Three D.C. police officers were arrested Tuesday in an internal affairs sting, just one day after police announced the arrest of a fellow officer in an unrelated undercover operation. Officers Guillermo Ortiz, Silvestre Bonilla and Dioni Fernandez were arrested after each of them purchased hundreds of dollars’ worth of electronic equipment they thought was stolen property. All worked in the 4th District in the northern part of the city.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the arrests were part of a 18-month campaign to “weed out” dishonest and corrupt cops. The three officers did not appear to be working together.
“It’s a tragic thing that these officers have not only taken for granted their positions, but have tarnished the image of a great police department,” Lanier said. “You look at the faces of the hardworking officers who come in every day and do the job with integrity, they’re devastated.”
The men were arrested at the 4th District station around 3 p.m. Tuesday and charged with attempted receipt of stolen property. They were suspended from the force and are expected to be arraigned Wednesday.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the officers had hired attorneys.
Lanier said the men were caught in a sting that ran for two months.
The arrests were unrelated to the arrest of Officer Jennifer L. Green, who also worked in the 4th District. Green was arrested Saturday after she participated in what she believed to be a burglary.
Police said she drove with an informant to a home on the 5500 block of Colorado Avenue NW and listened to her police radio while the informant pretended to break into the home and steal $1,050 in cash.
As part or the overall effort to rid the force of bad cops, internal affairs sting operations have been set up after warning signs were detected in management reviews, audits, tips or ongoing investigations, Lanier said.
“Our concern is that if an individual officer is willing to be dishonest in any way, no matter how insignificant, that those officers are weeded out as quickly as possible so there’s not an opportunity to organize any corruption,” she said.
Police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump said Bonilla had been with the department for six years, Fernandez for seven years and Ortiz for eight years.
