Former Newark police officer sentenced to prison for taking bribes from brothel owner

NEWARK, NJ — A former Newark police officer has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for soliciting and accepting cash payments from a brothel owner in Newark in exchange for protecting brothels from police action, and for failing to report those cash payments on his personal federal income tax returns, acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced Nov. 3.

Julio I. Rivera, 52, of Old Bridge, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo to two counts of an indictment charging him with bribery and aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false 2015 personal federal tax return.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, from September 2014 to August 2015, Rivera solicited and accepted cash payments from a Newark brothel owner, who ran brothels located on Lafayette and Emmet street. In exchange for these cash bribes, Rivera performed official acts and violated his lawful duties for the benefit of the brothel owner, including declining to arrest individuals who were committing and promoting prostitution, agreeing to protect these individuals from arrest by other Newark police officers, and agreeing to take adverse action against a competing brothel. Rivera collected between $40,000 and $95,000 in bribes.

Rivera also intentionally withheld information from his tax preparer regarding the cash bribes that he received, which caused Rivera’s filed federal tax returns for certain tax years, including 2015, to understate the total amount of income that Rivera received. Rivera stipulated that this misconduct resulted in a loss to the IRS of $15,000 to $40,000.

In addition to the prison term, the judge sentenced Rivera to three years of supervised release and 1,000 hours of community service, and ordered restitution of $17,408 and forfeiture of $79,941.

  Newark Police Department, U.S. Attorney’s Office