Joe Malinconico

Paterson Press

PATERSON — The FBI’s arrest of Paterson Police Officer Daniel Pent on Tuesday stems at least partly from information provided to federal investigators by two of his fellow cops — and alleged co-conspirators — who are trying to get a break on the charges pending against them, according to court records.

Pent is accused of taking money from people during illegal traffic stops, including one instance in which he and another accused officer, Eudy Ramos, allegedly stole $10,000 from a passenger in a vehicle they pulled over, according to the charges against him.

The criminal complaint reveals that two Paterson police officers are confidential witnesses in the case. The two officers — identified in the complaint as “CW-1” and “CW-2” — helped investigators “in the hopes of obtaining a more favorable outcome with respect to pending federal charges,” said the complaint.

Wearing bluejeans and a black T-shirt, Pent was escorted into a federal courtroom in Newark on Tuesday afternoon, wearing handcuffs and leg irons. Judge Steve Mannion approved his release on $100,000 bond.

“He’s a hero police officer and a very dedicated police officer,” said Pent’s lawyer, Michael Calabro. “Now it’s our turn to begin our investigation as to these charges.”

Calabro said he called Pent a “hero” because the officer had defended one of his law enforcement colleagues during a shooting in an alleyway. Calabro said Pent went on medical leave as a result of that shooting, and he claimed the officer was not on active duty during the time when some of the alleged crimes took place.

Pent, 32, is the sixth Paterson cop charged with crimes in a federal investigation that started more than two years ago. Court records indicate that at least one more city police officer is suspected of participating in the wrongdoing, but authorities have not identified him.

The probe so far has produced three sets of criminal charges.

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Five cops — including one who already has pleaded guilty — are accused of making rogue traffic stops and cash shakedowns from 2016 until 2018. Meanwhile, two officers have pleaded guilty to assaulting a patient at a hospital emergency room in March 2018. One of the cops in the hospital case also has admitted selling drugs multiple times over the course of more than six months in 2017 and 2018.

“We are determined to rid our Police Department of corruption,” Mayor Andre Sayegh said after Pent’s arrest.

The mayor said his staff is in the process of hiring an outside firm to audit the Police Department — a study he said would help restore public trust in the city’s law enforcement officers.

“This sends a message that any possible wrongdoing in the Paterson Police Department will be fully addressed,” said the city’s police chief, Troy Oswald, when asked about Pent’s arrest.

Oswald repeatedly has pointed out that his department had asked the FBI to intervene and conduct its probe after the city’s Internal Affairs Division heard allegations of the wrongdoing.

But critics of the Police Department say the series of arrests affirm long-held suspicions about misconduct by Paterson cops. Lawyer Harley Breite, who often represents men accused of crimes in Paterson, said that more than two decades ago one of his first clients told him that a police officer had kept money taken during his arrest.

“Who are you going to believe? A drug dealer or the cops?” Breite said, explaining that he initially didn’t put much stock in the allegations. “But then you keep hearing the same story over and over for 26 years. Now you know: This is what happens.”

The federal indictment against Ramos, which was made public last week, said he conspired with Police Officers Jonathan Bustios and Matthew Torres and two unnamed cops in the traffic stop shakedowns. The criminal complaint released Tuesday revealed that Pent was one of the unnamed officers described in the Ramos indictment.

Bustios already has pleaded guilty in the case, and Torres’ criminal charges are still pending.

In addition to the traffic stops, court records said that in some instances the accused officers allegedly stole money from people inside buildings known as drug locations or from residents walking down the street.

For several years, Pent worked on the same patrol squad with Ramos, Bustios and Torres on a shift that started at about 4:30 a.m. and ended at about 3:45 p.m., court records show. During that time, they teamed up to make several high-profile arrests involving drugs, guns and shootings, according to news stories published about those cases.

Law enforcement sources say the officers had a track record of leaving their patrol sector — in a relatively quiet part of the city — to make arrests in Paterson’s notorious 4th Ward. Law enforcement sources said the accused officers allegedly targeted suspected drug dealers for shakedowns because the known criminals were likely to be carrying large amounts of money and would be less likely to file complaints about having the cash taken from them.

Tuesday’s arrest comes a day before two other Paterson cops apprehended by the FBI last year are scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark. Both officers were in the same police training academy class as Pent in 2014.

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Another officer facing criminal charges, Roger Then, has pleaded guilty to assisting Officer Ruben McAusland in the hospital attack and is scheduled for sentencing next month.

Pent, McAusland, Ramos, and Bustios graduated from the police academy together in June 2014, while Torres and Then were part of the class of trainees who graduated in December 2014, according to city payroll records.

Police Officer Frank Toledo, who was in the same training class with Torres and Then, was disciplined with an unpaid suspension last summer as a result of the federal probe, according to city officials. But authorities have not revealed the reason for Toledo’s punishment.

Mason Maher, president of the union that represents Paterson police officers, noted that Pent and the other officers with pending charges are innocent until proven guilty, “just like everyone else.”

Maher said the federal case should not blemish the work of what he described as “the vast majority” of officers never accused of any wrongdoing.

“You don’t hear about all the good that Paterson police officers do day-in and day-out in the hundreds of thousands of encounters they have with the public,” Maher said.

Pent is being suspended without pay from Police Department for 30 days, officials said. After that, he will be placed on paid administrative leave until the charges against him are resolved, as required under the city’s contract with the police union, officials said. Pent, whose salary is listed as $53,589 on city payroll records, was hired by the Paterson department in January 2014.

The complaint filed against Pent provides details on one incident — when he and Ramos allegedly took the $10,000 on Feb. 1, 2017.

Federal authorities said the officers stopped and searched the vehicle, handcuffed its occupants and found that the front-seat passenger was holding $10,000 in a plastic bag. The complaint said Pent and Ramos told the passenger they were taking the money and would charge him with trying to buy heroin if he tried to claim the cash.

In the meantime, a police supervisor arrived on the scene, and Pent and Ramos arrested the passenger and charged him with loitering in a drug area, the complaint said. The suspect was released from custody that same day and went to the police property window asking about the $10,000, the complaint said.

The police officer at the property window said no one had turned in the money, according to the court records. As a result, the passenger filed a complaint with the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, authorities said.

Pent had filed a prisoner property report saying the passenger — identified as “Victim 1” — was carrying $36 when he was arrested, according to court records.

“According to Victim 1,” said the criminal complaint, “Pent and Ramos did not act like police officers; instead, they treated the situation like a robbery.”