A former NYPD cop slapped the Manhattan DA with a $10 million “malicious prosecution” lawsuit, saying she was wrongfully charged in an ugly disability scheme that snagged dozens of city workers for faking claims in the wake of 9/11.
Darlene Ilchert, who retired in 2000, was one of 106 people arrested in a shocking scheme to defraud taxpayers through bogus Social Security insurance claims, including faked mental illnesses stemming from 9/11.
But the charges were dropped against Ilchert and three other people in August 2016 prompting her Manhattan federal court lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, filed Friday, Ilchert said she was merely a victim of the ringleaders of scam Raymond Lavallee, Joseph Esposito and Thomas Hale who filed bogus paperwork in behalf of city workers.
She said she was “victimized twice” when she was arrested.
The case has cost Ilchert hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and it caused her to lose disability benefits she was rightfully receiving, the lawsuit said.
The DA’s office was “so caught-up in the publicity aspect of indicating 106 defendants, including 80 former members of the New York City Police Department and New York City Fire Department, that they knowingly and willfully ignored and overlooked the actual innocence of the Mrs. Ilchert,” the lawsuit said.
The three other people who saw the charges against them dropped in August filed a $30 million malicious prosecution lawsuit on Wednesday.
