MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Hempstead Village Police Officer has been convicted of official misconduct and child endangerment after a physical altercation with a woman and her child outside a Hempstead restaurant in June 2015.
Louis Arcila, 51, was convicted by a jury today of Official Misconduct (an A misdemeanor) and Endangering the Welfare of a Child (an A misdemeanor). The trial, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Meryl Berkowitz, lasted seven days and the jury deliberated for approximately one day. The defendant is due back in court April 27 for sentencing and faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
“While most police officers honorably protect, and defend the public, this defendant’s conduct was an outrageous abuse of his authority, a betrayal of the oath he took, and a crime that victimized an innocent young mother,” District Attorney Singas said. “Thanks to the victim’s bravery, this officer will be held accountable for his crime.”
DA Singas said that on June 28, 2015 at approximately 10:30 pm, the defendant, who was off-duty and had his police shield clipped to his waist, was in El Rancho Catracho, a Hempstead restaurant, when the victim entered the establishment, carrying her three-year old son and accompanied by her 10-year-old daughter and adult nephew, to pick up food that she had ordered. Arcila approached the victim and her family, with his shield in plain view, and began questioning the woman why her child was wearing only a shirt and diaper.
The victim picked up her food, exited the restaurant and placed her three-year old in the backseat of the car, and the daughter got into the back seat while her nephew remained inside for his food to be prepared. The defendant followed the victim to her car and knocked on the passenger window inducing the victim to lower it. The defendant then threatened to issue the victim a ticket and when she questioned why, the defendant responded because he liked her breasts.
The defendant then opened the passenger door of the victim’s car, sat down in the car, asking the woman whether she found him attractive. The mother and daughter both testified at trial that the defendant repeatedly tried to touch the mother’s intimate parts.
The defendant surrendered to NCDA investigators on October 29, 2015.
Deputy Bureau Chief Robert Cavallo and Assistant District Attorney Lauren McDonough of DA Singas’ Public Corruption Bureau are prosecuting this case. The defendant is represented Joseph Lo Piccolo, Esq.
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