Ex-Cop Ran Prostitution Ring on Long Island, Authorities Say

BY TOM DAVIS

An ex-police officer has been charged with running a prostitution ring on Long Island and elsewhere, according to authorities.

A complaint was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday charging Eduardo Cornejo, 33, a former NYPD officer, with transporting women in interstate commerce to engage in prostitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.

Until his termination from the NYPD on Jan. 15, Cornejo was an 11-year veteran of the NYPD who, at the time of the charges, was on modified assignment. He had been assigned to the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn, according to a press release.

Members of law enforcement observed Cornejo transporting at least 10 different prostitutes he employed to motels throughout the New York metropolitan area, including parts of Long Island and New Jersey. Cornejo often engaged in this conduct directly after leaving his work with the NYPD, according to the release.

Through a wiretap, law enforcement intercepted statements by Cornejo that exposed his alleged crimes. For example, in one such statement, Cornejo discussed the way he divides money with the prostitutes he employs and, if he were to stand outside a motel door with “a bunch of girls,” law enforcement would “know what’s up real quick.”

According to a Daily News report, an undercover officer responded to ads for escorts in East Meadow and discussed with a woman on the phone the cost for sexual services. They made a date to meet at the motel and when the woman answered the phone at a later time, she was inside Cornejo’s car, the report says.

The ex-cop was observed transporting women to New Jersey motels in Fort Lee and Secaucus, once when a bachelor party was underway. At the Secaucus motel, officers say they watched two women repeatedly leave their rooms as men arrived, according to the complaint.

The charges were announced by Robert L. Capers, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Diego Rodriguez, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI, and NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton, according to the press release.

“As alleged, the defendant betrayed the trust of the residents of the city he swore to protect,” stated Capers. “Rather than seeking to eradicate crime from the streets of the city, the defendant promoted prostitution and profited from his exploitation of women.”

Capers praised the joint investigative efforts of the FBI and the Internal Affairs Bureau of the NYPD.

“Throughout his alleged criminal actions, Cornejo not only abused the public trust given to him as an NYPD officer, but he showed no human decency when he facilitated the exploitation of women for profit. Police officers, like all public servants, are held to a higher standard, and should not violate the very same laws they are supposed to enforce,” said Rodriguez.

If convicted, Cornejo faces up to 10 years of incarceration.