A New York City police detective who specializes in sex crimes is facing an internal investigation after purportedly sexually assaulting another detective from the NYPD’s Special Victims Division in Manhattan, Buzzfeed News reports.
The detective who has been implicated, Abel Perez, has since been put on modified duty, according to multiple insiders, after allegedly squeezing the rear end of a female detective in the unit.
The female detective reported the incident to the unit’s commanding officer, Lt. Austin Morange, and subsequently registered a complaint, according to Buzzfeed News. The assaulted detective and Morange discussed the event behind closed doors for three hours, where he tried to talk the detective out of issuing the complaint, a source told confirmed.
Lou Turco, who spoke for the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, told Buzzfeed News that the union “categorically denies” that Morange tried to discourage the detective from filing the complaint, noting that Morange was “very willing to take whatever action the detective wanted to pursue.”
Turco added, “We will welcome the complete investigation into this matter.”
While the female detective has yet to be identified, she did file the complaint, and multiple insiders verified with Buzzfeed News that an internal investigation is ongoing.
Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, which represents Perez, spoke with BuzzFeed News. “Apparently something occurred, but I don’t yet know the full extent of it,” he said, adding, “Various accusations are being made so at this point we are trying to get to the bottom of exactly what’s going on.”
