Former NYPD union head sentenced to 2 years in prison

Ed Mullins, the former boss of a powerful NYPD police union, was sentenced to two years in prison in connection with a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the union, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Mullins, who was the controversial president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association for two decades, pleaded guilty to stealing members’ money through bogus reimbursements in January. The SBA represents around 13,000 current and retired NYPD sergeants.

According to Damien Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mullins had used his personal credit card to pay for lavish meals and luxury items, then submitted fake reimbursements to the SBA that passed them off as legitimate union-related expenses for years.

“Mullins publicly vowed to protect the interests of the thousands of active and retired sergeants that he represented. But behind the scenes, Mullins stole from the SBA and its members, treating the SBA as his personal piggy bank,” Williams said. “In doing so, Mullins disgraced his uniform, broke the law, and undermined the public’s trust in law enforcement. As today’s sentence demonstrates, no one — not even high-ranking union bosses — is above the law.”

Prosecutors said that Mullins would not only report expenses, such as meals, that weren’t SBA-related, but would also routinely inflate the cost of those meals — whether or not they were related to the union. He would also submit reports for personal clothes and supermarket expenses to the union.

Mullin’s expenses were paid through the SBA’s Contingent Fund, which was primarily funded through annual dues paid by its members. Between 2017 and 2021, Mullins stole at least $600,000 from the SBA through the fraudulent reports.

Some of Mullins’ other controversies include sending an explicitly racist video in which he referred to Black people as “monsters” to union membership, and appearing on Fox News with a mug sporting a logo for the far-right…