Chelsea’s Finest feted at 10th Precinct Awards Night

“Police Officer of the Year” honorees from the Cabaret Unit stand flanked by Deputy Inspector Stephen J. Hughes, commanding officer of the 10th Precinct (far left), Capt. Anthony Bentivegna (front row, second from right) and Larry O’Neill, president of the Community Council (far right). The award winners were Lt. Theodore Lauterborn, Sgt. Vincent Fontana and officers Yeoman Castro, Eric Florio, Matthew McClusky and Christopher McGee.

By Jefferson Siegel

Members of Chelsea’s Finest were honored by the community this week at the 10th Precinct Community Council Awards Dinner, an annual event honoring the accomplishments of police officers who provide safety and maintain quality of life in the neighborhood.

Deputy Inspector Stephen J. Hughes, the precinct’s commanding officer, read a Unit Citation for 2007 from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, honoring the 10th for a sustained 11.5 percent decrease in “index” crime, the largest overall drop in the city.

It was the dozen “Cops of the Month” and the “Cop of the Year” awards honoring those Members of Service that exemplified the importance of these officers to the community.

During a traffic stop in June 2007, Officer Michael Miller discovered two loaded guns and a large amount of cocaine. Last August Officer Brian Abuyen apprehended a suspect who had robbed someone at knifepoint; the suspect had 15 prior arrests for robbery and assaults. And in January, Officer Carolyn Bryson arrested a rapist inside the Cain nightclub on W. 27th St.

Other officers were honored for burglary and knifepoint robbery arrests, grand larceny auto and attempted murder.

The “Police Officer of the Year” award went to six members of the Cabaret Unit:

Lt. Theodore Lauterborn, Sgt. Vincent Fontana and officers Yeoman Castro, Eric Florio, Matthew McClusky and Christopher McGee were honored for their work.

“The Unit effected an outstanding 201 arrests in the past 12 months,” said Deputy Inspector Hughes, adding it also issued 694 quality-of-life summonses.

The Cabaret Unit, which works five nights a week from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., monitors and enforces laws governing the many bars and nightclubs in the area. The Unit’s members focus on underage drinking, violence and narcotics use, as well as quality-of-life violations.

Honored as “Detective of the Year” was 25-year NYPD veteran Detective Harvey Kane, who works exclusively on cases involving domestic violence.

“Harvey assists families in maintaining a safe living environment by arranging for legal assistance, emergency housing transfers, crisis intervention and counseling,” Hughes told the audience.

Other awards included “Supervisor of the Year” for Sgt. Michael Filomena and the “Rita Feldman Award for Community Service” for 19-year veteran Officer Michael Petrillo. The ever-affable Petrillo, who seems to know everybody in the neighborhood, is the precinct’s community affairs officer.

Also honored at the dinner were precinct’s Auxiliary officers as well as members of Penn South Security and Fashion Institute of Technology Security. The awards were held at FIT.