Ex-Nassau
cop accused of on-duty trysts pleads guilty to misconduct charges
May
12, 2014
A
former Nassau County police officer was sentenced to community service Monday
after pleading guilty to official misconduct charges after he was indicted on
more than a hundred criminal charges for allegedly spending hours at his
mistress’ homes while he was supposed to be responding to 911 calls, Nassau
County prosecutors said.
Michael
Tedesco, 45, of Holbrook, pleaded guilty to 75 misdemeanor counts of official
misconduct and was sentenced to serve 100 hours of community service, the
Nassau County district attorney’s office said. Under a plea deal with
prosecutors, Tedesco will forfeit his nearly $195,000 termination package and
will also personally repay the county close to $4,000. He could not be reached
Monday evening for comment.
Tedesco,
who retired from the police force in April 2012, was accused of spending “a
considerable amount of on-duty time” at two women’s homes between 2010 and
2012. Prosecutors said he would travel out of his sector – in the Massapequa
and Seaford area – to stay at the women’s homes extended periods of time during
his shift. When Tedesco was indicted in December 2012, Nassau County District
Attorney Kathleen Rice said he was caught staying at the homes for numerous
hours on several occasions.
The
district attorney’s office said Tedesco would also fail to update his police
communication system – through a computer in his patrol car – and would
“linger” at the women’s homes before he would respond to 911 calls. Those
calls, they say, included reports of alarms, domestic disturbances and a possible
cardiac arrest. Other times, according to authorities, Tedesco would falsely
update his police computer to show he was responding to a call, when GPS
records from his patrol car showed he was really at his mistress’ home.
Prosecutors
said he would also spend at his girlfriend’s home while he was supposed to be
“engaged in strategic crime prevention.” Internal affairs investigators were
tipped off after a neighbor of one of the women reported seeing Tedesco’s
police cruiser in her driveway on a regular basis. He was arrested and charged
in December 2012.