By Chris Fuchs
According to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District, Sgt. Jay Zhao moonlighted with two other city police officers as security guards at the nightclub, Chun Du, dividing up $5,000 a month in payments for protection.
While off-duty from the 78th Precinct in Brooklyn, Zhao would stand guard at the club, his weapon holstered on his belt, and would search entering patrons, the complaint said.
The club at 135-41 37th Ave. is located a few blocks down from Club 21, a discotheque where four Asian men were shot last week. Lt. Shatinsky of the 109th Precinct said the police were still sorting through the details of the case. The injured men were all taken to area hospitals and one of them was released, Shatinsky said.
Zhao is also accused of accepting a bribe of $2,500 from one of four undercover officers, posing as businessmen from Chicago who sought to hire him as protection while they paid hostesses from the club for sex at another location, the complaint said.
At least one of the undercover cops was wearing a wire and the police used a Mandarin translator as part of the investigation into the Asian club.
Zhao pleaded not guilty at the arraignment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn last Thursday to charges that he took a bribe and was released on $150,000 bail, said Richard T. Faughnan, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case.
A police spokeswoman said Zhao, an eight-year veteran, worked at the 78th Precinct in Brooklyn and was suspended without pay. The officer's attorney, Hugh Mo, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Zhao's arrest was the culmination of a yearlong investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Police Department, the complaint said. Between Dec. 14 and Dec. 17, 1998, the authorities sent two undercover officers posing as out-of-town businessmen to the club, Chun Du, to inquire about soliciting prostitutes for their clients, the complaint said.
The the manager, or “mama san,” told the officers that she could provide prostitutes for $500 to $600 each and that the hostesses of Chun Du were permitted to leave the club to have sex with patrons, the complaint said.
During their December trip, the affidavit said, the undercover officers rented a private room – one of several used to entertain patrons – where the manager said they could sing, dance and drink, the complaint said. It was during one of the evenings in December that the undercover officers learned from the manager that Zhao and two other city officers, who were not named, took $5,000 a month in cash to watch over the club, the complaint said.
On a second trip to the club in April 1999, the two undercover officers returned with two other agents masquerading as patrons. On April 13, around midnight, a retired city police officer who was not named, the manager, the four undercover officers and one of the prostitutes left the club for the Sheraton Hotel in Flushing. A second prostitute, who arrived about an hour later, accepted money from one of the undercover officers to have sex with him, though the two never had sex, the complaint said.
Another meeting was arranged for April 15 by Zhao, who brought two prostitutes to the hotel to offer massages to the undercover officers, according to the complaint. Later that night, the complaint said, one of the undercover officers paid Zhao $2,500 for arranging the meetings with the prostitutes as well as ensuring that the undercover officers posing as businessmen were not arrested.
