An FDNY paramedic pled guilty to felony charges after he was caught stealing from a city investigator posing as a patient during an undercover “integrity test,” the city’s Department of Investigation announced Friday.
Luis A Carrillo Jr, 44, was charged in August of last year with grand larceny in the fourth degree, petit larceny, and official misconduct after the sting.
Carrillo’s guilty plea will allow him to avoid both jail and a felony conviction in exchange for completing a substance abuse program, resigning from the FDNY where his annual salary was $59,534, and relinquishing his EMT certification. Failure to adhere to those conditions will result in his being sentenced to 364 days in jail.
“This defendant breached the trust placed in EMTs, who provide critical services every day to New Yorkers in dire need,” said DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber. “As a result of his guilty plea, he will lose his EMT certification and his job with the FDNY, a serious punishment and an important step in taking responsibility for his criminal conduct.”
The DOI arranged for Carrillo to pick up their investigator, posing as a sick — and well-heeled — patient, after allegations of thievery were previously made against Carrillo, according to the agency spokeswoman.
When Carrillo retrieved the “patient” on Roosevelt Ave. in Queens on Aug. 23, the undercover agent was carrying $1,100 in marked bills in his wallet. He had only $410 when the ambulance dropped him off at Elmhurst Hospital, according to the DOI spokeswoman.
A team of DOI investigators monitoring the operation stopped Carrillo’s ambulance after it departed the hospital and investigators recovered $600 of the marked bills from the paramedic’s pocket, but $90 of the marked bills were never recovered, the DOI spokeswoman said.
Carrillo, who joined the FDNY as a paramedic in October 2012, was suspended after his arraignment on criminal charges in August, 2023.
