NYPD officers accused of perjury

NEW YORK (AP) — Two Brooklyn police officers are accused of trumping up allegations against a man they thought was a black-market cigarette dealer, but who was actually an undercover Internal Affairs agent.

Sgt. Raymond Stukes and officer Hector Tirado pleaded not guilty Friday to perjury charges.

Police say the two ran into trouble when they unknowingly stumbled across a sting being conducted by the Internal Affairs division.

Unaware of what was taking place, they arrested an agent posing as a cigarette dealer and filed arrest reports claiming he tried to sell bootleg smokes to two people.

But prosecutors say the reports were partly fabricated, and didn’t match events captured in an Internal Affairs video.

Stukes and Tirado are free pending trial.

Their lawyers declined to comment.