Cop Faces Charges of Fabricating Drug Bust

MANHATTAN (CN) - Surveillance footage from a Harlem housing project shows that a police officer lied about having witnessed a drug deal, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office indicted Isaias Alicea, 28, on 10 felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, and two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct.

Alicea, a six-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, patrolled public housing complexes under his assignment to the north Manhattan housing bureau, PSA 6.

While on patrol in February 2012, Alicea allegedly stopped two men in the lobby of a building in the Manhattanville Houses on West 126th Street.

Prosecutors say Alicea arrested both of the men, and that he told his supervisors and the District Attorney's Office that he seen them engaging in a drug transaction. Alicea allegedly gave a similar account in paperwork he filed about the arrest.

This story unraveled when surveillance video revealed that no illegal exchange had occurred, and the men never came in contact with each other inside the lobby, according to a statement from the District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors say Alicea also searched the mailbox of one of the men, who was a tenant in the building, without authorization.

Charges against both men were allegedly dismissed.

Alicea, a Queens resident, celebrates his 29th birthday Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Julio Cuevas is prosecuting the case under the supervision of ADA Luke Rettler and Executive ADA David Szuchman.

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