomrim patrol leader accused of paying NYPD cops cash bribes in order to expedite gun permits is in talks with feds over a plea deal, lawyers said Friday.
Manhattan federal court Judge Sidney Stein gave prosecutors and the defense three weeks to hammer out a possible agreement for Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, who was busted in April for paying cops as much as $1 million to keep the scheme going.
“We have been in continuous discussions about the resolution of the case,” said Assistant US Attorney Russell Capone.
Lichtenstein, 44, who appeared in court looking tired and wearing a black suit, is charged with bribery and conspiracy for charging his customers — members of his Orthodox Jewish community — as much as $18,000 per gun license.
Stein gave defense lawyer Richard Finkel until Nov. 3 to file pretrial motions, which will go forward if no resolution is reached.
Finkel claims feds searched Lichtenstein’s home in Rockland County without a warrant and questioned him for 2¹/₂ hours without reading him his Miranda rights.
The government disagreed.
“Based on what we know, I don’t think there was a warrantless entry,” said Capone.
Finkel added that he has “video and still photographs” to back up his claim.
“They questioned him for more than 2½ hours at great length,” Finkel told the judge.
Lichtenstein’s shady business unraveled after a cop in the NYPD’s License Division admitted he and another supervisor took payments they called “lunch money” to process the permits.
Lichtenstein was secretly recorded bragging about securing 150 gun licenses through NYPD connections, court papers said.
He offered a whistle-blowing cop $6,000 to keep the illicit scheme going and calculated that another 150 permits would be worth $900,000 in bribe money, the papers said.
The criminal complaint said Lichtenstein hung around the License Division “on a near daily basis” beginning in 2014.
A handful of complicit cops were booted from the division but have not been criminally charged.
Lichtenstein has been out on $500,000 bail and is charged with bribery and conspiracy.
His arrest coincided with a sweeping probe by feds into allegations of NYPD brass accepting bribes from businessmen Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg.
In that case, several cops have been charged with taking gifts such as Super Bowl tickets, video games for their kids and jewelry in exchange for favors.
