The former head of the NYPD’s school security agency was charged Thursday with taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from a self-styled “sugar daddy” seeking a lucrative city contract for his school shooting response program.
Kevin Taylor, 52, secured the Florida company Safewatch’s $19,830 contract — with no competing vendors — for the pilot program through September 2023, in exchange for cash and benefits from its CEO, Gino Roefaro, according to an unsealed lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.
Roefaro even paid for Taylor to take a trip to Las Vegas, where the head of the NYPD’s School Safety Division and a date enjoyed a helicopter ride and a “medieval-themed dinner theater,” court documents say.
The allegedly corrupt ex-police officer also urged the police department to award an $11 million contract to Safewatch and pointed to the suitability of Roefaro’s app as evidence to the City Council, according to the lawsuit.
One week after the testimony, the 39-year-old Roefaro paid for Taylor to take another trip, this time to the Bahamas, where he put together airfare and dinner at a luxury resort, the lawsuit said.
But Roefaro later became frustrated with Taylor for not delivering enough money to receive the bribe, court documents say.
“It was fun, but it’s not fun or fun anymore…. Our company (ME) needs to report something real and important before the end of the year,” Taylor allegedly texted cryptically on the encrypted Signal app.
“If not, I’m f–ked,” Roefaro wrote, according to court documents. “And you don’t want me mutilated. I’m your whore and your sugar daddy.”
Taylor, who had been with the NYPD since 1996, was promoted to head the School Safety Bureau in June 2023 and resigned last year.
He is accused of trying to threaten to take a contract from a company that outfitted his office with bulletproof vests unless he received $75,000 in cash, according to the lawsuit.
Taylor was arrested Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty during his first appearance in a Manhattan court that afternoon. He was released on a $600,000 bond secured at his Yonkers home.
Roefaro was arrested in Florida and made his first court appearance Thursday afternoon.
Attorneys for both men could not immediately be reached. Each person faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The case is the latest in a series of corruption allegations that have surfaced during the one-term tenure of Mayor Eric Adams.
An NYPD spokesperson said in a statement that “the NYPD holds our officers to the highest standards, and it is unacceptable for those standards to be violated by any member of the department.”
“Disbehavior will not be tolerated at all, which is why we played a major role in this investigation. We thank the US Attorney’s Office for their cooperation in this case.”
– Additional reporting by Joe Marino
