Ex-Brewster cop gets 3-year prison term for sexual favors from prostitution rings

The former Brewster cop who had women brought to him for free sex at the police station for more than a decade so that he would protect a pair of Queens prostitution rings operating in Putnam was sentenced Thursday to three years in federal prison — even more than prosecutors requested.

U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall in Brooklyn dashed any hopes Wayne Peiffer had of home confinement and community service when she suggested the guideline sentence in the case — 24 to 30 months — was too lenient for the damage he had done to the women.

And she ultimately said the 30 months requested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Shanies was not enough.

Shanies called Peiffer's crimes "an horrific abuse of power" by a cop who could have stopped the criminal activity and exploitation of women but instead let it continue for his own benefit.

Peiffer was working for a heating and air conditioning company when he took the part-time Brewster job in 2007 after the village restarted its police department.

Soon he was approached by the one of the prostitution rings that would regularly bring women to the Brewster area and agreed to offer protection in exchange for the sexual favors. He tipped them off to law enforcement activity in the area and intervened if their drivers were ever stopped. He was never paid but prostitutes were regularly brought to him, and he engaged in sex with them in his patrol car or at the police station on Main Street when he worked weekend shifts.

One of the rings was accused of bringing women - including two minor girls - to the New York area from Mexico and forcing them into prostitution. Peiffer was not accused of any trysts with the minors.

He was arrested along with five others in 2021, but did not face sex trafficking charges like they did. He pleaded guilty the following year to extortion and bribery charges. Four of the others were convicted following a trial last year.

Shanies said the trial testimony of one woman detailing sex with Peiffer in his patrol car underscored how he abused his position and perpetuated the fear people had of law enforcement. The woman said she lost all faith in police as she was forced to have sex with a cop in uniform.

The woman was repeatedly questioned on cross examination about why she never reported what was happening to her, Shanies said. "The answer to that question is sitting right over there," she told the judge, motioning to Peiffer.

Peiffer, 51, lives in Highland in Ulster County. He had sought home confinement and community service, citing medical issues and the need to support his family.

Hall focused on two particular comments Peiffer made in a letter last year seeking leniency. One was that he had "indulged" himself in the sexual favors and the other was that he really never thought of the damage he was doing to the women as he pursued his own gratification.

The judge said she had no doubt that Peiffer had been raised better but that he could not call the crime an aberration or an anomaly because he made the choice time and again to behave that way. And she said she was "deeply offended" by how he described what he was doing.

"I indulge myself with a pint of ice cream," the judge said. "You don't indulge yourself by taking a woman and turning her into a commodity."

She said that the abuse was tantamount to rape because the way the women were required to have sex with Peiffer made it non-consensual. She suggested Peiffer would have been incensed if these women were his own relatives and questioned rhetorically what made "women from our southern border" any less human to him.

Defense lawyer Susan Kellman acknowledged her client's claim to have never thought of the plight of the prostitutes was shocking. But she said he has been remorseful since his arrest and has gone through a period of self-reflection that has brought him closer to his family. She said incarceration would have a significant effect on his family, particularly his new wife and their young daughter.

Speaking briefly, Peiffer issued a series of apologies, including to his family and friends. He apologized to the victims, saying that at a time they needed help "I was one of the abusers." He apologized to the residents of Brewster for violating their trust by continuing to let criminal conduct occur. And he apologized to cops everywhere. "I contributed to the negative image of law enforcement," he said.

Peiffer had been scheduled to learn his fate nearly a year ago but his sentencing was adjourned when his wife went into labor that day.

There was no restitution or fine imposed but Peiffer has consented to forfeit $5,000. He was given until Sept. 30 to report to prison.

Following his prison term he will be subject to one year of supervised release. Hall required a special condition of four hours per week of community service — and ordered that if possible it be performed in Brewster to benefit the residents whose trust he had violated.

The four co-defendants who dealt with Peiffer starting in 2008 - Luz Elvira Cardona, Roberto Cesar Cid Dominguez, Blanca Hernandez Morales and Jose Facundo Zarate Morales — are awaiting sentencing and face up to life in prison.

The fifth defendant, Cristian Noe Godinez, who provided Peiffer the women after 2017, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to facilitate prostitution and conspiracy to facilitate bribery and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Brewster NY cop who received sex, protected prostitution ring sentenced