Cop protected prostitution rings in exchange for free sex in New York, officials say

A former police officer has pleaded guilty after he was accused of using “his badge as a shield” to protect two prostitution rings — engaged in trafficking women and minors — for free sex, federal officials in New York say.

While an officer in Brewster, he directed the traffickers involved to deliver women to him for sex for nearly 10 years until 2018, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Sometimes, he’d have the women brought directly to the police department where he worked, prosecutors said.

Wayne Peiffer, 48, of Highland, pleaded guilty on April 8 to charges linked to his role in protecting the prostitution rings, based in New York City’s borough of Queens, when they operated in Brewster, an attorney’s office news release said. Brewster is roughly 55 miles north of Queens.

He protected these illegal organizations by helping them avoid “detection and apprehension” from law enforcement, the release said.

McClatchy News contacted Peiffer’s attorney for comment and was awaiting a response.

Additionally, Peiffer took “sexual favors from the women he was sworn to protect,” Homeland Security Investigations acting Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel said in a statement.

The individuals Peiffer protected from the prostitution rings would threaten and force “young women and minor girls from Mexico to engage in prostitution” in the U.S. — making them sex trafficking victims, according to an indictment obtained by McClatchy News. Additionally, these individuals weren’t U.S. citizens either.

Peiffer joined the Village of Brewster Police Department in 2006, and his involvement with the two prostitution rings began four years later in 2010, lasting until 2018, the indictment said. Specifically, these organizations included the Cid-Hernandez Sex Trafficking Organization and the Godinez Prostitution Business.

Victims were brought to Peiffer over the course of several years and were taken to the Brewster police department on his orders at least four times for “commerical sex services” at no cost, according to prosecutors.

Peiffer specifically pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion and conspiracy to commit bribery in violation of the Travel Act,” the news release said.

He “faces up to 25 years in prison and forfeiture of $5,000.”

“With today’s guilty plea, this former officer admitted to disgracing his shield and betraying the public trust,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a statement.

When asked for an update on the other defendants involved in the case, a spokesperson for the attorney’s office, John Marzulli, told McClatchy News that “the next status conference is on June 3 at 9 a.m.” ET.

“Plea negotiations are ongoing,” he said.

This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Cop protected prostitution rings in exchange for free sex in New York, officials say."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.