Former police officer admits helping her gang leader lover flee the country

A former New York City police officer admitted Thursday to helping a man prosecutors say was her lover, the leader of a Bronx gang called the Shooting Boys, flee a murder investigation and flee to the Dominican Republic.

The former officer, Gina L. Mestre, 33, of Mohegan Lake, NY, admitted in Federal District Court in Manhattan that she “obstructed the efforts of law enforcement” when she shared security camera footage of the murder with the gang leader and assisted him escape. to avoid being accused of killing a rival.

Ms. Mestre, wearing black pants and a houndstooth blazer, pleaded guilty before Judge Denise L. Cote to a charge of accessory after the fact of murder in aid of racketeering, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Ms Mestre, who had previously pleaded not guilty, is expected to be sentenced on March 21. At the end of the hearing, Ms. Mestre’s face was blank and she disappeared into a bathroom with another woman. Her attorney, Matthew Kluger, declined to comment.

Ms. Mestre, who left the force in May 2022, had been an officer for about seven years when she was assigned to the 52nd Precinct in the Bronx in 2020, prosecutors said in the August indictment. One of her unit’s goals was to reduce gun violence, much of which was linked to the Shooting Boys.

According to court documents, the Shooting Boys had been active in the University Heights section of the Bronx since at least 2017, and members of the gang sold drugs, used weapons and engaged in violence against rival gangs.

Not long after her transfer to the Bronx, prosecutors said, Ms. Mestre began an “intimate relationship” with Andrew Done, the leader of the Shooting Boys, who went by the nickname Caballo.

Prosecutors say Ms. Mestre provided confidential information to gang members for about two years to help them conceal their crimes and avoid arrest. Ms. Mestre leaked information about police operations and grand jury proceedings, prosecutors said, and she shared the identity of a witness who was later attacked by members of the Shooting Boys who wanted to stop the witness’s cooperation with law enforcement.

In July 2020, Ms. Mestre warned a member of the Shooting Boys that federal charges were coming against the gang, and she instructed him to pass the information on to Mr. Done, according to the indictment. She told the gang member that Mr. Done needed to be careful because things were “hot” and he needed to “take it easy.”

When Mr. Done shot and killed a member of a rival gang in November that year, Ms. Mestre informed him that authorities were looking for him and shared the video of the killing, prosecutors said. She continued to secretly communicate with Mr. Done for weeks, sharing confidential information about attempts to capture him, until he managed to flee the country.

Several months later, Mr. Done was found in the Dominican Republic and taken into custody, according to prosecutors. Last year he pleaded guilty to charges related to the murder. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison in February.

During the nine years Ms. Mestre was a member of the New York Police Department, she was named in at least twelve lawsuits – which have resulted in $765,000 in settlements – and nearly a dozen complaints were filed against her with the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

Ms. Mestre “abused her position of public trust and betrayed the oath she took to protect and serve the citizens of New York City,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a news release. “When law enforcement officers violate the laws they are sworn to uphold, they do a disservice to their colleagues, to the departments they serve, and to the public they serve.”