FBI arrests two Paterson cops, charges them with violating people's civil rights

Paterson law enforcement officials feared they had two rogue cops on their hands when an early-warning system flagged an unusual number of complaints against Paterson police officers Jonathan Bustios and Eudy Ramos in January 2017.

The subsequent 15-month investigation by the FBI resulted in the arrests of Bustios and Ramos on Wednesday in a case in which authorities say the accused officers illegally stopped and searched vehicles, detained the occupants and improperly took cash and other items from them.

The two officers started working for the Paterson police department in 2014 and were assigned during the time of the investigation to patrol relatively quiet sections of the city – the Hillcrest neighborhood and the area near St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, according to law enforcement officials.

But Bustios and Ramos, who graduated from the police academy together, often ended up involved in making arrests in the 4th Ward, outside their patrol sectors, police officials said.

Some of the alleged crimes were captured on video and audio recordings of the two officers taken by investigators in the latter stages of the federal probe, authorities said.

In one instance, last Feb. 20, Bustios allegedly took a white plastic bag containing cash from a BMW he and Ramos had stopped, authorities said. After they released the suspects, the two cops drove off in their separate patrol cars and met beneath a highway underpass where they split the money, passing the cash through the window of Bustios' vehicle, authorities said.

The officers’ patrol reports for that day did not say anything about stopping the BMW, according to the charges against them.

In another incident, on March 14, Bustios allegedly negotiated a deal with a suspected heroin dealer, agreeing to drop a resisting arrest charge in exchange for a handgun, authorities said.

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Bustios and Ramos appeared before Judge Michael Hammer in federal court in Newark on Wednesday afternoon. Both pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, Ramos faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, Bustios faces 30 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Both were released on $100,000 bonds and both are subject to electronic monitoring

Bustios’ lawyer, Patrick Caserta, declined to comment on the charges against his client. Ramos’ lawyer, Steve Iacullo, could not be reached for comment. The Paterson PBA did not respond to a phone call seeking the union’s input for this story.

Paterson Police Chief Troy Oswald said the arrests should be seen as a sign of his department’s accountability to the public.

“This was not a case of them coming in and cleaning house,” said Oswald of the FBI. “This started as our investigation. The FBI investigation would not have happened without us.”

“People talk about the blue wall of silence, that’s not what happened here,” Oswald added. “When Paterson police officers commit crimes, we are going to put them in jail.”

Oswald said that after the city’s Internal Affairs alert system highlighted problems with the officers, he asked the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office to investigate. But the prosecutor’s office did not have assets available for such a probe, so Oswald said he instead went to the FBI.

Oswald declined to reveal exactly what incidents involving Bustios and Ramos triggered the Internal Affairs division’s warning system. The chief said they were the only two officers covered in the January 2017 alert.

The two accused cops were arrested late Wednesday morning – Bustios at the West Belt Plaza mall in Wayne and Ramos on East 21st Street in Paterson, authorities said. They were both charged with extortion and conspiracy to deprive persons of their human rights, according to the announcement by the United States Attorney’s Office in Newark.

Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale said the two officers have been suspended without pay. Ramos makes $51,360, while Bustios is paid $48,860, according to payroll records.

"It's just a sad day for the city of Paterson," said Mayor Jane Williams-Warren. "I'm very upset by it.

"The Paterson Police Department is committed to protecting the safety and civil rights of the citizens it serves and will not tolerate this alleged behavior amongst its ranks," she said. "The City will continue to work with federal authorities on the prosecution of this case."

Bustios has been a high-profile member of the Paterson police department.

In December 2016, Bustios shot and wounded a suspect who allegedly fired on officers who were responding to a call about a domestic dispute. A grand jury last year determined that the shooting was justified.

In the 14 months prior to that incident, Bustios had helped make arrests in seven separate cases in which suspects allegedly had guns, according to press releases issued by the Paterson police department.

The federal complaint against the officers says surveillance video of Bustios and Ramos seemed to indicate they were less than truthful about the details of some of their gun seizures.

For example, the complaint says the two officers said in the official reports that they got a tip from a concerned citizen last Feb. 20 that resulted in them finding two handguns in a garage on Lyon Street. But the surveillance video taken by detectives investigating the officers didn’t show them talking to a concerned citizen, nor going to the garage on Lyon Street, nor obtaining the two guns, according to the criminal complaint.

Instead, the federal complaint says that the officers likely obtained one of the guns they reported finding during the traffic stop of the BMW that same day during which they took the white plastic bag containing cash.

The complaint against the officers includes an alleged partial transcript of the recorded conversation on March 14 between Bustios and a drug suspect, the incident in which he reportedly agreed to drop a resisting arrest charge in exchange for a gun. Some of the conversation allegedly took place while they were parked in the lot outside the back door of Paterson police headquarters.

“If you don’t wanna make the deal, you don’t have to make the deal,” Bustios said, according to the transcript.

“No, I do,” said the suspect.

Later in the transcript, Bustios is quoted saying, “I just told you, I'm not gonna charge you. How many times do I have to tell you, man?”

The suspect then spoke to someone on the phone about where to leave the gun, the criminal complaint said. Bustios and the suspect then drove to that spot, under a bridge near Governor Street, but could not find the weapon.

The suspect made another call and Bustios drove to a second location, where he found the weapon in a brown plastic bag, the complaint says.

Bustios never mentioned the gun in the arrest report for the suspect, authorities said. He also did not turn the gun in, authorities said.



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