NEWARK NJ October 25 2018  — A federal judge sentenced a former Jersey City cop to nearly two years in prison Tuesday after the ex-officer admitted taking over $30,000 in corrupt payments related to the off-duty jobs program.

Juan Berrios, 42, of Rahway, is the 11th ex-cop to be sentenced in the federal investigation of Jersey City’s police department and the fourth to receive a prison sentence. The probe in January brought down an ex-police chief, Phil Zacche, who admitted stealing more than $20,000 for security gigs he never worked for the city’s housing authority.

Berrios spoke briefly in front of U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez, expressing remorse for his actions and apologizing to his family and to the people of Jersey City. Berrios’ attorney, Daniel Welsh, said he knew Berrios before this case and struggled to understand why the ex-cop participated in the criminal scheme.

“He doesn’t gamble, he doesn’t do drugs, he’s not a philanderer,” Welsh said. “I don’t know what led him to this.”

Vazquez sentenced Berrios to 23 months behind bars followed by three years of probation. The judge said he would recommend a minimum-security camp instead of a traditional prison. Berrios’ prison sentence will not begin until at least Jan. 2 so he can remain home for the holidays, Vazquez said.

Vazquez also ordered Berrios to forfeit $50,000 and pay Jersey City restitution of $34,951.

Berrios had been facing a sentence of up to five years in prison. His sentence was reduced in part because of his “significant” cooperation with federal prosecutors that allowed the government to extract guilty pleas from at least one other now-ex cop, Vazquez said.

That cooperation nearly ended at one point when Berrios decided he wanted to plead not guilty. According to Vazquez, the ex-cop decided again to cooperate after prosecutors unearthed a separate scheme, one that saw Berrios charging the city to appear in court at the same time he was accepting payments to work off-duty jobs. Vazquez said he is concerned that Berrios did not admit to that scheme immediately when he initially decided to cooperate with prosecutors.

Welsh explained the turnaround by saying Berrios had recently become active in a local church and thought by pleading not guilty he would “let God handle his situation, right, and God would protect him.”

Berrios pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and accept corrupt payments. He admitted he accepted direct payments from private companies that were supposed to hire off-duty officers using the city as an intermediary.

It remains unclear whether federal prosecutors have wrapped up their investigation. All 11 cops who have pleaded guilty have been sentenced, except for one who died before his sentencing date. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito, whose office oversaw the probe, said he does not typically comment on the status of an investigation.

The government was represented in court on Tuesday by Vikas Khanna, deputy chief of the U.S. attorney’s office criminal division.

nj.com 

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