16 cops arraigned in ticket-fixing scandal

The arraignment Friday of 16 cops -- including a lieutenant -- on charges stemming from a widely publicized ticket-fixing scandal brought an outpouring of support from hundreds of off-duty NYPD officers who massed outside a Bronx courthouse as union officials blasted the charges as an attack on the police rank-and-file.

"What we are here for today is the fact that a courtesy has now turned into a crime and that is wrong," Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said, to cheers from the off-duty cops. "Something that is institutional in the NYPD, and accepted, has landed on the shoulders of New York City police officers."

But at a news conference after the arraignment, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said the ticket-fixing in his borough wasn't a victimless crime because it cost the city an estimated $1 million to $2 million in revenue.

"We feel this is not minimal conduct, it is criminal conduct, felony conduct," Johnson said.

At the same news conference, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said that though officers had some discretion in issuing summonses, that didn't extend to the destruction of records or lying.

"Those actions are crimes under the law and can't be glossed over as 'courtesies,' " Kelly said. "Those who tried to rationalize them are kidding themselves, especially if they think the public finds it acceptable."

Computerized advances and other safeguards are now in place to prevent ticket tampering, Kelly noted.

Earlier Friday, Lynch and scores of cops crowded the Bronx State Supreme Court on 161st Street as more than a dozen cops pleaded not guilty to a variety of charges in separate indictments. Eleven are PBA delegates or former delegates. Some of the grand larceny and forgery charges are felonies punishable by state prison terms of more than a year. Most of the remaining charges were misdemeanors or violations punishable by up to a year in jail. All the cops were suspended.

Johnson said cops involved in the alleged fixing did it by either removing tickets from precincts, altering them so they would be dismissed or getting other cops to testify falsely to compromise the cases. The ticket-fixing took place from September 2009 until last November, Johnson said. More than 100 additional cops face administrative charges, Kelly said.

The cop facing the most serious charges is Jose Ramos, 42, an officer in the Bronx's 40th Precinct who was arrested Thursday. An anonymous tip sparked a police internal affairs bureau probe of Ramos in 2008 on suspected drug dealing involving his barbershops that picked up on his ticket-fixing efforts, Johnson and Kelly said. Ramos allegedly plotted to move heroin with a person who was actually an undercover detective, Kelly said.

Judge Steven Barrett set bail for Ramos at $500,000 cash.

Two Long Island residents were charged in the ticket-fixing case. One is NYPD Officer Christopher Manzi, 41, a PBA delegate assigned to the 41st Precinct and living in Nassau County. Manzi was hit with a 158-count indictment and freed on his own recognizance. He declined to comment Friday. The other is Officer Christopher Scott, 41, a PBA delegate assigned to the 48th Precinct. A Suffolk resident, he is accused among other offenses of 26 counts of fourth-degree grand larceny.