NYC Council Member Used Cop Connections To Beat Ticket

NEW YORK CITY — A former NYPD watchdog and current City Council member will pay $5,000 for getting a high-ranking cop at a local precinct to fix a traffic ticket.

Bronx City Council Member Vanessa Gibson admitted to avoiding a ticket by calling a 44th Precinct deputy chief when a cop pulled her over for using a phone while driving in March 2014, Conflicts of Interest Board records show.

“I used my City position to benefit myself,” the Bronx politician admitted in a settlement released Thursday.

The Bronx Democrat — then-chair of the Public Safety committee, responsible for NYPD oversight — denied she'd been using her phone or that she specifically asked the deputy chief for help.

"I called the 44th Precinct's Deputy Chief, who was off duty and at home, and informed him that the Police Officer had stopped my vehicle for using a cell phone while driving," Gibson stated.

"I did not explicitly ask the Deputy Chief to intervene on my behalf."

But the deputy chief called the cop and told her Gibson was head of the Public Safety committee and should be chastised instead of ticketed, Gibson told COIB.

"The Police Officer did not issue a summons to me and instead admonished me," Gibson said.

Police officer Michele Hernandez identified herself as the cop in question when she sued Gibson and the city in 2016, court records show.

Hernandez's $35 million suit names Kevin Catalina as the deputy chief, whom she accused of begging her not to write a ticket.

"[Gibson] meets with the Mayor and Police Commissioner monthly in her role with the Public Safety Committee," Hernandez said Catalina told her. "Please don't write the summons."