A former NYPD sergeant previously arrested for shoplifting cough medicine was indicted Tuesday for stealing more than $132,000 in wages for hours she never worked, officials said Tuesday.
Rayna Rampaul, 42, was charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records for the wage theft that occurred between Sept. 30, 2022, and Nov. 21, 2024. She was released without bail after pleading not guilty at her arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Criminal Court.
Rampaul was working as a supervising sergeant in the Photographic Unit at NYPD Headquarters in Lower Manhattan when she submitted roughly 1,680 hours for standard and overtime tours that she didn’t actually work, according to prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“As alleged, Rayna Rampaul stole approximately $132,000 in pay from the NYPD while she worked as a sergeant, a leadership position,” said D.A. Alvin Bragg in a statement. “City employees who fraudulently drain the city’s coffers will be held accountable.”
Eli Crozier, an attorney for Rampaul, said the ex-cop looks forward to clearing her name.
“My client served honorably as a police officer for two decades and disputes the one-sided allegations that have been made,” he said. “We look forward to reviewing the discovery and sharing Ms. Rampaul’s side of the story. The case will be based on the facts, not press releases.”
The 20-year NYPD veteran, formerly known as Rayna Madho, was dismissed from the department in January — more than a year after she was arrested for stealing Zarbee’s Cough Syrup and Ricola Cough Drops in two separate incidents from a Target store on Sunrise Highway in Valley Stream, L.I., according to a Nassau County police spokesman.
Rampaul was suspended without pay after her arrest on Dec. 8, 2024, in Nassau County.
As a supervisor at the photographic squad, Rampaul’s job included arranging photo arrays for detectives investigating cases and handling photos for official identification cards at Police Headquarters. She joined the unit in March 25, 2022.
Rampaul earned $192,646 in fiscal year 2025 out of a base pay of $135,511. In 2024, she earned $201,625, including $126,211 in base pay, $54,939 for 555 hours of overtime and $20,475 in other pay, city payroll records show.
She has been a defendant in five civil lawsuits that settled for a total of more than $162,000. In one of those suits filed in 2019, video allegedly showed Rampaul dropping a pill bottle in a car while her police partner arrested motorist Abdul Pullium back in 2015, Gothamist reported.
Pullium’s lawyer alleged the video showed officers planting the bottle, Gothamist reported. The suit settled for $7,500, a relative drop in the bucket when compared to other police settlements.
