WHITE PLAINS – Former Yonkers City Police officer Neil Vera pled guilty in Westchester County Court on Thursday to felony perjury and two counts of misdemeanor official misconduct.
Also, Yonkers Detective Christian Koch pled guilty to one felony count of perjury.
On March 21, 2014, Vera, a former Yonkers Housing Unit officer, working with Koch, a narcotics detective, swore falsely in a statement that was made in an application for a search warrant for 141 School Street, apartment 3 in Yonkers. The false statement was made with intent to mislead a city court judge in the performance of his official functions by signing the warrant.
Also on May 20, 2014, Vera asked a person identified to the grand jury to lie to investigators and provide a false statement to police officers of the Internal Affairs Division. He asked that individual to make a false statement to internal affairs investigators indentifying himself/herself as an individual who had performed controlled narcotics buys at the address in support of the search warrant, when that was completely false.
Vera will be sentenced next month; Koch in September. They each face up to four years in prison.
