A commanding officer at a Brooklyn precinct tried to shake down a hip-hop club owner for free round-trip plane tickets to Puerto Rico and a generator after Hurricane Maria, according to a new $125 million notice of claim.
Sunset Park Love & Lust club owner Imran Jairam says his joint was repeatedly unfairly targeted by cops and the State Liquor Authority for inspections since it opened in 2014 — and then-NYPD Deputy Inspector Emmanuel Gonzalez came to him with his hand out in 2017 to get freebies for an off-duty humanitarian trip to Puerto Rico.
The owner says he didn’t follow up except to put the top cop in touch with a hip-hop artist. As the attempted shakedown was going on, his club was still being hit with inspections and summonses, according to court papers.
Gonzalez came to Jairam after three years of “biased and selective enforcement,” the claim says. The enforcement actions were “designed to drive him out of business.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NYPD Captains Endowment Association President Roy Richter said Gonzalez was being unfairly accused.
“This is a crooked club looking to shift focus from their bad conduct by making spurious allegations against an outstanding commander,” Richter said.