Feds: 3 NYPD officers charged in bribery scheme involving towing company

A joint FBI and NYPD investigation snared some current and retired cops — two from Long Island — for running a scheme in which auto accident wrecks were improperly steered to a towing company in exchange for thousands of dollars in bribes, officials said Friday.

Arrested Friday morning on federal bribery and other charges were NYPD officers James Davneiro, 42, of Bayside, and Giancarlo Osma, 39, of Deer Park, both of whom had been working at the 107th Precinct in Queens. Also charged was Michael Perri, 32, of East Islip, who retired as an NYPD officer in 2020 and had also worked at the 107th Precinct, officials noted.

Davneiro holds the rank of detective, joined the NYPD in July 2001 and has no disciplinary record, online personnel records show. Osma, a patrol cop, joined the NYPD in July 2008 and his personnel records show he had two disciplinary complaints in 2017, including one in which he didn’t properly report a matter to Internal Affairs for which he was docked 20 vacation days.

All three defendants were slated to be arraigned on an indictment in Brooklyn federal court late Friday before Magistrate-Judge Lois Bloom on charges of conspiracy and interstate bribery.

According to a statement released by Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the tow truck scheme allegedly got underway in May 2020 when Davneiro and Osma, after responding to automobile accidents, would steer the damaged vehicles to a licensed tow trucking and auto repair shop operated by Perri. The two cops allegedly received a few thousand dollars in bribes, the indictment charged. The steering of business to Perri was allegedly done in violation of a special NYPD program, known as the Directed Accident Response Program or DARP, which required the department to select appropriate towing companies and not independent firms to respond to accidents, said Kasulis.

The two-count indictment alleged that the defendants bypassed the DARP program. In one instance Perri is accused of "directing a bribe payment of $1,600 to Osma" in April 2021 and then another series of payments in May 2021 of $1,000 to Osma and $1,000 to Davneiro, the indictment alleged. The indictment further charged the two active duty cops with diverting "one or more vehicles" involved in accidents to Perri’s business during the months of April and May. Perri’s company was not identified in court papers.

Friday's arrests were the second in an investigation that earlier this year snagged three other defendants, two current NYPD cops and another retired member of the service, all from Long Island, on charges that they took part in a four-year scheme to bypass the randomized tow truck selection system.

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a statement that the arrests were the latest in an ongoing investigation involving the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. A department spokesman said both Davneiro and Osma were suspended without pay following their arrests.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.com

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.