A distinguished Yonkers police officer who went into the trash hauling business has agreed to pay $640,784 in restitution for underpaying dumping fees at Waste Management Inc.’s Yonkers Transfer Station.
Robert Chomicki, of Briarcliff Manor, was arrested last June on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. From April 2019 to June 2020, according to a federal grand jury indictment, he sent emails over interstate wires to defraud a waste management company.
He pleaded not guilty in federal court, White Plains, and was released from custody upon posting a $250,000 bond.
On April 21, in a deal with the government, he changed his pleas to guilty and agreed to forfeit nearly $641,000 representing proceeds traceable to the crime, while admitting that the proceeds cannot be located.
U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Roman ordered Chomicki to pay restitution to Waste Management Inc.
Chomicki retired as a Yonkers police officer around 2010.
He had been awarded the police Medal of Honor in 1988, in recognition of an act performed intelligently in the line of duty while knowingly facing an imminent personal hazard.
He and officer Anthony Baiocco responded to a call of shots fired and came upon a disturbed man armed with a rifle and a shotgun firing rounds in the air.
Chomicki shot and killed the man after he ignored orders to drop the weapons and took aim at Baiocco. His partner and others at the scene, according to the Honor Board of Review citation, credited Chomicki with saving Baiocco’ life.
In 2012 Chomicki formed Riverside Hauling Inc.
Now he is scheduled to be sentenced on fraud charges on July 26.
