Two New York Police Department cops charged with robbing, groping sex worker

New York: Two rookie officers with the New York Police Department have been indicted on charges of burglary, forcible touching, petty larceny and official misconduct after prosecutors said they groped and robbed a sex worker while on patrol duty in Queens.

The officers, Justin McMillan, 27, and Justin Colon, 24, who were assigned to the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights, surrendered to the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau on Monday morning, the Queens district attorney's office said in a news release.

Both pleaded not guilty Monday before Justice Jessica Earle-Gargan of State Supreme Court in Queens, according to court records.

The indictment was connected to the officers' response to a 311 call for prostitution at a building in Jackson Heights in July, prosecutors said.

After arriving at the building, the two officers turned off their body-worn cameras, approached a woman leaving through a side door and asked her to go inside with them, according to the release. While inside, they dumped her belongings out of her bag and took a set of keys to the building as she ran out, it said.

The officers then left to continue their patrol and did not report what had happened, according to prosecutors, who said the two returned about eight hours later while still on duty, deactivated their body cameras a second time and used the keys they had taken earlier to enter the building.

Inside, they encountered a different woman "engaging in prostitution" with a man. The man quickly fled as the officers arrived, the release said, and the officers then took money from the woman's purse and groped her.

After she ran away, McMillan and Colon returned to the 115th Precinct, prosecutors said. Members of the Internal Affairs Bureau began an investigation after receiving a 911 call during the second incident, according to the news release.

Lawyers for the two officers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"The allegations in this case are an affront to the shield worn by the countless police officers who serve and protect the residents of this city," said Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney.

The defendants, who entered the Police Academy in 2023, were placed on modified duty in August and were later suspended from the Police Department. Earle-Gargan ordered them to return to court April 28. If convicted at trial of the top count, they face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

"Let me be perfectly clear: Any officer who violates their oath will be investigated, exposed and held fully accountable," said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.