Fired NYPD cop claims Roger Stone friendship made him a political target: ‘Nothing negative in my record,’ says Salvatore Greco

Talking with the Day by day Information for the primary time since his ouster from the NYPD, Salvatore Greco says he’s been tarred as being linked to the Jan. 6 revolt on the Capitol regardless of no proof he had any involvement.

Greco’s friendship with Trump loyalist and pardoned perjurer Roger Stone bought him fired beneath the “prison affiliation” clause within the NYPD Patrol Information, which bars cops from contact with anybody “moderately believed to be engaged in, prone to interact in, or to have engaged in prison actions.”

However Greco, 41, says a double normal is in play — in his view, the NYPD picks and chooses when it applies the rule. He says the rule was wrongly turned towards him due to his friendship with Stone.

“After 14 years, there’s nothing unfavorable in my file, not even any CCRB [Civilian Complaint Review Board] complaints,” he stated throughout an interview during which he sat alongside Stone. “You’re mainly saying since you are associates with this particular person, it’s such as you by no means existed. I misplaced my popularity, however I haven’t misplaced my religion and that’s what retains me going.”

As a part of his $25 million lawsuit towards the town, he identified he was fired beneath the prison affiliation clause — however high NYPD brass entertained rapper Cardi B Feb. 23 on the Police Academy even after she pleaded responsible final 12 months for her position in a 2018 strip membership combat.

NYPD Chief of Coaching Juanita Holmes, who organized the Cardi B look, was ousted from that position and appointed metropolis Probation Commissioner — with Mayor Adams declaring, “You don’t discard folks.”

“The patrol information process is a really broad brush,” Greco stated. “However if you find yourself stating that me being associates with Roger was detrimental to the NYPD, how are you going to then flip round and invite Cardi B to the Police Academy?

“There’s gotta be one rule, one normal.”

The NYPD declined to touch upon pending litigation.

Jan. 6 proximity

A key subject at Greco’s administrative trial was his proximity to the Jan. 6 revolt — and to Stone, specifically.

Stone was convicted of mendacity to Congress and sentenced to 40 months in jail in 2020 till Trump granted him clemency and then pardoned him in December 2020.

Greco was with Stone on the political operative’s sentencing and spent Jan. 5 and 6, 2021 with him in Washington on the Willard Lodge.

Video confirmed members of the unconventional proper Oath Keepers group performing as safety for the political operative over the 36 hours main as much as the violence on the Capitol.

Joshua James, one of many Oath Keepers doing safety for Stone, pleaded responsible to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of Congress in March 2022. James offered a press release for NYPD prosecutors saying Greco was additionally a bodyguard for Stone.

Stone was additionally in shut contact with members of one other radical proper group, the Proud Boys, within the lead-up to the violence, the Jan. 6 Committee in Congress reported.

Video taken by documentary filmmakers on Jan. 5, 2021 recorded Stone saying, “F— the voting. Let’s get to the violence.” The filmmakers additionally confirmed Greco carrying his NYPD defend and a firearm within the resort room as Stone talked on a telephone.

However the NYPD acknowledged that Greco didn’t really go to the Capitol through the violence or current any proof the cop was fascinated about overthrowing the federal government.

Stone insists he and Greco are merely associates. They met through Instagram when Greco posted messages supportive of Stone after he was indicted by the feds.

“I went via hell within the [perjury] investigation, and he was sympathetic,” stated Stone, 70. “He got here down and visited my household at Easter, at Christmas. We’re associates. That’s it. I by no means paid him something.”

The second cost for which Greco was fired — conduct prejudicial to the division — was for working as unpaid safety for Stone.

Greco and Stone insisted the previous cop by no means acted as safety for Stone. Even when he did, they argue that whereas paid off-duty employment requires NYPD approval, the patrol information is silent on unpaid off-duty employment.

“There’s nothing that states anyplace about uncompensated safety,” Greco stated. “They didn’t care what the info had been. They made it up of their thoughts.”

Considerations concerning the investigation

Greco and Stone declare Inside Affairs did a collection of questionable issues in its investigation, which started with an nameless letter to the NYPD:

* In January 2021, NYPD investigators adopted Greco from Staten Island all the way in which to a Pennsylvania hospital the place he was going to go to his dying father Joseph Greco, who spent his profession within the meals enterprise. He died not lengthy after the go to.

An Inside Affairs Bureau memo obtained by The Information confirms Greco’s account. He was adopted from his fitness center to a bodega to the Lehigh Valley Heart Heart. IAB terminated the surveillance 10 minutes after Greco entered the power, the file exhibits.

“This was after their witness (Oath Keeper James) advised them I used to be by no means on the Capitol,” Greco stated. “One of these abuse ought to by no means have occurred.”

* Throughout the departmental trial, it emerged that the NYPD had used administrative subpoenas — info calls for not signed by a choose — to get Greco’s telephone, financial institution and different data. In an effort to try this, they claimed they had been investigating Greco for narcotics.

“I believe that Inside Affairs determined they must resubmit these things and make it a prison investigation with the intention to receive the fabric they needed,” Stone stated.

At trial, the NYPD acknowledged there was no underlying drug allegation.

”All of it went means above a line you by no means ought to have reached,” Greco stated.

* Additionally through the trial, the NYPD talked about Manhattan Madam Kristin Davis’ prison file as a result of Greco was additionally associates together with her. Greco claims of their investigation Inside Affairs really accessed Davis’ sealed data.

“That is the sort of factor they do behind the scenes that they don’t need you to learn about,” Greco stated.

At one level, the NYPD supplied a plea deal of 60 misplaced trip days and one-year probation the place he may very well be fired for something, Greco stated.

Greco’s PBA delegate advised him to take the deal, Greco stated. “I rejected it as a result of I are available in they usually don’t like the colour of my socks, they’ll fireplace me,” the Bensonhurst native stated.

Per week after his NYPD trial ended, Greco bought a subpoena from the Jan. 6 Committee. This time, he needed to rent his personal lawyer and testified on Zoom for greater than two hours, he recollects.

“The NYPD gave all of them my data proper after the trial,” Greco stated. “It was a fishing expedition they usually discovered no wrongdoing on my half.”

In all, Greco estimates that he has spent near $50,000 on authorized charges.

Greco, now a Florida resident, faces an unsure future. When Sewell fired him, he additionally misplaced his pension, and was barred from getting a coveted retired officer’s ID card and a so-called “good man” letter which permits him to hold a firearm and work within the safety area.

“I imagine that there’s going to be one thing higher for me,” Greco stated. “I simply hope that there’s justice in my case.”