Two ex-Paterson cops in 'robbery squad' get 2 years in prison

NEWARK — Two former Paterson cops who admitted illegal “robbery squad” shakedowns got two-year prison sentences on Thursday, but a judge decided that a third officer convicted in the conspiracy should not go to jail.

United States District Court Judge Katharine Hayden decided that Matthew Torres, 33, should get probation instead of prison time. Torres had pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiring with other officers to violate people’s civil rights and filing a false police report.

Jonathan Bustios, 33, and Eudy Ramos, 35, were the ex-cops sentenced to two years. They likely will have to report to prison in six to seven weeks, the judge said. The rogue cops testified in court last spring that they targeted suspected drug dealers for their shakedowns because they were likely to have money and not be likely to complain about being robbed.

Hayden condemned the convicted cops for committing “heinous” crimes that violated their oaths to protect the public, but she also was highly critical of the Paterson police department, which she said was “bankrupt of simple human values.”

“Yes, he failed Paterson,” the judge said of Torres, “but the police department was also failing him and others.”

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While sentencing Bustios, Hayden said the crooked cop’s new job at an IHOP restaurant has him working in a culture that is “1,000% better than” the one he left behind in the Paterson police department. The judge said Bustios’ crimes as a Paterson cop were “a reflection” of the police department’s culture.

City police officials declined to comment about Hayden’s statements.

Two other members of the “robbery squad” — Frank Toledo and Daniel Pent — are scheduled for sentencing on Friday afternoon, while the former sergeant who supervised them, Michael Cheff, will learn his fate on Monday. His five subordinates all testified against Cheff in a trial in May as part of plea agreements giving them the possibility of reduced prison terms

Torres previously admitted taking $800 from the passenger in a car he illegally stopped in December 2017.

“I’m not a bad person; I did bad things,” said Torres, his voice cracking with emotion, during his hearing on Thursday.

In explaining her decision to sentence Torres to probation, the judge cited his lack of direct participation in the assaults that happened during the shakedowns, his “genuine moral distress” about the wrongdoing and the fact that he came forward to reveal the crimes to authorities before any charges were filed against him.

Torres told the court that at one point he aspired to become chief of police. He said that he had tried to get transferred away from the “robbery squad,” but his requests were rejected. Torres also said he attempted to leave Paterson to join the Woodland Park police department but was unsuccessful.

The judge during the proceeding talked about what she called “an exceptional” letter Torres submitted to the court, one in which he expressed remorse for mistreating people. “I wish I could tell them face to face how sorry I am,” Hayden said, quoting the letter.

Hayden also read part of a letter from Torres’ wife in which she described her husband’s struggles as a Paterson cop as being “survival of the fittest.”

Torres now works as a restaurant manager, while his wife is a nurse. The judge noted that the couple became engaged and got married while the federal investigation was unfolding. The couple has two young children.

Torres’ lawyer, John Whipple, said the inexperienced officer got drawn into the criminal conspiracy “reluctantly.”

But Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Kearny said, “Mr. Torres fell into the lure of easy money.”

Bustios was the first ex-cop to be sentenced Thursday.  He apologized for his crimes and attributed them to the culture within the Paterson police department.

“I feel like the culture of the whole department was a certain way,” Bustios said during his hearing. “At that time, I didn’t feel like anything we were doing was wrong. I felt like that was the way of the department. I regret everything. Everything I did, I regret.”

Hayden noted that Bustios’ sentence could have been as high as 37 months, but said she decided to give him less time because of his cooperation with federal investigators. In imposing the two-year sentence, the judge said, “I can’t go any lower than that because of the impact on the community.”

Assistant United States Attorney Jihee Suh praised Bustios’ cooperation with the FBI, noting that he was one of two defendants in the case who did not delete incriminating messages from their phones. Suh said Bustios was the first suspected cop in the case to begin working with authorities.

“It was only through Mr. Bustios’ cooperation that the full extent of the conspiracy became known and the blue wall of silence started crumbling,” Suh said.

In his 2018 guilty plea, Bustios admitted taking a bag containing $1,800 in cash from inside a BMW he searched but let the two occupants go free without filing any police reports about the incident. In another case, he said he offered a suspect a deal in which he would not file any criminal charges in exchange for a gun.

Ramos was the only ex-cop on Thursday who previously admitted using excessive force on people the rogues were illegally stopping. He also had pleaded guilty to stealing $10,000 in one instance in 2017 and taking smaller amounts in other cases.

“It was always my dream to be a police officer and serve the city where I grew up,” Ramos said during his sentencing. But at some point, he said he “deviated” from that mission.

“There is no one else responsible for my wrongdoing but myself,” Ramos said. “I wish I could go back in time and undo it, but I can’t.”

After losing his police job, Ramos started driving a truck and eventually opened his own trucking business with five 18-wheelers, his lawyer said.

All six officers were convicted of two counts that set a total maximum of 30 years in prison, according to news releases from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. But those maximum terms have been lowered in sentencing reports that had not been made public.

The FBI probe into the self-proclaimed “robbery squad” started late in 2016 and continued for several years, with the first arrests — those of Bustios and Ramos — happening in April 2018. The other four rogue cops were charged with their crimes in a series of arrests that stretched out over the subsequent 21 months.

The federal investigation also resulted in federal prison sentences for two Paterson cops who were not directly involved with the “robbery squad.” FBI agents investigating the illegal shakedowns learned about allegations that another patrol officer, Ruben McAusland, was selling drugs from his Paterson police vehicle while on-duty.

With the help of a confidential informant, the FBI gathered video and audio recordings of McAusland’s drug sales over the course of months and arrested him in April 2018, nine days after Bustios and Ramos were apprehended.

McAusland’s arrest led to another case when investigators said they found on his cellphone a video recording of him and his police partner, Roger Then, assaulting a suicide patient at a hospital emergency room in March 2018.

McAusland was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison after admitting the drug dealing and hospital attack. He is being held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan and is scheduled for release in March 2024. Then served a six-month prison term for his role in the ER incident and was released in early 2020.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ: Two cops in 'robbery squad' sentenced to 2 years