NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Three NYPD detectives have been indicted for stealing $2,900 worth of champagne from VIPs at the Electric Zoo Music Festival, the Manhattan district attorney's office announced Monday.
Jonathan Gonzalez, 33, Wojciech Czech, 44, and Warren Golden, 31, were charged with one count of fourth-degree grand larceny and one count of fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Gonzalez and Golden are also charged with one count of official misconduct after the 2022 Randall’s Island heist.
"In addition to the alleged theft that occurred, none of these Officers stepped up and stopped this activity," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "Public confidence in the criminal justice system depends on members of law enforcement acting with the utmost integrity while on duty and following the same rules that apply to everyone else."
According to court documents, the three detectives were on duty for narcotics enforcement at the festival on Sept. 3, 2022. The men were in the VIP area around 7 p.m., where attendees at a nearby table had ordered bottles of Ace of Spades champagne.
The attendees stepped away from the table and Gonzalez took two of the unopened bottles, which cost a total of $2,900 and set them on a table where the defendants were standing as he retrieved a backpack. Prosecutors said Czech handed the bottles back to Gonzalez, who put them in the backpack.
One of the festival attendees witnessed the theft, and when he and the rest of his group returned to their table, the trio promptly left the area. The DA's office said at no point during the crime did Golden, who witnessed the incident, interfere to prevent the theft or return the stolen property to its owners.
The detectives were then stopped by a festival security officer as they went into a restricted, staff-only area.
Gonzalez then identified himself as a police officer and insisted that he and his colleagues were authorized to pass through, prosecutors said. Around the same time, two of the attendees from the VIP area, who had pursued the police officers, confronted them in front of the security officer.
The bottles were taken from Gonzalez’s bag and returned to the attendees, according to court documents. The festival security officer notified his employer, who then notified the NYPD.
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