Former Suffolk sgt. sentenced for stealing drivers’ cash

Former Suffolk Police Sergeant Scott Greene, already in prison for stealing cash from two Hispanic motorists during traffic stops, was sentenced Thursday to one to three years in prison on three additional grand larceny convictions.

Greene, 52, of Shirley, also was sentenced Thursday by state Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho to one year imprisonment for an additional guilty plea to petit theft.

The sentences are concurrent to the one to three year prison term he currently is serving upstate for his January conviction on grand larceny, petit theft and official misconduct charges.

He was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty April 15, 2016 to three felony counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree and one charge of petit larceny (a misdemeanor) for his thefts of cash from drivers during traffic stops he made in 2011 and 2012.

Greene appealed to the judge to sentence him to only community service. There were no victims in court, although the judge said some had sent him written statements.

In the January trial on other charges, six Hispanic men testified against him, saying that after they were stopped by Greene in the Coram area, money went missing from their wallets and pockets. The thefts occurred between 2010 and 2013.

Many of the men testified they knew the exact amount that was stolen because they were laborers who were paid in $100 and $50 bills.

Greene was snared in an undercover sting operation in January 2014 and retired shortly afterward. A 25-year veteran of the force, he was convicted after trial of stealing money from two Hispanic men but was acquitted of six other more serious charges of fourth-degree grand larceny as a hate-crime, targeting them because of their ethnicity.

Immigrant advocates said Thursday the jury’s decision to acquit Greene of the hate-crime charges was a major defeat.

“The advocacy community feels that he really did take advantage of undocumented Latino immigrants, who were very vulnerable,” said Maryann Sinclair Slutsky, executive director of Long Island Wins, which works to highlight the contribution of immigrants on the Island. “He really preyed upon them. But the jury didn’t see it that way. At least he was prosecuted and convicted of other things.”