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Force retirement: Brooklyn cop booted from NYPD, sentenced to prison for fraud scheme

Force retirement: Brooklyn cop booted from NYPD, sentenced to prison for fraud scheme
Eric Gonzalez

This cop will protect and serve — a two-to-six year prison sentence.

A Brooklyn cop was sentenced to a minimum two years in prison May 1 after using his dead mother’s name to enrich himself and horde narcotics in a more than yearlong fraud scheme that netted him nearly $100,000 in benefits, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

Edward Ian St. Hill, who served at Prospect Lefferts Garden’s 71st Precinct, was booted from the force after pleading guilty to criminal possession of narcotics, felony larceny, and criminal possession of a weapon on March 29.

In addition to serving time in prison, Kings County Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun further ordered Hill to repay more than $39,000 to the Social Security Administration, and more than $55,000 to the Service Employees International Union Pension Fund.

St. Hill arranged for a death certificate bearing a fake social security number following the death of his mother, Germain St. Hill, in 2016.

Meanwhile, his wife, Maria Ramos, impersonated her mother-in-law in phone calls to the Social Security Administration and the pension fund in a bid to keep the benefit checks coming, according to Brooklyn’s top prosecutor.

“This former police officer allowed greed to overtake his principles to the point where he was willing to use his deceased mother’s identity to steal tens of thousands of dollars,” said District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

The couple also falsified documents to net $260,000 amid the sale of the deceased’s home, in addition to refilling her painkiller prescription 14 times, Gonzalez said.

Ramos, who also plead guilty in March, is scheduled for sentencing on May 29, where she’ll get five-years probation and be ordered to pay restitution, according to Gonzalez.

Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4505.