NYPD brothers Cliff and Steven Nieves — cleared of brothel ring charges — sue department over malicious prosecution

NYPD cop brothers Cliff and Steven Nieves say their plans for a cousin’s bachelor party sent their lives and careers off the rails when they wrongly became collateral damage in a high-profile law enforcement takedown of a ring of brothels.

Now that they’ve been cleared of all the charges and their police careers are back on track, the Nieves brothers are going back to court, claiming they were wrongly prosecuted.

Their lawsuit in Supreme Court in Brooklyn asserts NYPD Internal Affairs investigators fabricated evidence and made false statements to a grand jury in an effort to portray the officers as members of the crooked ring.

The suit names as defendants 10 internal affairs investigators and other cops, as well as then-Internal Affairs chief Joseph Reznick and then-Police Commissioner James O’Neill.

“They [authorities] lied and said the evidence showed our clients were ringleaders in a prostitution scheme when they were really just planning a bachelor party,” their lawyer Gabriel Harvis said. “The fallout for our clients has been devastating.”

Officials with the NYPD and the city Law Department declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Queens District Attorney’s office did not respond to an email.

The brothers’ ordeal began when they arranged for a bachelor party for a cousin, which took place June 17, 2017 in a down-at-the-heels, two-story brick building on 42nd St. and Second Ave. in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

By then the brothel investigation was already well underway and investigators caught them on camera during the party.

But it wasn’t until more than a year later, on Sept. 12, 2018, that cops arrested Cliff at home in front of his wife and daughter. Steven was arrested the same day on Northern Blvd. in front of his father, who was so devastated he couldn’t drive home.

They were told they were arrested on charges of promoting prostitution and conspiracy.

The siblings were rear-cuffed, walked in front of television cameras and then spent the night in an ice-cold cell in Queens Central Booking.

“I was freezing. I just had a T-shirt on,” Steven Nieves said. “They had enough guys in suits there so they could walk us out in front of the cameras one by one rear-cuffed. They presented us to the judge rear-cuffed.”

In addition to the alleged ring leader, Ludwig Paz, the Nieves brothers were among nine other current and former officers charged in the ring. Dozens of civilians were also charged.

In a press conference, Police Commissioner O’Neill referred to the case as an act of betrayal. “The reality is that a number of our uniformed members of various ranks tarnished the NYPD shields that they’ve worn,” O’Neill said.

Prosecutors called the Nieves brothers “doormen” for the brothels. “They got the place for nothing and they used the prostitutes,” Reznick said of the bachelor party.

Queens prosecutor Bradley Chain said, “The evidence in this case is overwhelming. There are thousands of hours of surveillance.”

But the brothers knew at least for them, these statements were just hype.

“More than a year went by between the bachelor party and when we got picked up. That should have been more than sufficient time for them to know that we never had a cup of coffee with these guys,” Cliff Nieves said.

Said Steven Nieves: “They were talking about me being a doorman. Letting our cousins and friends into a bachelor party doesn’t make me a doorman for something I didn’t know was going on.”

Oddly, it took investigators about 16 months after the arrests to formally interview the brothers, a step they contend should have happened much sooner.

At work, they had to appear twice a day Monday through Friday at Internal Affairs and sit in a hallway to sign in and sign out — as other cops walked by and glanced at them in disgust.

The stigma dogged them. Other cops unfriended them on social media and gave them the cold shoulder — even cops they thought were friends.

“Guys who walked by me knew me 15 years, and they wouldn’t say a word to me,” Cliff Nieves said.

The case moved like molasses through the courts with the brothers rejecting plea deals offered by Queens prosecutors. They were finally tried in May 2022.

In a bench trial — where a judge rather than a jury presides — Judge Cassandra Mullen found them not guilty of all charges. The NYPD then dismissed a pending disciplinary case against them and they were restored to full duty.

Among the officers who were convicted was retired vice detective Ludwig Paz, the ringleader, who was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison. He began his sentence in July 2019 and was released on good behavior Jan. 5, 2022. Detective Rene Samaniego was sentenced to two to six years and served just under two years in prison and released on good behavior on March 18, 2021.

For the brothers, four years passed from the date of their arrest to the time their names were cleared.

Steven, 36, was promoted to sergeant in August 2022 and assigned to the 42nd Precinct in the Bronx. Cliff, 41, was promoted to lieutenant in September and is now assigned to the 78th Precinct in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Tarred by the allegations and the media coverage, both men have seen their careers take a hit.

Cliff Nieves says he was previously passed over for promotion to lieutenant and missed the captain’s test by a month last year. He had dreamed of working with the Joint Terrorist Task Force or another special unit, but that is now less likely.

“When I put in for any unit I have to again explain my innocence,” he said. “If I retired and applied for other jobs, people are always going to have their doubts.”

The central lesson of the case, Harvis said, is that it’s dangerous to lump people together and paint them all with a broad brush.

“You have an obligation to look at the evidence and accurately convey it to the prosecutors. You can’t just make things up,” said Harvis of the firm Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek.

“And then [investigators] went out in the press and affirmatively described it as being this mountain of evidence against them, when they did not have a mountain of evidence.”