DA: Retired cop had unregistered guns

A retired Hempstead Police Department detective who in May pleaded guilty to beating his wife, an NYPD precinct commander, has been arrested on charges of having several unregistered handguns in his home -- including one that was stolen from his department, Nassau County prosecutors said.

William Fowlkes, 47, of Long Beach, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Nassau County Court to charges of criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, second-degree perjury, second-degree falsifying business records, official misconduct and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. If convicted, he faces up to 4 years in prison.

Judge John Kase ordered Fowlkes held on $10,000 bond or $2,000 cash bail. He is due back in court Aug. 10.

Stephen LaMagna of Garden City, Fowlkes' attorney, said, "As a decorated member of law enforcement, Detective Fowlkes served this community with distinction for well over 24 years, and will be completely exonerated of these unsupported charges brought against him by the DA's office."

Hempstead Village Police Chief Joseph Wing, in a statement, said, the department "has been involved with the ongoing investigation of William Fowlkes from the beginning and will continue to cooperate with the district attorney's office."

Fowlkes pleaded guilty two months ago in Suffolk County to third-degree assault and criminal trespass, both misdemeanors, and disorderly conduct, a violation, in the March beating of his wife, Deputy Insp. Juanita Holmes, 46, commanding officer of the 81st Precinct in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. He had followed Holmes to the Islip home of another NYPD detective and beat her outside the house, breaking two of her ribs.

In that case, he was to be sentenced to 3 years' probation and ordered to attend a domestic violence program.

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Also, as part of the order of protection against him in the Suffolk County case, Fowlkes was required to surrender any and all firearms he owned.

Shortly after his guilty plea, Fowlkes surrendered four unregistered handguns, Nassau prosecutors said.

They said Fowlkes got one of those guns, a Smith & Wesson .38 Special, when he was involved in a controlled gun buy from a suspected criminal in 2001. However, rather than turning the gun over as evidence, Fowlkes kept it and did not report having it until a year later. At that time he fabricated an arrest by filing bogus paperwork and falsely claimed that he had gotten the gun from the suspect in that arrest, prosecutors said.

In addition, paperwork indicates one of the guns Fowlkes was believed to have had was not among those he turned in, prosecutors said. Fowlkes lied to Nassau police about the gun's whereabouts in a sworn statement, telling police that he had sold the gun to a now-deceased Hempstead police inspector, prosecutors said. That gun has not been recovered, officials said. With Gary Dymski