‘Lap dance’ NYPD cop suspended following tirade with New Jersey police
The NYPD rookie who was caught on tape giving her lieutenant a raunchy lap dance has been suspended without pay for launching into a loud tirade at New Jersey state troopers over a relative’s drunk driving arrest.
The latest blemish during Vera Mekuli’s law-enforcement career occurred May 8, after she showed up at state police barracks in Totowa, NJ, in her “bare feet” and smelling like booze, according to an internal NYPD report, dated Friday, outlining her suspension.
She then began loudly demanding answers as to why her brother-in-law had just been arrested by state troopers for driving while intoxicated.
Mekuli, 27, identified herself as an NYPD officer and insisted on speaking with one of the troopers involved in the arrest.
After a staff sergeant calmly told her he had “procedures to follow” — and that the troopers would not be made available — Mekuli became irate and “demanded to speak with a lieutenant,” the report says.
The rookie cop, who joined the force in February 2021, then began recording the staff sergeant with her smart phone and quipped, “you guys are talking out of your ass; none of this was done correctly.”
The troopers asked if anyone in Mekuli’s party wanted to file a complaint, but nobody did. They did report the incident to the New Jersey State Police Office of Professional Standards, which reviewed the case and found the troopers followed proper procedures.
However, the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau was notified of Mekuli’s alleged misconduct and opened its own investigation, relying heavily on troopers’ body-worn camera footage, says the report.
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed the cop was suspended without pay but declined to say how long.
Mekuli could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.
Mekuli made headlines in December when she caught on camera grinding on top of then-44th Precinct Lt. Nick McGarry in the Yonkers bar during a holiday bash.
Days later, she apologized to her boss and his wife — but insisted the video wouldn’t have gone viral “had it been a man doing it.”
“I feel like just because, mainly — I’m a female, dressed the way I was, being a rookie — things were different,” Mekuli told TMZ. “Had it been a man doing it, I feel like it would have been more of a joking matter and it would have stayed in-house versus go public the way it did with me.”
Mekuli also claimed she “had no knowledge” that her superior was married and is “truly sorry” for the consequences of the lap dance, which prompted police brass to reassign McGarry from the Bronx precinct to subway patrol.
