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Ulster County resident Wayne Peiffer of Highland, a former officer in Putnam County who worked for the Village of Brewster Police Department, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for protecting two Queens-based prostitution rings, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced on Thursday, May 2.
According to federal officials, between 2010 and October 2018, Peiffer gave protection to members of a prostitution business and a sex trafficking organization that would both transport women from Queens to Brewster for prostitution.
To protect these operations, Peiffer would give them advance notice of increased law enforcement activities and would help them avoid detection and apprehension.
An example of this was one occasion when Peiffer warned Cid-Hernandez Sex Trafficking Organization members to avoid Brewster because officers were conducting car stops in the area as part of a narcotics investigation. He also met one of the organization's employees in a service station and told them to leave the area, officials said.
On another occasion, Peiffer also vouched for a driver from the organization who was pulled over by another Brewster officer, describing him as a "friend," according to federal officials.
In exchange for helping the organizations, Peiffer would receive sexual services from the women at no cost.
Peiffer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion and conspiracy to commit bribery in April 2022.
In addition to his prison sentence, Peiffer was ordered to pay $5,000 in forfeiture and to perform community service benefitting Brewster during his supervised release for no less than four hours a week for a total of 208 hours.
Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, condemned Peiffer's actions:
"The defendant is rightly punished with a prison sentence for disgracing his badge, violating the public trust in the community he was sworn to serve, and facilitating the victimization of vulnerable women all for his own self-satisfaction," Peace said, adding, "Rooting out public corruption in all its pernicious forms is a priority of this office as such conduct undermines trust in law enforcement."
In addition to Peiffer's sentence, four of his co-defendants were convinced of sex trafficking in October 2023 and are now awaiting sentencing. Additionally, a fifth co-defendant, Cristian Godinez of Queens, was sentenced to 14 months in prison in December 2023.
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