Cop faces sex charge in traffic stop case

A Nassau police officer was arrested Wednesday and charged in connection with a traffic stop where prosecutors said he forced a woman to touch him in a sexual manner and then made a series of lewd phone calls to her.

Officer Garrett J. Mannerz was suspended without pay Wednesday after being charged with felony bribe receiving and three misdemeanors: sexual abuse, coercion, and official misconduct, authorities said.

He faces up to 7 years in prison if convicted. His next court date is June 29.

Prosecutors asked "anyone with a similar experience" to call the Public Corruption Bureau at 516-571-2100.

Nassau County's district attorney, Kathleen Rice, in a statement called the actions of the officer "a shocking case of a policeman abusing his power."

Mannerz, who was assigned to the Third Precinct in Williston Park, was released without bail Wednesday at his arraignment at First District Court in Hempstead.

William S. Petrillo of Rockville Centre, Mannerz's defense attorney, said in a statement: "The absurdity of this false claim will become crystal clear as the case unfolds against this well-respected officer and family man."

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Evidence against Mannerz, who is 34 and has been on the force since 2005, includes a recording of at least one of the telephone calls he made to the woman, prosecutors said.

In Mannerz's first call, made within hours of the traffic stop, he "asked her to meet him to have sex with him, which she did not do," a police internal affairs sergeant wrote in the court papers.

Police department spokesman Det. Vincent Garcia declined to comment, and the president of Mannerz's union, the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, could not be reached.

The traffic stop happened on Hempstead Turnpike near Newbridge Road in East Meadow at 4 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 27, and according to prosecutors and court papers, unfolded like this:

Mannerz had stopped the car with three young women in their early 20s after the driver made a U-turn. After ordering her out of the car and administering sobriety tests, he told her to get back inside and said she was "borderline on the Breathalyzer." He then ordered another passenger out of the car, asked her to turn around, and called her "sexy." He brought her back to his unmarked car, where he sat inside and made a series of lewd comments. He took down her phone number and said "if she did something for him, he would let her friend get away without getting a ticket."

That's when he grabbed the woman's wrist and forced her to touch him. She pulled her hand away and went back to the car. The first phone calls from Mannerz began within hours.

With Gary Dymski