A former, female, NYPD cop assigned to the 52nd Precinct, based in Norwood, was hit with a 5-year, 8-month prison sentence on Friday, March 29, for helping a now-convicted murderer, who was also a gang leader, flee the United States, federal prosecutors said.

 

Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on Friday that Gina Mestre was sentenced in connection with her involvement in obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into the “Shooting Boys” gang and serving as an accessory after the fact to a murder committed by a member of the gang. 

 

Williams said Mestre pled guilty to the charges on Dec. 7, 2023, in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote, who imposed the 70-month sentence. “Gina Mestre betrayed and abused the trust placed in her by the NYPD and the people of New York,” Williams said. “She swore to protect the public from criminal activity, but instead participated in significant crimes of her own by passing confidential information to a gang leader and helping him evade capture for the murder of a rival gang member.”

 

He added, “For violating her oath to the citizens of New York City and her fellow police officers, Mestre has been sentenced to spend more than five years in federal prison.”

 

According to the allegations in the indictment, other documents filed in federal court, and based on statements made in public court proceedings, Mestre was assigned to the public safety unit at the 52nd Precinct, located at 3016 Webster Avenue in Norwood. In the summer of 2020, a major focus of both the precinct and that unit was the reduction of gun violence in the area, with much of that violence attributed to members of the Shooting Boys, a violent street gang based in the University Heights section of The Bronx.

 

The court heard that in or about June 2020, Mestre began communicating with Andrew Done, a/k/a “Caballo,” the leader of the Shooting Boys, and that she and Done communicated through secret social media accounts and phone numbers, eventually beginning an intimate relationship during which Mestre provided Done and other gang members with confidential, non-public, law enforcement information about the federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys.

 

According to the investigation, Mestre warned Done, and other gang members, that federal investigators were preparing to bring a federal indictment against the Shooting Boys, and also warned Done about impending law enforcement operations, which enabled him and other gang members to dispose of weapons, and conceal other criminal activity before law enforcement arrived on scene. 

 

In addition, Mestre disclosed the identity of a cooperating witness who provided information about the gang to law enforcement. Armed with this information, Done and other Shooting Boys assaulted the witness to prevent said witness from further cooperation, and to send a clear message within the gang that the punishment for cooperation would be severe.  

The court heard that on or about Nov. 5, 2020, Done shot and killed a rival gang member (“Victim-1”) as the victim sat in his car on Cromwell Avenue in The Bronx. NYPD Detectives investigating the murder recovered security camera video capturing Done’s commission of the murder. Several members of the 52nd Precinct, including Mestre, were tasked with identifying the shooter in the video. Mestre was ultimately one of several officers who identified Done as the perpetrator.

 

However, despite identifying him as the shooter and ostensibly participating in the NYPD’s efforts to apprehend him, Mestre sent Done a copy of the video to his phone, and secretly communicated with Done the day of the murder and in the weeks afterwards. Specifically, she warned Done about law enforcement’s efforts to capture him, allowing him to eventually flee from the United States. 

 

The court heard that in March 2022, 10 members of the Shooting Boys were charged in a 15-count indictment with various federal crimes, including racketeering conspiracy and murder. Done was charged with the murder of Victim-1 and was apprehended in the Dominican Republic several months later. 

 

Federal prosecutors said on Nov. 17, 2022, Done pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy and admitted to his role in the murder of Victim-1. On Feb. 22, 2023, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

 

For her part, in addition to the prison term, Mestre, 33, of Mohegan Lakes, New York, was sentenced to two years of supervised release.

 

Williams praised what he described as the outstanding investigative work of the NYPD’s internal affairs bureau, Group 25, and the special agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The case was prosecuted by that office’s violent & organized crime unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dominic A. Gentile and James Ligtenberg were in charge of the prosecution.  

The 52nd Precinct covers some or all of the neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham Manor, Fordham Heights, Kingsbridge Heights, University Heights, as well as Bronx Park.

Last October, we reported on the arrest and charging of another female NYPD officer, Grace Rosa Baez, from the Bronx who, along with her Yonkers partner,  Cesar Martinez, were busted for attempting to sell fentanyl and cocaine.