A dirty NYPD cop is facing up to 17 years in prison after admitting to taking payoffs from an identity thief in return for helping him with scams.
“I’m not the cop you think I am. I am a piece of s—,” Officer John (Lenny) Montanez said in a tape-recorded conversation.
Montanez, an NYPD cop for seven years, was assigned to the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx when he worked out his deal with the scammer in 2011, court papers show. The fraudster told Montanez he had a suspended driver’s license; Montanez offered to get him the name and driver’s license of a real person so he could pretend to be that person if stopped by cops. For payment, Montanez wanted the crook to buy him electronics using stolen credit cards, court papers say.
Montanez later helped the thief with credit card scams by using NYPD records to supply him with people’s personal information — including that of a fellow cop. The thief dimed Montanez out after getting busted in 2013.
