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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., announced on Friday, June 14, that Paul Zangrilli, age 44, of Rockland County, was charged with covering up the drunk driving incident in 2022.
According to Bragg, Zangrilli allegedly allowed his girlfriend, Nikole Rupple, age 35, of New York City, to drive his unmarked NYPD-issued vehicle after they had both been drinking for several hours.
Bragg said Zangrilli was in the passenger seat while Rupple hit a livery cab and fled the scene. He then later drove the vehicle while drunk, allegedly lied about the incident, tried to pay off the cabbie, and attempted to erase a video of the incident.
“This alleged behavior was incredibly dangerous, leading to injuries for one cab driver and putting the safety of many other drivers and pedestrians at risk," said Bragg.
According to court documents and statements made on the record, on Aug. 16, 2022, at 5:40 p.m., Zangrilli, who at the time was the commanding officer of the NYPD's 5th Precinct, drove to the American Whiskey bar with Rupple.
Zangrilli drank at the bar for about three hours and consumed five shots and seven beers. Rupple drank seven shots and three beers, court documents show.
The cab driver stopped a patrol officer and asked him to pull over the car that hit him. During the stop, Zangrilli repeatedly offered $500 and $1,000 to the victim instead of exchanging insurance information both in the uniformed officer’s presence and after she left, records show.
An accident report was eventually taken.
Later, Zangrilli called the owner of the bar and asked him to delete the surveillance video from the night that showed the two drinking. The tape was erased the next morning,
The department's Internal Affairs Department and the DA’s Office were eventually able to recover and extract the video surveillance footage from the day of the incident.
Zangrilli was suspended without pay, the NYPD said in a statement.
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