“A closer look at the Long Island Republican’s time with the NYPD suggests his carefully cultivated portrait isn’t as true blue as it might first appear”
New reporting from the New York Daily News exposes vulnerable Republican Anthony D’Esposito’s history of alleged misconduct during his time at the NYPD.
Despite campaigning on a “tough-on-crime image,” D’Esposito faced multiple complaints as a police officer for “reckless” behavior on duty, allegedly “driving while intoxicated and disgracing the uniform.”
Additionally, he was accused of “[lying]… to a grand jury,” resulting in a settlement of $250,000. D’Esposito cost New Yorkers another $82,500 in taxpayer funds to settle lawsuits accusing him of “illegally stopping and frisking” and “falsely arrest[ing] and detain[ing]” three people. Taken all together, “D’Esposito’s history suggests cause for concern.”
Coupled with his support for convicted felon Donald Trump’s extreme MAGA agenda, D’Esposito continues to work against the best interests of Nassau County families.
DCCC Spokesperson Ellie Dougherty:
“Anthony D’Esposito has been misconstruing his corrupt record to voters because he knows how disqualifying and damning the truth really is. Nassau County families will hold D’Esposito accountable in November.”
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito has made his police career a central piece of his tough-on-crime image, but a closer look at the Long Island Republican’s time with the NYPD suggests his carefully cultivated portrait isn’t as true blue as it might first appear.
D’Esposito is locked in a general election battle with Democrat Laura Gillen, whom he defeated in 2022 for a then-open congressional seat.
In the current contest, Gillen has made the argument that one term is enough for the GOP incumbent and that — with control of the House of Representatives hanging in the balance — the 4th Congressional District is “the #1 most flippable seat in the country.”
Gillen’s criticisms include aspects of D’Esposito’s career as a cop.
A Daily News review of police and court records shows that in April 2011, when the federal lawmaker served as detective in Brooklyn’s 73rd Precinct, a defendant named Donald James claimed D’Esposito seized a white gold chain from him during his arrest and that it wasn’t returned.
James made a complaint, which was assigned an NYPD internal affairs tracking number and labeled a “corruption case,” according to department records obtained by The News. A year later, the complaint was “partially substantiated,” though it is not clear if any consequences accompanied that finding.
During his time at the same Brownsville precinct, D’Esposito faced another complaint in 2007 stemming from his bartender moonlighting gig, which The News reported in 2022. Previously unreported is the allegation that, while moonlighting, he was “known for flashing his gun around” and being “reckless.” That complaint found its way to the internal affairs division, too, and was filed under “misconduct.”
Records show D’Esposito was ultimately docked 15 vacation days for “wrongfully” working as a disc jockey and serving alcoholic beverages “without authority or permission to do so.”
That same year, internal affairs also began looking into another misconduct complaint alleging D’Esposito was “sometimes driving while intoxicated and disgracing the uniform,” but records show that claim was ultimately determined to be “unsubstantiated.”
More recently — just last year — the city settled a lawsuit alleging D’Esposito lied in 2011 to a grand jury and then-Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. about a suspect named Gregory Crockett residing in a house where illegal weapons were kept. Two years later, in 2013, after Crockett had spent 22 days in jail, all of the charges against him were dropped. Later that year, Crockett sued the city and D’Esposito. As part of the settlement, the city had to pay out $250,000, but admitted no wrongdoing in the case.
Joel Berger, a veteran criminal defense attorney who’s won more than $9 million from the city in lawsuits alleging false arrest, malicious prosecution and excessive force, said D’Esposito’s history suggests cause for concern.
D’Esposito — who has endorsed former President Donald Trump and whose NYPD personnel report boasts of skills like “feature writing,” “journalism” and “firefighting” — has made the case voters should keep the seat Republican and grant him a second term, citing his efforts to roll back bail reform and secure the U.S. border.
On immigration, the Nassau County GOPer has notably praised fellow Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for busing migrants to New York, a policy that’s weathered criticism for costing local governments billions of dollars and spreading social services infrastructure thin.
The internal affairs probes into D’Esposito, which have not been previously reported, aren’t the only examples of past NYPD conduct that has been called into question.
In one of those lawsuits, plaintiff Vaughan Bethea of Brooklyn accused the ex-cop and several other officers of illegally stopping and frisking him on Dec. 3, 2013.
In the other lawsuit, three plaintiffs claimed they were falsely arrested and detained, and they named D’Esposito, the city and two NYPD sergeants as defendants.
In addition to that, in 2015, D’Esposito “failed to safeguard” his department-issued firearm, which was stolen from a vehicle he left it in — a story also reported first in The News. The former cop was later found guilty in an administrative hearing of failing to secure the gun and was forced to forfeit 20 vacation days as a result.
