BY MICHAEL RICONDA
New City – A former coordinator for Rockland County’s Road to Recovery Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison (DTAP) pled guilty on September 3 to receiving a bribe from a program participant.
Hulen Ginn, 41 of Valley Stream, NY, pled guilty to third degree bribery for taking a $1,000 payment from Tyler Bloomenfeld, a participant in DTAP’s 18 month rehabilitation program. In exchange, Ginn moved to keep Bloomenfeld out of a halfway house, where he would have otherwise spent three months for continued, supervised treatment.
DTAP functions as an alternative to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. Patients must go through nine months of locked-down inpatient treatment before being transferred to a halfway house. After the halfway house, they must undergo an additional six months of outpatient treatment.
So far, the bribery charge is the only one which produced a conviction. District Attorney Thomas Zugibe previously stated that an investigation suggested that from June 8, 2012 to October 17,2012, Ginn repeatedly solicited and accepted bribes from participants in exchange for their early release from the program or exemption from the halfway house requirement.
After his arrest in October, Ginn was indicted of five counts of receiving bribes, five of receiving reward for official misconduct, five of official misconduct and five of falsifying business records.
Though he also is said to have demanded sexual favors from some female clients in exchange for leniency, Ginn has not been charged with rape or sexual abuse. Ginn had allegedly engaged in sexual acts within the District Attorney’s Office premises in New City, NY.
Ginn is expected to return to court for sentencing on November 12.