An ex-cop, who moonlighted as a pimp, will spend more than five years behind bars for peddling a 16-year-old girl’s flesh.
Eduardo Cornejo, was still working for the NYPD when he started running a prostitution ring of at least 10 women — including a girl Brooklyn federal prosecutors say was turning tricks for him when she was 16.
Cornejo, 35, said he didn’t know the teen was underage, but pleaded guilty last September to conspiring to engage in sex trafficking of a child.
On Wednesday, Cornejo’s attorney, Michael Padden, said he took exception to the word “pimp” to describe his client. He said the enterprise was “more a collaborative effort,” and Cornejo was pulled in as his marriage crumbled.
When Judge Brian Cogan hit Cornejo with the sentence, he said the girl was “the real victim. She is going to suffer for him having assisted her.”
Cornejo was booted from the NYPD in January 2016 for marijuana use. He was on the force for 11 years, and worked as a street narcotics officer. He also served in the Marine Corps.
He said he called his offense “a misstep” that would “continue to burden me for the rest of my life.”
“I understand the seriousness of my crime and I don’t take it lightly at all,” Cornejo said, apologizing for what he did.