Eduardo Cornejo, a 34-year-old who was employed with the New York Police Department has plead guilty to sex trafficking a 16-year-old girl. Cornejo was kicked off the force for failing a drug test in January.
Cornejo awaits sentencing for the human trafficking charges. He could face 10 years in prison for conspiring to engage in human trafficking. Cornejo claimed to have not known the child was under 18.
When the judge questioned Cornejo’s motivation, he simply responded,
“To be honest, bad judgment”
Cornejo is an x-marine and an 11-year veteran of the police force. He is also married to a police officer.
The underage victim does not account for the entirety of Cornejo’s pimping experience. The officer sometimes headed straight from the police precinct to what was essentially his night job. He is known to run a prostitution ring with at least 11 sex workers. He used his personal vehicle to transport them to various hotels.
NYPD’s internal affairs and the FBI received a tip that Cornejo was acting as a pimp. A bug was installed in Cornejo’s car. He was recorded explicitly talking about prostitution. Undercover officers also witnessed Cornejo negotiating with customers and driving young women across state lines from Long Island to New Jersey.
Among the evidence against Cornejo are social media posts. Cornejo allegedly took to Instagram to brag about his exploitation, though his account is now private.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez said,
“Throughout his alleged criminal actions, Cornejo not only abused the public trust given to him as an NYPD officer, but he showed no human decency when he facilitated the exploitation of women for profit.”
In addition to the human trafficking charges and transporting women in interstate commerce to engage in prostitution, Cornejo has been named in four civil lawsuits in the past few years.
While Cornejo is no longer employed with NYPD, the question remains how common is this type of behavior?
Former LAPD officer and sex workers rights activist Norma Jean Almodovar runs a website where she tracks police abuse of sex workers and sexually exploited minors.
The website has categories for police officers who robe, rape, solicit, extort, and pimp, and kill sex workers. The website holds as many as 244 verified cases per category and reads,
“The list of cops below is unsorted at this time except by year- they will be put into the appropriate category soon. There are many yet to post. Please be patient.”
Featured Image: Screenshot Via YouTube Video.
