An NYPD officer is facing perjury and other charges related to a gun possession case in Queens that resulted in a man being improperly charged for more than a year — until footage from the officer’s own body camera contradicted his account, prosecutors said.
Officer Miguel Vanbrakle, 48, has been suspended from the force without pay, according to an NYPD spokesperson. The investigation into him began with the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which referred the case to the Queens district attorney’s office, the spokesperson added.
Prosecutors said Vanbrakle was part of a team of police officers who executed a court-authorized search warrant at a home in Cambria Heights in October 2023. During the search, he found a loaded .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver inside a locked safe under a bed, according to the DA’s office.
Vanbrakle testified before a grand jury and stated in a criminal complaint and on NYPD property vouchers that he recovered both the gun and a New York state benefit card belonging to the homeowner’s fiancé in the safe, prosecutors said. The fiancé was the target of the search warrant, according to DA Melinda Katz.
The man was subsequently indicted on weapons possession and other charges, even though the homeowner said the gun was hers, prosecutors said.
A review of Vanbrakle’s body camera footage showed he had emptied out a shoe box in the home’s living room, took the man’s benefit card from the box and put it in the safe where the gun was found, according to the DA’s office. Prosecutors dismissed the weapons case against the man in December 2024.
The union that represents NYPD officers is disputing the DA’s characterization that Vanbrakle “planted evidence” to tie the fiancé to the gun. John Nuthall, a spokesperson for the Police Benevolent Association, said the various pieces of evidence recovered at the home came together in the NYPD’s vouchering process.
“This police officer is entitled to due process, not a rush to judgement based on a misleading press release,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said in a statement Wednesday. “The narrative being pushed about this case does not reflect the reality of this police officer’s work to get another illegal gun off our streets. The facts will come out in court.”
Vanbrakle, a Belle Harbor resident, was also charged Tuesday with falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing, tampering with physical evidence, official misconduct and making a punishable false written statement. He is due back in court on Feb. 23, and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Vanbrakle’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment left with his office.