A New York City police officer Ymmacula Pierre, 30, has been charged with possession of stolen property, identity theft and official misconduct after allegedly stealing the credit card information of a man found dead in an apartment in Union Square. She allegedly used the information to go to Zales and buy a diamond ring.

Pierre was dispatched to the apartment of Ken Sanden, 65, to conduct a wellness check requested by the tenant’s family. She is accused of stealing the information to buy a $3,200 diamond ring from Zales two days later.

Pierre has been on the force three years, and pleaded not guilty. She is currently suspended without pay for 30 days.

It is interesting that the charges do not include robbery or burglary. The fact that the man was deceased may have been viewed as problematic for the former charge but why not charge burglary? The charge may have been viewed as problematic on the ground that she did not enter with the intention of committing the felony and only seized the moment when spotting the card card information. It would have made for another interesting element in the fact that she was armed:

S 140.30 Burglary in the first degree.
A person is guilty of burglary in the first degree when he knowingly
enters or remains unlawfully in a dwelling with intent to commit a crime
therein, and when, in effecting entry or while in the dwelling or in
immediate flight therefrom, he or another participant in the crime:
1. Is armed with explosives or a deadly weapon; or
2. Causes physical injury to any person who is not a participant in
the crime; or
3. Uses or threatens the immediate use of a dangerous instrument; or
4. Displays what appears to be a pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun,
machine gun or other firearm; except that in any prosecution under this
subdivision, it is an affirmative defense that such pistol, revolver,
rifle, shotgun, machine gun or other firearm was not a loaded weapon
from which a shot, readily capable of producing death or other serious
physical injury, could be discharged. Nothing contained in this
subdivision shall constitute a defense to a prosecution for, or preclude
a conviction of, burglary in the second degree, burglary in the third
degree or any other crime.
Burglary in the first degree is a class B felony.