Records: Hempstead Village agrees to pay more than $1.1M to 2 women to settle rape lawsuit involving ex-cop

Hempstead has agreed to pay two women more than $1.1 million in a secret settlement of their federal lawsuits against the village, alleging a now-retired police officer raped and sexually abused them from 2015 to 2020, records obtained by Newsday show.

The women, who Newsday is not naming because they are victims of alleged sex crimes, said in their lawsuits that Jack Guevrekian, 54, of Kings Park, raped them during separate incidents while he was on duty.

"PO Guevrekian knew that Plaintiff was a vulnerable individual who had trouble with the law in the past and could be easily manipulated, coerced, intimidated, and threatened with arrest through his status as a police officer," according to one of the complaints against the officer.

The women argued the village had acted negligently in its hiring practices and had failed to supervise the officer, who had a previous complaint.

The village agreed to pay one woman $900,000 and the other $250,000 without admitting any liability.

“I feel like I should have got more,” the woman who got the lesser amount told Newsday when asked if she felt vindicated by the agreement.

The village declined to comment on the settlement Thursday.

A former police chief, Paul Johnson, who was also named in the suit because he was at the helm of the department, has also been cleared of any wrongdoing, according to the settlement.

The women, their attorneys and the lawyers representing the village agreed Feb. 4 to keep the terms “strictly confidential” and promised “not to disclose” the dollar amount. Newsday obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act request, which took the village four months to fulfill.

Three other women filed federal civil suits against the village and the officer, who retired from the Hempstead Police Department while under investigation, according to court records, but those cases have been dismissed. One of those alleged victims died, and the other two saw their cases dismissed for not complying with the rules of the court, records show.

Guevrekian has previously denied the allegations. He declined to discuss the cases when reached by phone Thursday. 

“I was never interviewed,” he said when asked if he ever faced criminal charges.

Court records show Hempstead police received a complaint regarding an officer named “Jack” as far back as 2004. A Crime Stoppers tipster told police the officer had propositioned a woman after responding to a domestic violence call to her house, records show.

The civil complaints from all of the women outline similar behavior by the officer.

One of the women said in her civil complaint that Guevrekian frequently stopped her during his patrols to force her to have sex with him.

On May 12, 2019, Guevrekian drove by the woman on Terrace Avenue, she said in her complaint, and told her to “get in or you're going in cuffs.”

She said he took her to a deserted parking lot and raped her repeatedly. He then drove her to Mulford Street, she said in her complaint.

“Don’t you say anything. And don’t let me see you or I’m getting you,” he told her, she said in court papers.

Though she feared the officer, the woman lodged a complaint with the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, then under the administration of Madeline Singas, who now serves as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals. The judge is restricted by judicial ethics from commenting, court officials said.

Prosecutors, as well as the FBI and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, looked into the case. 

Guevrekian was placed on administrative duty while the investigation continued, but in July 2020, the district attorney dropped the case, a letter shows.

"Further action by the Public Corruption Bureau of the District Attorney's Office is unwarranted," it said.

Exhibits in the case show police officials were frustrated with the decision.

“That is very disappointing,” Assistant Chief Kevin Colgan wrote to Assistant District Attorney Christine Maloney regarding the letter. “We were hoping that some aspects of the investigation would assist us with a disciplinary investigation of this matter.”

She responded that prosecutors did not have any information they could provide.

Guevrekian retired in January 2021.

“NCDA initially investigated the allegations and subsequently referred our findings to federal authorities. We decline further comment,” district attorney spokesperson Nicole Turso said in an email.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI declined to comment. 

Before becoming a Hempstead police officer, Guevrekian was an NYPD cop from 1998 until about 2003. He received four complaints — three for abuse of authority and one for discourtesy — in 2002, but left the department before the investigations into them were complete. 

A counseling letter from the 2004 complaint against the officer did not address the specific allegations against him and recommended he have “additional supervision.” It’s unclear if that happened.

Guevrekian and the Village of Hempstead were sued previously in 2014 by the daughter of Diane Parker-Reed, a woman killed by her romantic partner. The suit claims the officer failed to arrest Leonard Reed after he had violated a stay-away order. The village settled that claim for $900,000.

It’s unclear if any changes have been made to police disciplinary procedure, supervising or hiring practices after the settlement.