The girlfriend of a deputy inspector with the New York Police Department drunkenly rear-ended a cab while the pair drove in the officer’s police car near Penn Station, Manhattan prosecutors say. Then, according to an indictment, the couple fled, switched places so the inspector was behind the wheel, offered the cabdriver money and lied to a police captain who had been called to the scene.
And the deputy inspector, prosecutors say, did it all on his way to work.
The inspector, Paul Zangrilli, 44, was charged this week in Manhattan Criminal Court alongside the girlfriend, Nikole Rupple, 35, in a 12-count indictment that included charges of official misconduct, driving while intoxicated, falsifying business records and lying to a public authority.
In addition to the charges stemming from the Aug. 16, 2022, accident, prosecutors said that once Inspector Zangrilli arrived for his night shift at the Fifth Precinct in Chinatown, he called the owner of the bar where he and Ms. Rupple had been drinking — American Whiskey — and asked him to delete surveillance video of their visit. The inspector is also charged with a felony count of tampering with evidence.
The escapade “was incredibly dangerous,” Alvin L. Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue to hold public servants accountable when they violate the public trust.”
Inspector Zangrilli, who has been suspended without pay, and Ms. Rupple have pleaded not guilty and been released on their own recognizance. Inspector Zangrilli’s lawyer, Eric P. Franz, said his client denied the charges. “He is a well-respected inspector who has been waiting two years to address these allegations and clear his good name,” Mr. Franz said.
Ms. Rupple’s lawyer, Scott E. Leemon, declined to comment.
The charges stem from events that began on a late summer evening when Inspector Zangrilli, then the commanding officer of the Fifth Precinct, drove with Ms. Rupple to a bar near Penn Station.
Over three hours, Mr. Zangrilli consumed seven beers and five shots, and Ms. Rupple had three beers and seven shots, prosecutors said.
When they finished, the two got into Inspector Zangrilli’s department-issued car — with Ms. Rupple at the wheel and her boyfriend in the passenger seat — and began driving north on 10th Avenue. Minutes later, prosecutors said, Ms. Rupple crashed into a livery cab near the intersection with West 30th Street, injuring the cabdriver’s back and neck and damaging his car.
Prosecutors said Ms. Rupple then sped away, stopping a few blocks later to switch seats with Inspector Zangrilli, who continued driving north.
The cabdriver caught up to the couple while they were stopped at a red light a few blocks farther up, according to the indictment, and called for help from a nearby police officer. Inspector Zangrilli drove away when the light turned green, prosecutors said. After being pulled over by the officer, he offered the victim $500 and then $1,000 instead of exchanging his insurance information. He made the offer in front of the police officer, the indictment said.
According to prosecutors, Inspector Zangrilli then called a department duty captain to the scene and lied that he had been driving when the collision happened and had voluntarily pulled over. He did not mention Ms. Rupple, who was “lingering away from the scene out of sight,” prosecutors said. Nor did he say that they had been drinking.
After a while, Inspector Zangrilli and Ms. Rupple, continued driving to the Fifth Precinct, prosecutors said, where he signed in for duty and called the bar owner, asking him to delete the surveillance video. The technician who operated the system did so, prosecutors said.
Later that night, members of the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau visited Inspector Zangrilli’s home in Rockland County to see whether he was drunk. He wasn’t there, the indictment said, and was later found at Ms. Rupple’s apartment.
The website for the Fifth Precinct no longer lists Inspector Zangrilli as its commanding officer.
