A veteran NYPD detective is off the job after admitting he faked police reports by claiming he interviewed victims — when he actually blew them off and lied to his bosses about it.
Michael Baer, 31, admitted that he filed phony reports in three cases dating to 2019 in a plea agreement filed Monday in Manhattan court.
The deal cost him his job but allows the 10-year veteran to dodge jail time.
Instead, Manhattan prosecutors recommended a conditional discharge for Baer in exchange for the guilty plea, which required him to quit the NYPD, and bars him from holding down a job in law enforcement. He cannot apply for a gun license.
Baer “accepted responsibility for his conduct,” and “at no point did Mr. Baer attempt to minimize the seriousness of his actions.”
The NYPD called the case “a violation of the public’s trust.”
Baer could not be reached for comment Monday and his lawyer declined to comment.
Prosecutors said all three cases were closed prematurely due to the cop’s lies.
According to a criminal complaint in the case, Baer first blew off a case in December 2019, when he was assigned to investigate a woman’s claim of credit card theft.
On Dec. 6, Baer filed a “DD5” — and investigation update report — saying he interviewed the victim over the phone and she said she did not know where the cards were stolen nor even where she was at the time of the theft.
The case was closed, but an investigator with the DA’s office later spoke to the woman, who said she had never spoken to Baer and did know where the cards were stolen.
In January 2020, another victim reported that his car was struck and damaged in a hit-and-run incident, with the case assigned to Baer. In that DD5, he claimed he went to the man’s home in Brooklyn, knocked, and left a business card — but never heard back.
Investigators later determined that Baer was in Chinatown that day, not Brooklyn.
And in April 2020, Baer was approached by a worker at a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant who told him a customer threw coffee at him and burned him.
Baer told supervisors that the victim could not identify his assailant and never showed up when the detective asked him to view a photo array of possible suspects.
However, the DA’s investigator said “the complainant informed him that (Baer) had never interviewed him about his case and that he was never asked to participate in a photo array,” the complaint said.
“Furthermore, the complainant did recognize his assailant because of prior interactions he had had with the assailant at the same McDonald’s.”
Baer was placed on modified duty in October pending the outcome of the investigation and has officially been off the NYPD ranks since April.
“The dishonesty alleged in this case is a violation of the public’s trust and casts a shadow over the integrity of the investigative process,” the NYPD said in a statement late Monday.
“The department carried out a thorough investigation into these allegations and referred the findings to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” the statement said. “The former detective resigned in April of 2021.”