By Michael V. Cusenza
“Detective Do-Little” is done.
A former City cop who worked in the 106th Precinct Detective Bureau for many years pleaded guilty on Tuesday to official misconduct for making false statements on official reports regarding ongoing investigations between January and April of 2013, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Thomas Rice, 44, was arraigned on Tuesday morning and then quickly entered his plea. Rice, who lives on Long Island, was sentenced to a conditional discharge and waived his right to appeal.
It’s been a rough year for Rice. Just last month he was disciplined by the NYPD: Rice was demoted from detective to police officer, suspended, and forced to retire.
Rice made headlines in January for a scheme a Forum editorial called “almost too ridiculous to believe.” According to the Daily News, which derisively dubbed Rice “Det. Do-Little,” the gumshoe actually got very little gum on his shoes: He allegedly made up fake names and addresses to improperly close at least 22 grand larceny and auto theft cases over a 12-month period in 2011 and 2012, all while assigned to the 106 Squad, a department investigation uncovered.
Rice allegedly often used the same fake names and made-up addresses across multiple reports and cut-and-pasted the exact same statements, including typos, into reports. The DA’s probe showed that between Jan. 1, 2013, and April 1, 2013, Rice submitted 11 different official police report forms on which he made false and misleading statements. For example, Rice used the name “Harry Sadhadeo” as a witness six times—twice as a male and four times as female.
Four different supervisors in the 106 signed off on the fraud, an internal investigation uncovered. Even after he was exposed, Rice was just docked 20 vacation days and briefly demoted. From 2013 to 2018 he was a detective in the 67th Precinct in Brooklyn.
