Also Admits Role in Fraudulent $20,000 Home Rehabilitation Loan Scheme

(Source: USAO, NJ) NEWARK, N.J. – A Hudson County, New Jersey, man today admitted using excessive force during an arrest, falsifying records in an attempt to conceal his conduct and helping a relative fraudulently obtain a home rehabilitation loan, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Domenico Lillo, 45, of Bayonne, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court to an indictment charging him with one count of deprivation of civil rights under color of law and one count of falsifying records to impede a civil rights investigation. Lillo also pleaded guilty to an information charging him with assisting in the filing of a false report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) in connection with a federally funded home rehabilitation loan worth $20,000.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On the early evening of Dec. 27, 2013, Lillo and other police officers from the Bayonne Police Department went to an address in Bayonne to execute a Sussex County arrest warrant. Lillo admitted that he struck the subject of the warrant in the head with a flashlight while the individual was handcuffed and not resisting arrest, which resulted in bodily injury. Lillo also admitted that he falsified a Bayonne...