Crime and Public Safety | NYPD cop booted after faking COVID diagnosis to…

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NYPD cop booted after faking COVID diagnosis to extend Dominican Republic
vacation

A QR code doomed the career of a Bronx NYPD officer accused of faking a COVID diagnosis so he could spend more time with his family, the Daily News has
learned. (Shutterstock)

By Thomas Tracy | ttracy@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News

December 31, 2023 at 7:00 a.m.

A QR code doomed the career of a Bronx NYPD officer accused of faking a COVID diagnosis so he
could extend a family vacation, the Daily News has learned.

On a trip to the Dominican Republic in September 2022, Officer Edward Nunez-Nunez’s wife came
down with COVID, says a recently-released departmental trial decision.

Nunez-Nunez, a seven-year NYPD veteran who was assigned to the Bronx, said he suffered COVID
symptoms too and sought treatment at the same medical clinic that treated his spouse. But the clinic
,

staff never gave him a COVID test, NYPD documents say.

When Nunez-Nunez called the NYPD to report he had COVID and needed to go on sick leave, the
department said it needed a positive COVID test result, according to internal court documents.

Nunez-Nunez went back to the clinic, where a staffer gave him a piece of paper indicating he had
tested positive, the documents said.

But the test result was for for someone else, the QR code on the document revealed.

“Anyone who ran their phone over the QR code could realize that the test belonged to someone else,”
said an NYPD source with knowledge of the case.

When the bogus test was discovered, the Police Department charged Nunez-Nunez with criminal
possession of a forged instrument. He was also charged with making false and misleading statements
when he was questioned by the Internal Affairs Bureau over the matter.

Nunez-Nunez at first insisted the test results were his — but he ultimately confessed that a COVID
test was never taken, say documents. He maintained that he did have COVID and the clinic agreed
with him because his wife had tested positive.

Nunez-Nunez said he had asked the clinic for a doctor’s note saying he had been treated there — but
was given the fake positive test report instead.

“Ishould have said the truth,” Nunez-Nunez admitted at a hearing on the departmental charges,
according to NYPD trial room court papers.

“Ijust wanted to spend more time with the family. You know, I never had a family vacation — it was no
malicious intent. I should have said the right thing.”

Nunez-Nunez pleaded guilty to the departmental charges and submitted himself to the mercy of a
department tribunal.

Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Trials Vanessa Facio-Lince in April recommended that Nunez-
unez be put on dismissal probation, meaning he could keep his job, but be fired if he violated any
more NYPD rules and procedures within the next year.

Police Commissioner Edward Caban disagreed with the finding and ordered Nunez-Nunez’s
termination.

Nunez-Nunez had already left the department by the time Caban’s orders came through in October.
He declined to comment when reached by the Daily News Friday.

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2023 December 31

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