It was a booze cruiser.
An NYPD sergeant in Internal Affairs claims he found a half-empty bottle of liquor in his captain’s car, but that when he reported it to his bosses it became last call for his cop career.
Michelangelo Hidalgo, 42, alleges in a new lawsuit that in July 2023, his boss, Capt. Genienne King, asked him to take her unmarked department vehicle to the car wash.
While he and another sergeant drove there, they heard clinking coming from the back seat and looked to find “bottles hitting each other” and “rolling around,” according to the suit.
On the floor was a bottle of Angostura bitters, an 89-proof alcohol that is a key ingredient in Old Fashioned and Manhattan cocktails.
“It was open and already started,” Hidalgo, who joined the NYPD in 2005, told The Post. “There was a strong smell of liquor.”
Hidalgo said his colleague demanded they report the booze discovery to Internal Affairs Bureau in case they were planted there as part of an “integrity test.”
Such undercover stings are employed to make sure police offices are following the rules.
Hidalgo and his captain had been “great friends,” working together in what’s known as Group 26, which investigates police misconduct, according to the September filing.
Prior to the incident it was “rumored that King was an alcoholic,” the suit alleges, adding that a department cleaner “had previously commented that King would be passed out drunk in her office regularly.”
King was questioned about the bottle by Internal Affairs and eventually demoted to the Transit Bureau, according to the suit.
After reporting the incident, Hidalgo said King did a “full 180 on me.”
“She started to call me into her office to yell at me,” “stripped” his overtime, and failed to submit Hidalgo for promotions, the suit claims.
He was eventually transferred to Internal Affair’s Group 41 under supervisor Lt. Gary Vanzanten in November.
“That’s when my second nightmare began,” Hidalgo said.
He was watched like a hawk, abused and berated, the suit claims.
He was even told he needed permission to use the bathroom, according to the suit.
He was demoted back to patrol for talking back to his boss on June 14.
“I have a great arrest record, more than any average police officer,” said Hidalgo, who also claimed to have perfect attendance for more than a decade. “I used to go in even if I felt like I was dying, that’s how much I loved coming to work — and these guys changed all that.”
His lawsuit names King, Vanzanten and IAB Chief Miguel A. Iglesias as defendants, and seeks unspecified damages.
Hidalgo is still a police officer and works in the Transit Bureau in Brooklyn.
Lawyer John Scola, who filed the suit, said “the NYPD has a troubling history of prioritizing retaliation over effective policing and this case is yet another example.”
The NYPD declined to comment on pending litigation.
King didn’t immediately return messages.
Additional reporting by Georgia Worrell
