Brooklyn DA Collars NYPD Officer For Allegedly Being Both Cop & Robber; Accused Of Filing Forged Deed In Attempt To Hijack Title To Bed-Stuy Brownstone From Dead Owner's Heirs That Sat Vacant, Neglected For Many Years

In the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, the New York Post reports:

• A veteran NYPD cop who claimed she was a victim of deed fraud is now facing the very same charges after an investigation found she tried to steal a vacant ​Brooklyn townhouse, authorities said Monday.
  
  Blanche O’Neal’s alleged housing scheme fell apart in April, when she called the Sheriff’s Office to complain that someone had transferred the deed to her home at 23A Vernon Avenue ​in Bedford-Stuyvesant ​to a corporate entity without her permission, authorities said.
  
  That’s because the home’s rightful owners, the family of deceased Lillian Hudson, were trying to sell the property to someone else when they discovered it was in O’Neal’s name, according to the Brooklyn DA’s Office.
  
  After the Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation, O’Neal allegedly claimed she had purchased the dilapidated property for $10,000 from Hudson’s nephew and filed the deed in her name in 2012, the city’s Department of Finance said.
  
  She also tried to claim she was given the home as part of a $5 million judgment she won in a 2008 civil lawsuit filed against Hudson for a slip-and-fall outside the residence.
  
  But sources said that suit was dismissed altogether – and that O’Neal never received any windfall.
  
  The 45-year-old cop, who works at the 83rd precinct in Bushwick and lives down the block at 4 Vernon Ave., was indicted on charges of second-degree grand larceny, offering a false instrument for filing and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
  
  She’s also charged with perjury after testifying before a grand jury in an unrelated burglary case that the home belonged to her.
  
  Her lawyer, Edward Harold King, pleaded not gui​​lty on her behalf at her arraignment Monday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. O’Neal was released on her own recognizance and faces up to 15 years in prison. “Bottom line is, she is not guilty,” King told reporters outside the courtroom.
  
  Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson called the allegations against O’Neal even “more disturbing” because she’s a police officer.
  
  “This defendant allegedly stole a house from its rightful owner with the stroke of a pen, apparently hoping no one would notice,” he said. “But her brazen actions have unraveled and she will now be held accountable.”

Source: Veteran cop tried to steal vacant Brooklyn townhouse, DA says.

For the Brooklyn District Attorney press release, see New York City Police Officer Indicted for Stealing Townhouse; Allegedly Transferred Title to Bedford-Stuyvesant Property to Herself:

• The District Attorney said that, according to the indictment, on September 12, 2012, the defendant, who is an NYPD officer assigned to the 83rd precinct, executed a deed that stated that she bought the property, 23A Vernon Avenue, from the nephew of the deceased homeowner, Lillian Hudson, who died in 1993. The nephew and three other relatives inherited the property, though it sat vacant and neglected for many years.