A past police investigator was found guilty on Wednesday of providing false information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the intention of shielding illegal gambling activities of a Mafia clan in suburbs around New York City. This investigator, Hector Rosario, previously served as a detective for the Nassau County police situated in Long Island. In contrast, he was exonerated from the most serious claim of obstructing justice that he had faced. The assembled jury that reviewed his case initiated their deliberations from Tuesday after a trial that extended over seven days in the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
John Durham, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office oversaw the lawsuit, branded the 15-year service veteran as a ‘corrupt detective’. According to Durham, Rosario prioritized his allegiance to the mob above his sworn duty to serve the public. Additionally, Anne Donnelly, Nassau County District Attorney, agreed that Hector Rosario favored receiving payments from the Bonanno family and safeguarding his personal interests over faithfully upholding the law.
In her words, Rosario has ‘brought disgrace to the investigative efforts of his counterparts by alerting a target of investigation, and then providing false testimony to the federal officers when they were gradually tightening their net on him.’ Furthermore, it was asserted that Rosario, who calls Mineola home, had accepted multiple payments amounting to thousands of dollars from members of the Bonanno crime family over a prolonged period.
The prosecutors claimed that Rosario repaid this generosity by alerting a mobster who was the focal point of an ongoing investigation and revealing the residential address of a person thought to be cooperating with the authorities. Even more audaciously, it was alleged that he redirected law enforcement incursions towards competing betting establishments while also staging a phony police check on a cobblers shop, which was merely a front for another Mafia family, the Genoveses, who were rivals of the Bonanno family.
According to the prosecution, Rosario was questioned by FBI agents the preceding year in relation to the investigation of possible criminal activity by factions of the Bonanno and Genovese families in the suburban areas located eastwards of New York City. However, they believe that he provided a false statement, denying any knowledge of Mafia activities or of the existence of any illegal gambling venues.
Leslie Backschies, who was the acting FBI assistant director overseeing the bureau’s New York field office, stated that Rosario ‘allowed the mob to purchase his loyalty, leading him to fabricate outright lies during the federal investigation into illegal gambling run by the Bonanno family.’ Rosario, who had been dismissed from service in the police department in the year 2022, could potentially face up to five years of imprisonment.
The charge he was facing – obstruction of justice – had a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail. However, Rosario was cleared of this charge following his attorney’s argument that he was not intending to disrupt the federal probe since he was oblivious to the fact that they were scrutinizing his criminal associates. Responses to a query for comments were not immediately received from Rosario’s lawyers on Wednesday.
Remarkably, after exiting the courthouse, they declared an intention to contest the verdict. At the time of the trial, Rosario’s lawyers contested the validity of the charges based on the argument that they heavily relied on the less than reliable testimonies of mobsters who were presently collaborating with the prosecution due to their own criminal prosecutions.
Rosario was one of nine individuals who were prosecuted when federal law enforcement officials dismantled what was described as an exceedingly profitable illegal operation that inked back to an era when the Mafia held considerable sway in New York. Allegedly, the other individuals prosecuted alongside Rosario were identified by colorful monickers such as ‘Joe Fish’, ‘Sal the Shoemaker’, and ‘Joe Box’.
It’s purported that they hosted covert gambling activities from behind the scenes of what seemed to be normal businesses such as a coffee bar, a football club, and a shoe repair shop. Along with allegations of illegal gambling, additional charges these mobsters faced included racketeering, money laundering, and conspiracy.
Soon after the indictment of these individuals, the then U.S. Attorney invoked the disturbing actions of Rosario. According to him, ‘The most shocking aspect of this case was the alleged behavior of a detective who violated the terms of his service and betrayed the trust and the integrity of the sincere workers of the Nassau County Police Department when he apparently associated himself with criminals.’