By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — An NYPD cop was drummed out of the department after he was accused of making multiple 311 calls against his lieutenant, claiming that the female officer was transgender and “mean,” the Daily News has learned.
A deputy trials commissioner for the NYPD recommended Police Officer Amar Bhairam’s be fired after finding him guilty during an administrative proceeding of prohibitive conduct and falsifying business records following his three-week-long 311 tirade against NYPD Lt. Marlene Hernandez, according to recently released court papers.
After the trial judge’s decision was rendered, Bhairam resigned from the department before Police Commissioner Edward Caban could sign off on the decision and officially order his dismissal, his attorney Peter Brill confirmed.
“Please tell the tranny looking lady in the white shirt put her mask on, she’s scaring my dogs as I walk by the precinct,” Bhairam, pretending to be a Chelsea resident, grumbled to 311 on Feb. 1, 2022.
The bizarre complaint was one of eight he had texted to 311 between Jan. 14 and Feb. 1, 2022, the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau discovered after the rants were forwarded to the NYPD and the department launched an aggravated harassment investigation.
All of the 311 reports complained of a “white shirt” at the 10th Precinct, where Bhairam and Hernandez were both assigned.
“I’m not one to complain but this needs to be corrected,” the 12-year NYPD veteran texted to 311 on Jan. 19, 2022 . “I had to go to the 10th Precinct the other day to file a report for my stolen cellphone but the more troubling issue was the way I was addressed by a transgender officer wearing a white uniform that was sitting behind the high pharmacy-like counter.”
Bhairam also called Lt. Hernandez a “nasty woman.”
“Poor NYPD,” he wrote to 311 while on duty. “No wonder morale is low.”
He even requested that an ambulance be sent to the 10th Precinct to cart Lt. Hernandez away.
Bhairam filed his 311 complaint anonymously, but made them on his own personal cellphone, making it quite easy for IAB to track him down.
The NYPD’s Department Advocate’s office charged him with prohibited conduct for making the bogus, derogatory 311 calls. He was also accused of falsifying business records after he made about 500 inquiries to the NYPD’s computer system “unrelated to the official business of the department.”
During his department trial on Nov. 3, 2023, Bhairam pleaded guilty to sending the 311 texts, but pleaded not guilty to accessing the NYPD records. IAB investigators said he repeatedly accessed department computers between Dec. 3, 2020 and May 12, 2022, where he checked license plates and arrest histories without a legitimate reason.
He later admitted that he made the computer inquiries about “former and current romantic partners” to see if they had been arrested. He also ran his family and friends’ names through the database to see if they had any outstanding summonses.
Regarding his hate-filled texts about Lt. Hernandez, Bhairam told investigators that his superior had a “negative” supervisory style and “a lot of cops weren’t happy” with her directives.
He accused her of giving him “unnecessary” command disciplines, which his previous supervisor didn’t do. He also claimed that she had made inappropriate comments about his skin condition, which left him with white spots on his face, and made fun of him behind his back.
Bhairam said he had seen other cops file anonymous complaints to 311 against supervisors, so he decided to do the same.
“It was stupid,” he admitted. “I was just frustrated with what was going on personally, you know, with her,” he said at his departmental trial, according to court papers.
He said that he accused Hernandez of being transgender “to be funny.”
“All the other cops were calling her that at the precinct,” he said, admitting that he knew she wasn’t transgender. He also said he knew Hernandez would see the complaints because part of her duties was to assign the 311 jobs.
Brill said at trial that his client’s actions were “immature” and “juvenile” but didn’t warrant termination but Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Trials Anne Stone strongly disagreed.
“(His) attempt to defend his use of derogatory slurs, by repeatedly calling their use a ‘joke’ trivializes his conduct and is compelling evidence of the limited potential for his rehabilitation,” Stone wrote about Bhairam while reaching her finding on Dec. 22 . “His actions seriously call into question (his) ability to carry out his functions as a police officer.
“The department must trust that members of service will not abuse the city’s resources by making false reports about a supervisor they disagree with,” she wrote, recommending his termination.
When reached Friday, Brill said that Bhairam was “a rising star in the police department that made some poor choices and had to deal with an abusive supervisor.”
“He admitted his mistakes and received an overly-harsh punishment,” Brill said. “He’s accepted that punishment and is moving onto greener pastures.”
An email to Lt. Hernandez for comment was not immediately returned.
Since its first call on March 9, 2003 — a noise complaint in Jackson Heights , Queens — 311 has fielded 359 million non-emergency complaints and assisted 525 million people overall, after figuring in mobile app and website exchanges.
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