West New York PD fired cop for stealing from youth academy; 2 suspended 10 days

The West New York Police Department fired a police officer last year after stealing over $60k from the local youth police academy, with two others suspended for 10 days over supervisory issues, their annual major police discipline report says. By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“Captain [Erwin] Moreno flagrantly committed unauthorized transaction from a bank account designated for the WNYPD Youth Academy. He was arrested and charged,” the incident description says.

Moreno was charged with one count of theft, a third-degree crime, in June 2023, for stealing over $60,000 from the West New York Police Academy for his personal benefit between 2016 and 2023 when he was the president of the nonprofit, as HCV first reported.

This led to him being suspended for the second half of 2023 as the case was pending before he was fired last year, according to the major discipline report.

Two other ranking officers, Lt. James Campoverde and Sgt. David Funcasta, were suspended 10 days each for failing to properly supervise an urgent service call to a building they did not immediately have access to.

“Officers responded to a service call but were unable to gain access to the building. Lt. James Campoverde failed to properly supervise by not immediately dispatching Sgt. David Funcasta to the scene, despite being aware, or reasonably should have been aware, of the existence of a key that could have facilitated entry,” the incident description details.

“This oversight resulted in a delay in assisting the caller, who was in urgent need of help.”

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has mandated that all law enforcement agencies upload their annual major discipline reports online by January 31st annually after the records became public for the first time in June 2020.

Many still just submit to the AG’s office through an online portal and the state’s annual database has also not been updated with each department’s most recent major discipline report yet.

HCV previously reported on the 2024 major police discipline reports for the Union City, North Bergen, Weehawken, Hoboken, Guttenberg, Bayonne, Kearny, and Secaucus Police Departments.