Bronx cops charged with ticket-fixing

Sixteen cops and 5 civilians are expected to be arraigned Friday morning on Bronx ticket-fixing charges in the second major corruption scandal to explode this week for the NYPD, Bronx prosecutors said.

The officers, as well as some sergeants and a lieutenant, are scheduled to surrender early Friday and appear before Bronx State Supreme Court Judge Steven Barrett, said a law enforcement official who asked not to identified.

"Twelve of our guys are going to surrender and appear in court," said a spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, adding that the charges are expected to involve some union delegates and possibly a trustee.

A spokesmen for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson, whose office has been handling the two-year-long investigation, said the cops were expected to be arraigned around 10 a.m. Friday. Johnson's spokesman said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was expected to jointly announce the indictments with the prosecutor this afternoon.

The case promises to be the largest number of cops accused of corruption since the infamous "Dirty Thirty" scandal of the 1990s when more than two dozen officers in the 30th Precinct in Manhattan were charged with making illegal raids on suspected drug dens.

One criminal attorney in the Bronx who doesn't represent any of the cops in this case said a colleague representing one of the defendants said some officers were asked to surrender at Johnson's office at 7 a.m., possibly earlier. The charges are expected to include bribery, official misconduct and obstruction of governmental administration, said the defense attorney.

Sixteen officers are expected to be charged, far fewer than the scores reported earlier this year when news began to circulate of the probe into cops fixing tickets for people they knew or were doing favors for.

Still, the case will further embarrass the NYPD, which has been buffeted by bad publicity.

Earlier this week, five current officers were arrested in a joint FBI-NYPD internal affairs investigation into a gunrunning and stolen property trafficking conspiracy.

The contraband was actually planted as part of an FBI sting and the firearms were inoperable. Most of the cops had been working in the 68th Precinct in Brooklyn and all have been suspended.