A Nassau County Police Officer from the Third Precinct was arrested on Wednesday morning after allegedly using his authority to coerce a woman into touching him sexually during a traffic stop in February, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
Officer Garret Mannerz, 34, was arrested by members of the Nassau County Police Departmental Internal Affairs Unit and charged with bribe receiving in the third degree, official misconduct, coercion in the second degree and sexual abuse in the third degree. He could face seven years in prison if convicted.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that early on Feb. 26 Mannerz, a Third Precinct police office stopped a vehicle near the intersection of Hempstead Turnpike and Newbridge Road in Levittown. Mannerz then gave the female driver a field sobriety test and then ordered one of her two companions – all in their twenties – out of the car.
He commented on her attire, asked for her number and then allegedly told her that if she “did something for him,” he would allow the driver to leave without a summons or being charged criminally. The DA’s office said the officer then grabbed the woman’s wrist and forced her to touch him sexually. He also made plans with her to set up a “date.”
Two hours after letting the women leave the scene, Mannerz started making a series of sexually suggestive phone calls to the passenger he had singled out.
Mannerz was arrested after the victim recorded of his phone calls and brought the recording to the police.
Mannerz was arraigned this morning and released on his own recognizance. He has a return date in court in Mineola on June 29.
The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office and the county police Internal Affairs Unit worked cooperatively on the case.
“This is a shocking case of a policeman abusing his power,” Rice said in a statement. “This defendant was supposed to serve and protect the people, but chose instead to disgrace himself and the honest, hard-working members of the Nassau County Police with his abhorrent behavior.
