Jailed cop admits to stealing cash from Hispanic motorists

Former Suffolk County police sergeant Scott Greene is sentenced in State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho's courtroom at First District Court in Central Islip on Friday, March 4, 2016. He was convicted in January of stealing money from two Hispanic motorists. Credit: James Carbone
The former Suffolk police sergeant sent to prison for stealing cash from two Hispanic motorists pleaded guilty Friday to similar charges in a second indictment covering other drivers, the Suffolk District Attorney’s office said.
Scott Greene, 52, admitted in court to three felony counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree and misdemeanor petty larceny for taking cash from four other Hispanic drivers during traffic stops in 2011 and 2012, authorities said.
He has been in prison on a 1 to 3 year sentence for his first conviction, and when State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho sentences him May 3, Greene is expected to serve his new sentence concurrently.
Under the deal that covers an indictment involving 20 Hispanic drivers, Greene waived his right to appeal and would get 1 to 3 years on the felonies and one year for the misdemeanor, prosecutors said.
“He made the decision to put this behind him and focus on what’s important, which is his family,” said Greene’s attorney, Scott Gross of Garden City.
Greene, a 25-year veteran, retired after police in January 2014 conducted an undercover sting that caught him on video slipping $100 into his shirt sleeve. The sting was mounted in response to Hispanic drivers’ complaints of missing money after the sergeant’s traffic stops and more men came forward when news of his arrest broke.
Six Hispanic men testified during the trial that their vehicles were stopped by Greene in the Coram area between 2010 and the end of 2013, and he searched them when they could not provide a driver’s license or other documents. Several specified the exact amount missing because they were day laborers who were paid their weekly cash wages in $100 and $50 bills.
The jury in January acquitted Greene of the more serious hate-crime charges of targeting the men because of their ethnicity.

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