John Hunter, the Nassau County police former Deputy Chief of Patrol.

A former Nassau County police commander has admitted to helping cover up a burglary for his friend’s son in a conspiracy that another ex-police brass member was convicted of two months ago.

John Hunter, a retired Deputy Chief of Patrol, pleaded guilty Wednesday at Nassau County court to misdemeanor counts of conspiracy and official misconduct. The 60-year-old Oyster Bay man initially pleaded not guilty to those charges last year.

“I apologize for any embarrassment to the police department that I have loved and served for 35 years,” Hunter told the court. He later declined to comment to reporters while leaving the courtroom.

Judge Mark Cohen sentenced Hunter to three years of probation, 500 hours of community service and gave him a week to pay a $250 surcharge.

“It is fundamental to our democracy that the police…must treat all citizens fairly,” Cohen told Hunter after accepting the plea. “By your actions today…[you] have finally taken responsibility.”

Hunter will also be required to produce a Nassau police academy training video aimed at dissuading police cadets from committing misconduct by learning from his case. His Rockville Centre-based attorney, William Petrillo, said Hunter proposed that idea himself.

“If we wanted to, we could have filled this courtroom and courthouse with his supporters,” Petrillo said in court while noting only a small group of Hunter’s friends and family were among the two dozen in the gallery. “He is genuinely sorry for his actions.”

The plea comes after William Flanagan, the former second deputy police commissioner, was convicted of conspiracy and misconduct charges in February. A jury acquitted the 55-year-old Islip man of receiving reward for official misconduct, a felony.

Prosecutors alleged that Hunter, Flanagan and a third suspect—retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe, 55, of Huntington Station, who’s due back in court May 15—conspired to quash the arrest of Zachary Parker, a 21-year-old Merrick man, for stealing $11,000 in electronics from his alma mater, John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, in 2009.

Will Fallout From Flanagan Conviction Strain Nassau Police Relations with the DA?

Parker’s father, Gary, had been affiliated with the Nassau County Police Department Foundation that is fundraising to build a new police academy in a public-private partnership. The younger Parker later pleaded guilty to burglary and was imprisoned upstate after he violated the terms of his probation sentence.

Gary Parker had been identified in court during Flanagan’s trial as an unindicted co-conspirator for using his connections among the police brass in an attempt to keep his son out of jail, but was not arrested himself. Prosecutors also cleared the foundation of wrongdoing.

Zachary Parker is on track for a July 18 completion of the Shock Incarceration Program, a six-month prison boot camp in which graduates become eligible for early release, according to a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Corrections. His start was delayed a month after he got into a fight his first day, but he faced up to three years in prison.

Flanagan has vowed to appeal his conviction. His next court date was adjourned to June 26.

The Nassau County district attorney’s investigators launched a probe into the case and later secured a grand jury indictment against the trio following a 2011 Press expose.

“We brought these cases to make sure that there isn’t one set of rules for the rich and connected and another for everyone else,” District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. “John Hunter violated his oath and the law when he gave special treatment to a wealthy friend’s son, and today’s guilty plea ensures that he will face serious consequences for his conduct.”

William Flanagan surrendered to Nassau County prosecutors in March.

A jury has found former Nassau County Police Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan guilty of conspiracy and not guilty of receiving reward for official misconduct for helping a friend’s son escape arrest for a burglary.

Jurors handed down their verdict before Judge Mark Cohen shortly before 8 p.m. Friday. Flanagan had been convicted of two counts of official misconduct the night before, on Valentine’s Day. In all, he was convicted of three misdemeanors and acquitted of  the top charge, a felony.

“The jury took care of the felony, the Appellate Court’s going to take care of the misdemeanors,” Bruce Barket, Flanagan’s attorney, told reporters following the verdict, indicating that he’d be appealing.

“This isn’t over,” added Flanagan.

Prosecutors said that Flanagan helped quash the arrest and prosecution of his friend and wealthy police benefactor Gary Parker’s son Zachary, who stole more than $11,000 worth of computer and sound equipment from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore in 2009.

Gary testified during the trial that he gave Flanagan three $100 gift cards shortly after the property was returned, but the jury was not convinced that it was a quid pro quo.  Zachary pleaded guilty to the burglary after he was indicted following a 2011 Long Island Press story exposing the thefts and coverup.

That story also sparked an investigation by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office that led to Flanagan’s March 2012 indictment, along with that of retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe and former Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter, who also pleaded not guilty. They’re slated to be tried separately.

Flanagan’s sentencing has been scheduled for May 1.

“This case has always been about making sure that there isn’t one set of rules for the wealthy and connected, and another set for everyone else,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement Fright night.  “This is a huge win for the public, but it’s also a sad day for an awful lot of incredibly hard-working Nassau cops who do their brave jobs honestly every day. This case is a reminder that to safeguard the public’s trust and the integrity of our honest officers, we must be vigilant in our fight against corruption and misconduct.”

Most jurors declined to comment after they were released following the four-week-long trial, which included about a week of deliberations. One juror said the jury was convinced there was a conspiracy after reviewing the testimony of Deputy Inspector Lorna Atmore, the former Seventh Precinct Squad commander.

“We realized it was a conspiracy from the beginning from day one,” the juror said, referring to Atmore’s testimony that she she became concerned with Parker’s connections to police brass when the case came in just before she was promoted out of the unit. “They did what they did. They can’t undo that.”

William Flanagan stood stoic with his chin up as the jury foreman read the partial verdict of guilty on two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Judge Mark Cohen ordered the jurors to continue deliberating until 9 p.m., when they were recessed until Friday morning. They’ll then continue deliberating on two remaining charges: Sixth-degree conspiracy, a misdemeanor, and receiving reward for official misconduct, a felony.

“This fight is far from over,” Bruce Barket, attorney for the 55-year-old police veteran, told reporters outside the courtroom in Mineola as he vowed to appeal the ruling.

District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s office “will have no comment until the trial is over and the jury has been released,” her spokesman said in a statement.

Prosecutors alleged that Flanagan helped return electronics stolen from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore by Zachary Parker, the son of wealthy police nonprofit donor Gary Parker, who testified during the four-week-long trial that he asked for Flanagan’s help because Parker believed returning the equipment meant the charges against his son would be dropped.

Parker gave Flanagan three $100 gift cards to Morton’s Steak House shortly after the property was returned. Zachary was not charged with the May 2009 thefts until prosecutors began investigating the coverup after it was uncovered by a 2011 Press expose.

Two other former Nassau police supervisors, ex-Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter and retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe, pleaded not guilty to misconduct and conspiracy charges along with Flanagan following their indictments in March 2012.

The other two ex-cops are expected to be tried separately. Zachary Parker is serving prison time for the burglary and other charges.

Flanagan faces four years in prison for the receiving reward for official misconduct charge, if convicted of that count. He faces up to a year in jail for the misconduct convictions.

“I know that you’ve had a very long day,” Judge Cohen told the jury before releasing them for the evening. “Perhaps a good night’s sleep will allow… for a resolution.”

Former Nassau County Police Department Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan inside Nassau County Court in January.

A jury must decide whether an ex-deputy Nassau County police commissioner committed a crime when he helped return property his friend and nonprofit collaborator’s son stole from school to avoid an arrest as prosecutors allege, or if there is not enough evidence to convict him of conspiring with other cops accused of initiating the alleged cover-up, as the defense argues.

Both sides made their closing arguments Thursday after jurors heard testimony from 18 witnesses, listened to dozens of emails be read into evidence and endured what observers estimated was a record number of sidebars for 12 days at county court in Mineola starting Jan. 15. Deliberations were slated to begin Friday after Judge Mark Cohen provides the jury with its instructions.

“When you go hunting for the big fish, sometimes you get caught up in the hunt and you end up looking for something that’s not there,” said Bruce Barket, attorney for the defendant, William Flanagan, while discrediting the case sparked by a Press expose. “At the end of the day, the return of property is not criminal and that…is the fatal flaw with this prosecution.”

Bernadette Ford, an assistant district attorney trying the case, aimed to connect the dots back to Gary Parker, who testified he asked Flanagan and his co-defendant, former Deputy Cheif of Patrol John Hunter, for help returning stolen computers–effectively dropping charges against Parker’s son, Zachary, who burglarized $11,000 in electronics from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore four years ago.

“Discretion to not arrest because of a relationship, that is an abuse of discretion,” she told the courtroom packed with law enforcement officials on either side of the case. “It’s a violation of duty.” She added, “It’s not what you did, it’s who you know, or who your father knows.”

While both sides agreed that the elder Parker was not credible when testifying that school officials told him they planned to drop the charges against his son, prosecution and defense attorneys disputed whether his gifts to Flanagan were compensation for returning the property.

They also disputed if Lorraine Poppe, the school’s principal, was unclear when telling police she wanted an arrest. The only testimony more debated than Parker’s and Poppe’s was that of retired Det. Bruce Coffey, who testified against Flanagan to avoid prosecution himself.

Flanagan faces up to four years in prison, if convicted. Hunter and another co-defendant, retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe, had their cases severed from Flanagan’s after all three pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and misconduct charges in March 2012. The younger Parker is serving prison time upstate after pleading guilty to the burglary last year.

Former Nassau County Police Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan faces conspiracy and official misconduct charges. He surrendered to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office March 1, 2012.

An ex-Nassau County police detective testified that the ex-commander who’s a defendant in an alleged cover-up case thanked him after the investigator returned stolen property without arresting the suspect who’s a police donor’s son.

Retired Seventh Squad Det. Bruce Coffey and two current Nassau police officials—his ex-partner, Det. Barry Franklin, and his old boss, Deputy Inspector Lorna Atmore—took the stand last week in the trial of William Flanagan, the former second deputy police commissioner.

“We’re getting calls from pretty high up about this case,” Coffey said one of his bosses, retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe—Flanagan’s co-defendant, who’s case has been severed—told him. But, Coffey testified, the brass wanted the charges dropped: “They weren’t looking for an arrest.”

Flanagan has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and misconduct charges along with Sharpe and former Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter, who’s also slated to be tried separately. Coffey, who’s cooperating as a witness to avoid prosecution, testified Hunter leaned on Sharpe to have Coffey get the charges dropped.

The allegedly quashed case was that of Zachary Parker, a former student at Bellmore’s John F. Kennedy High School, who admitted last year to burglarizing his alma mater in 2009 and is serving prison time for the $11,000 in thefts. His father, Gary, was a friend of Hunter and Flanagan as well as a director of a Nassau police nonprofit. The Press exposed the alleged cover-up in March 2011.

“You didn’t order an arrest…because the school was ambivalent, is that correct?” Bruce Barket, Flanagan’s attorney, asked Atmore, Coffey’s then-supervisor. She agreed, adding that it was “not unusual” for schools to take an initial wait-and-see approach on arresting students.

Atmore testified that the day the report came in she learned Parker was a well-connected suspect who she believed would “very likely” be arrested and reported the case to the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) because he worked in the department’s Emergency Ambulance Bureau.

“I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to get involved,” she testified of her desire to avoid a case involving a suspect who’s dad is friends with some of her bosses. “I’m thinking this is a good thing, my detectives aren’t going to be responsible for dealing with this mess.”

Her relief was short-lived. Atmore said the same day she called IAU, Hunter called her back and “said that the Seventh Squad was keeping the case.” She said “It was odd and it was weird and I was trying to figure out what his relation was,” because as a patrol commander, Hunter wasn’t generally involved in detectives’ investigations.

Atmore obeyed the order, but transferred the case to Coffey after pulling it from his partner, Franklin, who originally was assigned the case. She was promoted out of the squad days later, leaving Sharpe in charge as commanding officer.

“How many other cases you were assigned were taken away from you and assigned to another detective?” Assistant District Attorney Cristiana McSloy asked Franklin, who replied, “none.”

Franklin said he didn’t properly log in as evidence the two stolen laptops and projector because it was another detective’s case and that it also hadn’t been logged in by the Fifth Precinct, where Zachary Parker’s friend originally turned some of the stolen proerty in.

Coffey said he was “conflicted” about asking the school’s principal, Lorraine Poppe, to drop the charges when they met shortly after the theft. So he went through the motions of interviewing, but not taking sworn statements from witnesses—and never asked for videotape of Parker fleeing the scene the night of the burglary.

“She was very adamant about wanting him to be arrested,” Coffey testified. “It wasn’t the time to do it. I had to show her some respect.”

Also revealed at trial was that another detective had tried to get Poppe to sign a form indicating she wanted to drop the charges a month after the theft, but she refused. Coffey eventually had Poppe sign a form accepting the property Sept. 1, 2009, but she again refused to sign the form dropping the charges, he testified.

Later that fall at a retirement party, “I was sitting down at a table, [Deputy] Commissioner Flanagan came up, shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you,’” Coffey testified.

“I thought it was obviously for the John F. Kennedy case,” he said, “for handling the return of the property.”

When it was Coffey’s turn to retire in October 2010, he said he wrote a memo to close out the Parker theft case indicating that Poppe did not want the suspect arrested—a fact he testified he knew to be untrue.

The detectives’ testimony came after Gary Parker testified for four days last week. Barket asked Parker’s feeling Thursday about how his son blew his chance at probation in the burglary and unrelated drug and traffic cases, landing himself in prison instead of college.

“In hindsight, wouldn’t it be fair to say your son should have been arrested in May 2009?” Barket asked. “Yes,” Parker said after a pause.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who Parker testified attended one of many police dinners he paid for, sat with Flanagan’s supporters Friday. “Bill’s an old friend,” King told the Press outside the courtroom. “I worked closely with him on homeland security issues.”

THE ACCUSED: (L-R) Retired Nassau County Police Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe, former Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan and former Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter are charged with covering up a burglary at JFK High School in Bellmore to protect the son of a wealthy police benefactor from arrest.

On May 19, 2009, Nassau County’s Seventh Police Precinct received a report of a break in at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore. More than $3,000 worth of electronic equipment was stolen from its auditorium.

The case appeared open-and-shut: Surveillance video caught a student near the auditorium afterhours during the exact time of the theft. School employees reported witnessing the same student attempting to gain access to a restricted area at the school. An acquaintance of the student surrendered some of the stolen goods to the police, telling authorities his friend had given them to him.

Yet despite the compelling evidence, three independent sources within the Nassau County Police Department with privileged knowledge of the case’s inner details—who spoke with the Press on the condition of anonymity because they are barred from commenting on ongoing investigations—tell the Press the student, though identified, was never arrested. His father is a business associate of a little-known nonprofit organization called the Nassau County Police Department Foundation.

It’s no coincidence, the Press has learned. Internal police documents reviewed by the Press and interviews with more than a dozen current and former active and retired police officers, detectives and senior Nassau police officials outline a program that could reward the group’s members through preferential treatment that experts classify as questionable and unethical at best; pushing the limits of the very laws they were sworn to enforce at worst.

That was the lede of the Press’ March 31, 2011 cover story “Membership Has Its Privileges: Is the NCPD Selling Preferential Treatment?”

Without naming Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) benefactor Gary Parker or his son Zachary, the story detailed how the felony investigation into thefts at the school perpetrated by the latter was quashed, allegedly due to his father’s cozy relationship with members of the department’s top brass.

The March 31, 2011 Press cover story “Membership Has Its Privileges” sparked an investigation by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office the resulted in the felony conviction of Zachary Parker and the indictments of three ex-top cops.

The article sparked a criminal investigation into the thefts by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, which resulted in grand jury indictments against the younger Parker on three felony counts in Oct. 2011: burglary, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. He pled guilty to the burglary and was ordered to pay nearly $4,000 for equipment never returned.

It also sparked a criminal investigation that resulted in a 10-count indictment naming NCPD’s third-highest-ranking official, former Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan, along with retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe and former Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter on conspiracy and official misconduct charges. Flanagan was additionally charged with receiving reward for official misconduct in the second degree, a felony. Sharpe was additionally charged with offering a false instrument for filing. They all face prison terms if convicted.

Flanagan and Hunter retired less than 24 hours of turning themselves in to investigators shortly after sunrise on March 1, 2012; Sharpe had retired less than two months prior. Collectively their annual salaries totaled more than $540,000; their pensions remain intact despite the charges.

Flanagan, Hunter and Sharpe’s defense attorneys—Bruce A. Barket, William Petrillo and Anthony Grandinette, respectively—have contended their clients have done nothing wrong and a judge has granted them separate trials.

Flanagan told reporters the courtesies given to his friend Gary’s family were the same he’d afford any other member of the public. His trial began Jan. 15.

News of the indictments has been covered by nearly every media outlet in the region. The allegations strike at the heart of what public law enforcement servants are mandated and take an oath to do: serve and protect the citizenry and enforce its laws.

“[Flanagan] violated his oath to uphold the laws of the State of New York,” Assistant District Attorney Cristiana McSloy told jurors in her opening statement, adding that Gary Parker “literally bought access to the police department” with dinners, sporting events and other gifts.

What hasn’t been fully reported, however, are the complete details of what exactly went on behind the closed doors of Nassau County’s Finest in the hours, days and months following the May 18, 2009 break-in—and why despite the surveillance footage, admission by the perpetrator’s parents of their son’s thefts and a signed statement from the school’s principal calling for the student’s arrest, he remained free until our story.

The latest trial testimony fills in many of those blanks, along with providing new details and insights into the motives of the three former police officials and the culture existing within the department that enabled such events to transpire in the first place. It also raises more questions concerning the involvement other department higher-ups may have had in the alleged cover-up.

We now know, for example, that after reading the Press story, Gary Parker “panicked” and began deleting the many emails he had with Flanagan. Prosecutors contend the then-top cop did the same, and in those correspondences, he referred to Parker as “family.” We also know a bit more about the lavish dinners enjoyed by Nassau police’s top brass at top restaurants across Long Island and Manhattan, compliments of Parker, who testified the bills ranged from the hundreds to more than $1,200 each and were attended by not only Flanagan and Hunter, but also former Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey, and on at least one occasion, popular Fox News Channel cable TV host Bill O’Reilly. We also have, again from the mouth of Parker himself, descriptions of the police identification cards and “gold” badges doled out to foundation members—still a bone of contention with Nassau Police Benevolent Association President James Carver.

“When our guys pull over someone and they pull out an ID issued from one of these organizations they take a step back and don’t want to get themselves into any type of discipline,” he says. “They are afraid of taking some kind of action.”

“They shouldn’t have the shields,” blasts Carver. “That is the bottom line. If are doing it for the good of their heart, there is really no reason to issue somebody a shield, bottom line.”

Nassau Assistant District Attorney
Cristiana McSloy, in her opening statement at
former Nassau Second Deputy Commissioner
William Flanagan’s conspiracy trial Jan. 15

Regardless of what the jury finds, a Press examination of these latest revelations, court filings, recovered email correspondence between Gary Parker and the trio cited in the indictments and read aloud in court, police records, interviews with more than a dozen current and former NCPD officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys and reporting by this publication and others together paint, at the minimum, an indisputable portrait of how sworn members of the agency charged with protecting its citizenry and upholding its laws did everything in their power to protect and serve the interests of this wealthy police benefactor and friend.

Flanagan and Barket aren’t necessarily denying this, but arguing that all they were doing was returning stolen property to a crime victim, which they say is a core part of the police’s job. The gifts were coincidental, they contend. Prosecutors believe those actions (and inactions, namely the non-arrest of Zachary Parker) were criminal.

Our analysis identifies several key details jurors unfortunately won’t get to hear while weighing their decision, including profound discrepancies between prior statements of the defense, witness testimony and documented facts within the paper trail. So too does it uncover continued lapses in transparency regarding the public/private partnership that is the nonprofit police foundation.

The public would not know about any of these things, however, were it not for the unfortunate misdeeds of Zachary Parker—or our disclosure of a March 2010 internal police department-wide memo stating foundation members were to be treated differently should police personnel come across them during their regular duties.

Though prosecutors recently informed jurors Zachary Parker wouldn’t be testifying (he’s currently incarcerated at Lakeview Shock Incarceration in Brocton, NY following a slew of additional criminal charges, some still pending, since his burglary bust), his significance was not lost on the proceedings.

“You’re not going to see him in the courtroom, but his presence is everywhere,” said Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Cristiana McSloy.

Who was this troubled young man? Why didn’t the police ever arrest him? And just how high up does this scandal reach?

NABBED: Zachary Parker (L), whose father’s relationship with former top members of the Nassau County Police Department are at the heart of an ongoing conspiracy trial, shuns reporters as he departs Nassau County Court. He pleaded guilty to burglarizing JFK High School after a Press article sparked his arrest. (Rashed Mian/Long Island Press)

CAUGHT ON TAPE

When JFK High School Principal Lorraine Poppe learned the school’s projector was missing May 19, 2009, she believed she knew exactly who’d taken it: Zachary Parker, a senior at the time who had already been banned from school grounds without supervision afterhours due to several prior incidents regarding missing equipment.

When she gave a statement to Nassau’s Seventh Precinct to report its theft, she told Police Officer Samantha Sullivan as much. Sullivan initially jotted down Parker’s name on the ensuing police report then crossed it off because she wanted to keep the document objective for the investigating detectives, she testified. Additionally, a custodian saw Zachary in the area “trying to gain access to the area where the projector was being used,” she added.

JFK’s former assistant principal William Brennen testified he saw Parker on school surveillance video afterhours while he was banned “carrying a satchel containing something of a relative size to a projector.”

Brennen, who was in the school’s coaches’ offices the night of the projector theft, said those surveillance cameras were installed because of the prior thefts. He also saw Parker’s car in the back of the school and watched him enter through its gym entrance doors facing the football field. Brennen waited for Parker to exit the same doors after trying to keep an eye on him from afar, but Parker exited another set of doors unexpectedly, though was still caught on camera.

Jonathan Dell’Olio, dean of students, a coach, and 15-year English teacher at the school, testified that he had taken Parker under his wing and that “Zach and I knew each other well.”

He described Parker as “an integral part of setting up and breaking down school events.”

Zachary Parker (Broward County Sheriff’s Dept.)

“[Zachary] earned the trust of the custodial staff, the athletic coordinator…he would be allowed to go fetch things that would be necessary to make the production work” until Brennen informed him of the afterhours ban, said Dell’Olio. “Zach was apart of most conversations dealing with technology because he was very good at it” and in turn knew where the cameras were placed after the thefts started—all outside, none inside, but with “some dead areas.”

The night of the theft he heard a custodian over Walkie-Talkies asking to allow “Zach” to the second floor and spied from afar, the dean continued. “I wanted to see what Zach was up to without him noticing me,” he said. After seeing Parker with a backpack walking toward the auditorium, he tried to intercept him, but he’d gone out a side exit. The next morning at 7:30 a.m., Brennen was in his office with IT aide Donna Hanna, who said the projector was missing. He told her about Parker’s visit the night before, informed Poppe and “then we went to the videotape.”

The police never viewed nor asked to view the surveillance tape, nor interview the eyewitness school personnel.

Parker, 18 years old at the time of the May 2009 break-in, had made no secret of his desire for expensive new sound equipment to add to his DJ rig. It was, in fact, evident to anyone who’d ever viewed his MySpace profile page, where Parker stated under his moniker “DJZeeMac” that he’d started spinning at camp in 2004, DJed sports events for JFK High School and boasted that he “was just recently employed by Nassau County Section 8 Sports to DJ all their postseason sporting events.”

“On my wish list as of now are a set of Mackie speakers, Xone 92 mixer, Denon CD deck, and the PCDJ DAC-3 controller (and flight case for it all to go into), all which’ll probably total up to about $2g’s,” he wrote.

Three days after the May 18 burglary, Zachary showed up at his friend Lothar Keller’s apartment in Franklin Square—his then-girlfriend also lived there. Earlier that month Parker had brought Keller a Dell laptop that he sold for $350. This time, Parker brought three more laptops and a projector.

“He just slapped ’em down on the table and said, ‘Look what I have,’” Keller told jurors.

The 24-year-old self-professed “gutterman” testified that later that day, while driving Zachary around, his father, Gary, called his son and was “bugging out on him,” so he dropped Zachary off at home. On the way back to his apartment, Keller got a call on his cell phone from “Dr. Jones”—Zachary Parker’s nickname. But it was Gary Parker on the other end.

Gary, partner at Manhattan-based Spielman Koenigsberg & Parker LLP Certified Public Accountants and an avid boater, states his company bio, was “a bit of a police buff,” according to ADA McSloy. He testified Jan. 29 that he’d been involved in police benevolence activities since the late 1980s, early 1990s, helping obtain nonprofit status for the Police Foundation of Nassau County—a group that had its nonprofit status revoked for failure to file required tax documents with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and was separate from the Nassau County Police Department Foundation, former Commissioner Mulvey’s brainchild.

The elder Parker wined and dined Flanagan, Hunter and other Nassau police brass with “lunches and dinners”—totaling more than $17,000, according to a source close to the District Attorney’s Office investigation—and other gifts, charge court documents. He testified Jan. 28 about the meals—ranging from seafood and pasta smorgasbords at Uncle Bacala’s in New Hyde Park to top cuts of sirloin at Morton’s in Great Neck and Manhattan’s upscale Sparks Steak House—yet couldn’t recall who exactly attended a slew of feasts at Bacala’s. Flanagan, Hunter and Mulvey also attended barbeques at his house, he testified.

“He was screaming at me that I was in possession of stolen property, that I would be hearing from the police,” Keller said of his friend’s dad.

After he hung up, Keller called the person he’d sold the Dell laptop to, and then called the police, he testified, telling jurors he went to the Fifth Precinct with all the gear Zachary had given him to try and avoid “getting in trouble.” The clerk looked baffled when Keller told her it was all stolen property, he said, and was then interviewed by an officer.

“I told him that I had gotten all of these electronics from this kid Zachary Parker,” he said. “I didn’t want any part of it.” Keller signed a sworn statement and went home.

It wasn’t the last time his association with Parker would bring him trouble with the law, Keller testified.

Later that summer, Keller was cruising along in Parker’s car after they’d just finished smoking marijuana when a state trooper stopped them for speeding on Ocean Parkway.

Keller swallowed the remainder of their joint as the trooper approached, but testified that he and his friend ultimately had nothing to fear, because when Parker pulled out his license, the cop saw his “gold” badge in his wallet and said, “Have a good day.”

Zachary Parker had a history of getting out of trouble that any other person would not, court documents, deleted emails and testimony reveal.

Former Nassau County Police Department Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan surrendered to the Nassau District Attorney’s Office March 1, 2012 to face conspiracy and official misconduct charges stemming from his alleged involvement in quashing the arrest of a police benefactor’s son.

PAPER TRAIL

Hunter, formerly the commander of the Highway Patrol Bureau and a close personal friend of Zachary’s father Gary, was “instrumental” in getting him out of multiple moving violations, state court documents—evident by the fact his license plate had been run by police at least 20 times yet he never received a citation, according to law enforcement sources close to the case.

He was also instrumental, say court filings, in getting Zachary a job within the police department in its Emergency Ambulance Bureau, a position created solely for him. Parker was 16 when he was hired by the NCPD.

Gary Parker testified that in August 2008 he and Hunter spoke about somehow getting Zachary a uniform. Parker’s hire had to be signed off by the NCPD, Nassau’s Office of Management and Budget and the County Executive’s office, according to the police department’s head of public information, Inspector Kenneth Lack. Parker further testified he reached out to another friend—the husband of Mulvey’s secretary—to help land his son the job.

“I asked a friend of mine…to help get my son a job’ with Nassau County Police Department,” he said. “I wanted him to get a part-time job…he wanted to become an EMT, it’s an area he likes and I thought it would be good experience.”

“He was a friend,” Parker testified, of Hunter.

Hunter helped get Zachary a ride-a-long, Gary testified, and the pair’s friendship was so strong, contends court documents, that Hunter even provided Parker with a police generator during a blackout.

It’s no surprise then, that when Hunter—who Gary Parker acknowledged to prosecutors attended annual barbeques at the Parker home and dinners at restaurants on Gary’s dime—learned of the complaint regarding Zachary, broke the normal chain of command for such investigations and inserted himself into the matter to prevent arrest, contends McSloy.

Since Zachary was a department employee, when the commander of the Seventh Precinct Detective Squad received the initial report from Poppe, the head of the squad, in accordance with proper protocol, referred the matter to the NCPD Internal Affairs Unit (IAU).

Yet “within a day,” Hunter, who was not in the detective squad chain of command, “called the squad commander to let her know that IAU would not be investigating the matter despite the suspect’s employment with the department,” say the filings, despite having “no supervisory authority over either the squad or IAU.” Hunter also requested “that he be kept informed of the status of the felony investigation,” contend prosecutors.

The police commissioner is routinely briefed by internal affairs, according to Lack, who was also named by Parker as an attendee at a $2,346.47 feast at Spark’s, alongside Flanagan, Mulvey and others.

On May 22, Gary received a call and invitation from Sharpe to come to the Seventh Precinct and talk about his son, he testified. Sharpe showed him the equipment dropped off by Keller and informed him his son was a suspect—one computer actually having “ZeeMac” scrawled across it in marker. Parker admitted his son’s guilt, he said, and name-dropped a few people he knew at NCPD, though told the jury he didn’t recall who he mentioned.

Sharpe didn’t take an official statement nor voucher the stolen merchandise, which is typical police procedure in any investigation, and instead suggested Parker visit Poppe. (Sharpe’s also accused of entering the department’s computer system and falsely stating that Poppe did not want Zachary arrested for the thefts.)

“I told [Gary] that I was disappointed in his son,” testified the principal. “I told him the plan was to have Zachary arrested.”

She also told him Zachary would be suspended, banned from attending the prom, senior events and graduation. The next day, Parker asked Hunter to meet at Colony Diner in East Meadow and returned his son’s NCPD identification and uniform.

Parker told Hunter he was trying to work with the school, he testified, and “in passing” told him to “put in a good word” with Sharpe. They hugged each other before leaving.

Later that week Parker bought his son a same-day ticket to visit his grandparents in Florida and Hunter, in a recovered email, wrote him “Anything I can do to help, let me know.”

Gary, in another deleted emailed to Hunter at the end of the month, requested the squad “lay low,” states the documents, to which the deputy chief assured him he would “make sure that is done” and then made arrangements to return the property to the school.

“Thank you for being a great person and friend,” replied Parker.

“[A]s you taught me that is what friends are for!” answered Hunter.

Hunter also reached out to a nephew of Poppe’s who was a NCPD canine officer and asked he help get the principal to drop the charges. He refused.

So did Poppe, multiple times, despite not only repeated attempts through May and June by police detectives directed by Hunter and Sharpe to have her sign a withdrawal of prosecution form, emails, court filings and testimony show—but also an intimidating visit at 1 a.m. by one of Barket’s investigators, a tidbit Barket convinced the judge not to allow jurors to hear.

“We wanted to have Zachary arrested,” she told jurors Jan. 22, noting that the detectives who repeatedly tried to get her to withdraw charges “never asked me for a copy of the video.”

Parker then reached out to another friend, then-sergeant in the NCPD’s Asset Forfeiture Unit and a close friend of then-Commissioner Mulvey, William Flanagan.

Or as Parker called him at the time, “Bill.”

“BILL”

RECOVERED: Excerpts from retrieved emails between wealthy Nassau County Police Department benefactor Gary Parker and former Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan, deleted following a March 31, 2011 Press expose.

Despite repeated questioning by prosecutors, Parker insisted he could not for the life of him remember when or how he met Flanagan, or how frequently he and other top police brass, such as former commissioner Mulvey, attended his dinner gatherings.

The judge denied a request by ADA Bernadette Ford for Parker to be recognized as a hostile witness for his forgetfulness; his memory miraculously returning upon his cross-examination by Barket the following day.

Parker did state that he was on a first-name basis with Flanagan by May 2009—though court testimony and recovered emails between the two suggest a much closer relationship with the former deputy commissioner and other top police brass.

Just days before the May 18, 2009 JFK High School theft, for example, Parker offered Flanagan via another deleted email Yankees tickets and access to an “outdoor seating area…custom designed with 1,300 cushioned seats with padded backs that offer an extraordinary stadium experience.” That emailed offer, the filing states, also noted that Flanagan would have “access to the Terrace Level Outdoor Suite Lounge, a separate climate-controlled indoor environment that offers a multitude of exclusive perks, including access to private restrooms, high-definition TVs, a variety of menu options, and a four-sided cocktail bar that delivers an exceptional selection of beverages.”

Parker sent a similar email to then-Police Commissioner Mulvey and current first deputy commissioner Thomas Krumpter and, too, leaving the tickets in an envelope for Flanagan at the Seventh Precinct, he said—describing them as “lousy seats” to prosecutors during direct examination.

The revelations kneecap Barket’s prior adamant assertions to the press that his client didn’t even know Gary Parker at the time of his son’s May 18, 2009 theft.

“It is to some degree mindboggling why it is Deputy Commissioner Flanagan was charged at all,” he professed to reporters outside the courtroom on the morning of their indictment March 1. “He did not even know Zachary Parker or Gary Parker on the date of the crime. He literally had nothing at all to do with the decision to arrest or not arrest Mr. Parker in May of 2009.”

“My client did not know Gary Parker or Zachary Parker at the time of the commission of this crime,” he repeated. “He had no role in whether or not Mr. Parker should be arrested or should not be arrested in May of 2009.

After that, well after that, they became acquainted, they are friends, they socialized together, they go to dinner together, their wives have met, they’ve been to each others’ house. Because they met and liked each other. I think they met at a golf tournament.

“If it weren’t for golf tournaments I wouldn’t have any friends at all,” he joked when a reporter asked if their relationship at seemed at least a little conspicuous.

“Honest to God, I didn’t follow your reasoning,” he insisted. “Is it suspicious that individuals make friends and that police officers have friends and that deputy commissioners have friends? No.”

It’s what sworn police officers and deputy commissioners do for those “friends,” and what those “friends” do in return, that has prosecutors sounding the alarm.

Former Nassau County Police Department Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan inside Nassau County Court in January.

Following Hunter and Sharpe’s failed attempts to return the stolen equipment to JFK and Poppe’s repeated resistance to signing a withdrawal of prosecution, Parker met with Flanagan, according to his testimony, while Flanagan provided security for the Bethpage U.S. Golf Open June 18 and asked him for advice.

“I understood that he had a close relationship with the police commissioner,” he told prosecutors, describing as his logic: “When the school got the property back the matter would be closed.”

“He was undertaking something on his own,” Parker said of Flanagan.

ADA Bernadette Ford had Parker read aloud for jurors a July 16 email he sent to Flanagan that prosecutors recovered after Parker deleted it—a heartfelt thank-you to Flanagan.

“Just the fact that you’re stepping up to the plate is appreciated,” he read. “I certainly realize that they [JFK] hold all the cards.”

“What did you want William Flanagan to do when you wrote this email?” Ford asked. “I’m not really quite sure,” he replied.

Flanagan emailed Parker June 23 that he had “put pieces in motion,” and according to court documents, “made numerous attempts to get the stolen property returned to the school…despite the school’s insistence several days earlier that it would not withdraw criminal charges against Parker’s son.

In another email in mid-August, Flanagan told Parker he had “stayed in contact with the squad supervisor” and that the squad supervisor was “aware of the importance” of getting the stolen property returned, says court documents, and in another assured him “it’ll happen.”

In early September, Flanagan informed Parker by email that the equipment was successfully returned—though Poppe still refused to sign a withdrawal of prosecution.

Ford has Parker read back his response and number of explanation points he included: “THANK YOU!!!!!!”

He also read and translated Flanagan’s response: “de nada family.”

Parker testified that the following day his wife sent two $100 Morton’s gift cards, a flashlight and a card to Flanagan, who replied that the gifts were “[o]ver the top” in a deleted email recovered by forensic technicians.

He also testified that Flanagan, who was promoted to deputy commissioner two weeks after their talk at the U.S. Open, asked Parker to join the foundation in spring or fall 2010. He served as a board member from March 2010 until his resignation on April 1, 2011, a day after the Press article’s publication—and immediately after discussing concerns that his son would be arrested with Flanagan and the nonprofit’s board. That prompting Flanagan to email him: “remember what I said, you’re family, we take care of our own.”

The same day, following calls from Krumpter, Flanagan, foundation board member and assistant commissioner Robert Codignotto and “maybe” Mulvey, he testified, he began cleansing his computer of emails to NCPD officials.

“I deleted them,” he said. “It was probably morally the wrong thing to do.”

Parker testified he’d received identification cards and a gold shield with a blue inset that read “Director” as a member of the group.

He also told prosecutors that a year after Flanagan helped get his son’s stolen equipment returned, the deputy commissioner asked him to help get him an early release of a Tag Heuer “Aqua Racer” watch at a wholesale rate; one of Parker’s clients being French luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), which includes the high-end watchmaker. Instead of paying for the uber-prestigious timepiece—which can cost several thousands dollars at retail and are heralded by Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Maria Sharapova, to name a few of the line’s celebrity “ambassadors.”

Parker testified he got it for $1,510.16—the 50-percent-off rate exclusive to the company’s friends and relatives program—sent it to Flanagan, and told him to write a check to the foundation as payment.

Time is something that his son Zachary has a good deal of now, and may have even more of in the near future, since he’s also facing drug-related charges in Florida.

A jury will decide whether Flanagan, Hunter and Sharpe receive time as well.

Gary Parker (Middle) walking into courtroom on Monday.

A police benefactor testified Wednesday at an alleged police cover up trial that an ex-Nassau County police chief told him that he would ensure investigators would not arrest his son for burglarizing a school.

Gary Parker, whose son Zachary later landed in prison for the burglary, was referring to emails between himself and former Chief of Department John Hunter, who is slated to be tried separately from the defendant in this case, William Flanagan, the ex-second deputy commissioner.

“My attorney thinks if the PD lays low, he can have it wrapped up soon,” Parker testified he wrote in an email to Hunter after Zachary was linked to stealing $11,000 in electronics from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore in May 2009.

“I will make sure that is done,” Parker testified that Hunter replied in the email. Parker said he “hoped” that meant detectives would ultimately not arrest his son, which they never did. Zachary was indicted after the Press exposed the cover-up and he pleaded guilty last year.

The exchange occurred a few weeks before Parker asked for help from Flanagan, who’s pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and misconduct along with Hunter and retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe, the supervisor who directly oversaw the investigation.

“Did you ask [Hunter] to use his position in the police department to help your son?” asked Flanagan’s attorney, Bruce Barket. Parker replied that he specifically asked Hunter not to tell anyone about the case because he was embarrassed.

Parker said he and Hunter were good friends and that the ex-chief had spoken with Zachary about his “emotional problems” at one point.

The accountant from Merrick who became a board member of a Nassau police nonprofit also testified that when he gave Flanagan tickets to a Yankees game shortly before the burglary, it wasn’t to curry favors in anticipation over ever having to cover up a crime.

Parker, who’s represented by Steven Scaring although isn’t charged in connection with the allegations, is expected to take the stand again Thursday for his fourth day of testimony in the three-week-long trial at Nassau County court in Mineola.

Gary Parker (Middle) walking into courtroom on Monday.

A school burglar’s father panicked and deleted emails to his high-ranking ex-Nassau Police brass buddies accused of covering up for his son after reading about the alleged cover-up in a newspaper article, the father testified Tuesday.

Gary Parker described his panic near the end of his second full day of questioning by prosecutors until the defense conducted a brief, rapid-fire cross examination before the trial was recessed. Neither side identified the April 2011 story’s authors—the Press.

“After you became aware of the article, what did you do with respect to your emails?” asked Assistant District Attorney Bernadette Ford, who also prosecuted Parker’s son, Zachary, once the alleged cover-up was exposed.

“I deleted them,” Parker responded. “I panicked.”

William Flanagan, the former second deputy police commissioner who’s pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and misconduct charges, was among the police brass who called Parker once the story hit, Parker testified. Parker then resigned from the police nonprofit to which Flanagan had recruited him.

Prosecutors have alleged that Flanagan and two other ex-Nassau police commanders being tried separately conspired to help Parker avoid being prosecuted for stealing $11,000 from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore in May 2009. The younger Parker is now serving prison time for the thefts and other charges.

The elder Parker testified that he had asked Flanagan, with whom he had been friends, for advice in June on how to return stolen equipment in the police department’s possession back to the school, which he believed would result in the charges being dropped.

The Manhattan accountant from Merrick said he gave Flanagan a flashlight, a $3,000 Tag Heuer watch and his wife mailed the ex-cop a pair of $200 gift cards to Morton’s Steak House after Flanagan confirmed the property was returned in September 2009.

“I understood he had a close relationship with the police commissioner,” Parker said, referring to former commissioner Lawrence Mulvey, while testifying why he brought the issue up with Flanagan. Parker said Flanagan then “took it upon himself” to help ensure the property—two laptops and a projector—were returned.

Among the deleted emails between Parker and Flanagan that Ford had Parker read aloud in the courtroom was one in which Flanagan wrote shortly after the article, “Remember what I said, your family, we take care of our own.”

Bruce Barket, Flanagan’s attorney, argued that those other emails back and forth in the same chain were about Parker and Flanagan rescheduling their dinner plans—not evidence of a cover-up.

“What you asked Mr. Flanagan here…was to help get stolen property back to its owner, is that right?” Barket asked. “Yes,” Parker replied.

Gary Parker (middle) being escorted into the courtroom on Monday.

The man prosecutors say had his high-ranking Nassau County police friends cover up his sons’ burglary took the witness stand Monday to detail how he bought expensive meals for various members of law enforcement.

Gary Parker, a Manhattan accountant from Merrick whose 21-year-old son, Zachary, is now serving prison time for burglarizing $11,000 in electronics from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, testified that he socialized with former second deputy commissioner William Flanagan.

“I really specifically do not recall what year I first met him,” said Parker, although he acknowledged he was already on a first-name basis with the defendant when Parker gave Flanagan tickets to a Yankees game the day before the May 18, 2009 burglary.

Flanagan pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and misconduct charges last March along with two other ex-Nassau police commanders whose cases were severed from his. Parker’s testimony came at the start of the third week of the trial. He is not charged in connection with the alleged cover-up.

Parker testified that he asked the husband of former Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey’s secretary to help get Zachary Parker a job with the police department. It worked: the then-teenager started as a clerk in the department’s Emergency Ambulance Bureau in 2008, he said.

Parker also testified he did accounting work for the nonprofit Nassau County Police Department Foundation, a group fundraising to build a new police academy. He testified the group’s expenses included $600 for copies of Pinheads and Patriots, a book by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, who attended a foundation meeting.

Flanagan eventually recruited Parker to join the board of the foundation based on his work with similar charities in the past, Parker told the court, adding that Flanagan was asking on Mulvey’s behalf.

When the elder Parker said his son confessed his crimes to him before Memorial Day weekend 2009, Flanagan’s co-defendant, retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe, called Parker into his squad room that Friday. Sharpe told Parker to meet with Lorraine Poppe, the school principal, which he did immediately afterward, Parker said.

The following Saturday, Parker said he gave his son’s uniform and police ID card back to Flanagan’s other co-defendant, former Chief of Department John Hunter, during a meeting as emotional as the one the day before with Poppe.

Parker said he told Hunter “in passing” to “put in a good word” for him with Sharpe. The following Tuesday, Parker bought his son a plane ticket to Florida to visit his grandparents while he was “hoping and praying” for the best outcome in the case.

His testimony continues Wednesday.

William Flanagan surrendered to Nassau County prosecutors in March.

A school principal and key witness sparred with a defense attorney who cross examined her Tuesday in the trial of an ex-Nassau County police commander accused of covering up a burglary for a friend.

Bruce Barkett, attorney for former second deputy commissioner William Flanagan, asked Lorraine Poppe, principal of Bellmore’s John F. Kennedy High School, about emails she sent in 2009 as well as conflicting testimony she gave to the grand jury and prosecutors.

“You thought the other event they didn’t need to know about?” Barkett asked Poppe of why she failed to tell prosecutors and grand jurors about one of two meetings with detectives involved in the case.

“I did not recall it,” Poppe said, conceding that she must have been nervous and that her memory was not perfect about events four years prior.

She repeatedly insisted that she never waivered in her request to have Zachary Parker, the son of wealthy police donor and Flanagan’s friend Gary Parker, arrested for stealing $11,000 in electronics from the school in 2009.

Flanagan and two other ex-supervisors being tried separately have pleaded not guilty to covering up the thefts. Zachary Parker pleaded guilty this year to the burglary and is serving prison time after the alleged cover-up was exposed.

“I thought I was being stonewalled and I thought the police department was trying to bury the case,” Poppe told Assistant District Attorney Bernadette Ford during direct examination. “As a [school] district, we do not want to treat wealthy kids different than not so wealthy kids.”

Barkett also questioned Poppe about an email she sent to a detective involved in the case in May 2009 saying she wanted police to put everything “on hold.” Poppe said she wrote that because she needed the school district’s authorization before requesting a student’s arrest and she wanted to determine if Zachary Parker had more stolen property in his possession.

“I wasn’t giving [the detective] an alternative, I was informing him I was speaking with the superintendent about alternatives,” she told the court upon cross examination by Barkett. She testified it was “just part of the process that we go through at the school.”

Poppe, who first took the stand on the second day of the trail last Thursday, is slated to be back in court to offer a third day of testimony Wednesday.