NEW YORK – A private investigator and former New York Police Department cop were arrested this week on conspiracy to commit bribery and other felony charges related to gaining access to a law enforcement database to get the names of potential witnesses in federal criminal cases, officials.
Joseph P. Dwyer, 46, a private investigator and Ronald G. Buell, 48, a former NYPD officer, were arrested on charges that Dwyer paid Buell, who was then an NYPD officer, bribes so that Buell would retrieve confidential information from a federal database about potential witnesses in federal criminal cases, officials said.
“Private investigators assisting criminal defendants can—and should—do many things to serve their clients, but bribing law enforcement officials for confidential data is not one of them,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Adding, “Any private investigator who pays such a bribe, and any law enforcement officer who accepts one, should expect to be prosecuted.”
Dwyer was also charged with mail fraud for improperly billing the Criminal Justice Act fund—which provides public funds for indigent defendants—in connection with the bribery scheme.
Between at least October 2011 through about November 2013, officials said Buell, while working at NYPD, accessed the federal data base using a New York state computer system on at least 15 occasions to obtain criminal history information and other personal information about witnesses and other persons associated with at least 11 federal criminal prosecutions in the Southern New York.
Dwyer had been retained as a defense investigator on these cases and paid with public funds, officials said.
Buell deposited into Dwyer’s personal bank account at least 17 checks issued by Dwyer’s private investigations firm, totaling nearly $9,000.
In addition, Dwyer submitted billing invoices to the federal government seeking payments and reimbursements for purported investigative work performed to obtain criminal histories of the individuals associated with the federal criminal prosecutions.
Dwyer was allegedly paid by the federal government for the investigative work he didn’t do.
The case was investigated by the FBI and NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau.