May 6, 2000

PORT AUTHORITY POLICE OFFICER ARRESTED FOR STEALING PASSENGER'S WALLET TURNED IN TO HIM BY AIRPORT BOOKSTORE CLERK

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the arrest of a Port Authority Police Officer on charges of stealing a wallet that had been turned in to him by a bookstore clerk after a customer inadvertently left the wallet on the bookstore counter.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Port Authority Police Officer Jerry Perez, 37, who was assigned to LaGuardia Airport. He was arrested this morning by members of the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Port Authority Police Department. He is charged with falsifying business records, official misconduct and petit larceny. He faces up to four years in prison upon conviction.

District Attorney Brown said, "it is always distressing when a person sworn to uphold the law is alleged to have broken it. In this case it is alleged that an airport store clerk discovered that a customer had left his wallet containing about $450 on the store counter and that the clerk contacted the Port Authority Police detail at the airport. It is alleged that the clerk turned the wallet over to Officer Perez who failed to give the lost wallet to his supervisor and fill out the required paperwork."

According to the complaint filed today in Criminal Court in Kew Gardens, the crime occurred on October 18, 1999 between 8pm and 10pm in a bookstore on the lower level of LaGuardia's central terminal. The wallet belonged to a 42 year old Grand Rapids Michigan resident who was traveling home.

Assistant District Attorney Robert C. Ciesla of District Attorney Brown's Integrity Bureau, which is under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney James M. Liander and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Peter A. Crusco, is in charge of the prosecution.

It should be noted that an arrest is merely an accusation and that a defendant should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.