Undercover NY cop accused of framing pawn clerk

Security tapes show three encounters between an undercover posing as a thief interacting with a clerk

By Larry Celona and Chuck Bennett
The New York Post

NEW YORK — The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau launched a fresh investigation into the troubled 81st Precinct in central Brooklyn after a pawnshop owner claimed an undercover framed his clerk, The Post has learned.

IAB investigators seized security tapes that show three encounters between an undercover posing as a thief and Erica McCue, a clerk at Community Pawn Brokers in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

McCue was charged in September with allegedly paying $720 for gold jewelry the seller supposedly bragged was stolen.

"When I looked and listened to the tapes, the seller, who turned out to be the [undercover], never said anything about the property being stolen," said shop owner Eugene Josovits.

A Post review of the tapes found any "stolen" claims inaudible. But NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the tapes retrieved by IAB "documented" the allegations.

The latest investigation follows a July indictment of two 81st Precinct cops for allegedly framing an undercover colleague mistaken for a civilian and probes of precinct crime-stat gathering.