Three NYPD cops have been charged with stealing nearly $3,000 of JAY-Z’s Ace of Spades champagne from last year’s Electric Zoo festival, painting reports.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that Jonathan Gonzalez, 33, and Wojciech Chick, 44, will face fourth-degree felony charges of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree. Gonzales and another investigator, 31-year-old Warren Golden, will also be charged with official misconduct.
The three officers were working drugs at Electric Zoo, New York’s electronic music festival, when they noticed the VIP attendees had ordered several bottles of JAY-Z’s Armand de Brignac, better known as the Ace of Spades. According to prosecutors, when the audience moved in, Gonzalez took two bottles—worth $2,900—and put them, along with the Czechs, in a backpack while Golden stood. The officers then left the VIP tent and made their way to a staff-only area when they were confronted by party-goers who had witnessed the theft and reported it to security.
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“After a brief interaction between the attendees, the defendants, and a security officer, the two bottles were taken from Defendant Gonzalez’s bag and returned to the attendees,” the official charge document states. The three defenders then left the area and returned to their command. The security officer notified his supervisors, who in turn notified the NYPD.
Bragg denounced the officers’ behavior in a statement. “In addition to the alleged theft that occurred, none of the officers working on the event escalated or stopped the activity,” he said. “Public confidence in the criminal justice system depends on members of law enforcement acting with the utmost integrity in the line of duty and following the same rules that apply to everyone else.”
NYPD said painting He said that two detectives were suspended after the charges were announced, but he did not specify the two officers who were arrested. Under New York law, fourth-degree grand larceny and possession of stolen property charges can result in up to four years in prison. However, if the defendants cooperate, they may end up with only probation and fines.
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