A Mount Vernon police officer arrested on a DWI charge this summer in Queens when police found him asleep in his car at a green light has pleaded guilty.
According to a spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney's Office, Steven Moreano entered a conditional guilty plea on Sept. 30 to a misdemeanor DWI charge and an infraction of driving while ability impaired.
On the night of July 26, police found Moreano asleep in the driver's seat of his BMW, the engine running, at a green light at Northern and Parsons boulevards. His blood alcohol was allegedly two times the legal limit.
The conditions of the plea are that he wears an alcohol monitor for 90 days, stays out of trouble and undergoes an evaluation to determine whether he needs up to 14 weeks
of treatment for alcoholism.
If he meets the conditions, the misdemeanor charge will be dismissed. He would have to attend a Victim Impact Panel and Impaired Driving programs of the state Department of Motor Vehicles, pay a $300 fine and his driver's license would be suspended for 90 days.
If he violates the conditions, the misdemeanor would stay on his record and he could face up to one year in jail, a $500 fine, a six-month license suspension and the installation of an interlock device in his car.
Moreano is due back in Queens Criminal Court on Jan. 20. His lawyer declined to comment.
Moreano, who had less than two years on the job, was the fourth member of the department to be arrested this year - and a fifth would follow the following month when Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Lackard was indicted along with her husband and teenage son on attempted murder charges alleging the parents drove their son to and from a gang-related shooting outside Bronx Criminal Court.
In March, Officer Frank Lucadamo was arrested in Florida on a stalking charge after he sent harassing messages to a retired colleague working in law enforcement there. He has entered a deferred prosecution agreement in which the charges will be dropped if he stays out of trouble and undergoes mental health treatment for a year.
Detective Kyren Braunskill was arrested that same month in Suffolk County on conspiracy and larceny charges in an indictment that also named 17 reputed gang members from Riverhead, where Braunskill is from. He is accused of providing at least one gun to the gang and trying to steal $38,000 with a forged check.
Officer Brandon Hunter-Carney was arrested in April by Westchester DA investigators on grand larceny charges accusing him of stealing an $800,160 check meant for an Alabama company and depositing it into a bank account he controlled.
The cases against Lackard, Hunter-Carney and Braunskill are pending. Lackard was fired. Lucadamo, Braunskill and Hunter-Carney are suspended with pay and Moreano is on modified duty without a gun or badge, Deputy Chief Gregory Addison said on Monday, Oct. 26.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mount Vernon cop pleads guilty in Queens DWI case
