Ex-cop sentenced to a year in prison
Robertito Fontan was convicted of lying to the FBI about a relationship he had with an informant.
A FEDERAL JUDGE yesterday sentenced a former cop to a year and a day in prison for lying to the feds about a romantic relationship he had with a police informant.
Robertito Fontan, 42, had been convicted by a federal jury in January on two of three counts of lying to the FBI.
U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick said yesterday that Fontan can begin serving his sentence on June 9.
Fontan had worked as an undercover narcotics cop. In 2003, he met a woman, Elizabeth Sanchez, at the Criminal Justice Center. She was facing drug charges. To help her, he introduced her to other cops, suggesting she could work as an informant. From 2004 to 2008, he and Sanchez had an intimate relationship.
From 2007 to 2008, Fontan joined a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation targeting a Kensington drug dealer, Jose Sanchez, who was Elizabeth Sanchez's ex-boyfriend.
Fontan did not tell his fellow law-enforcement agents about his relationship with Elizabeth Sanchez. Assistant U.S. Attorney Neuman Leverett said at the trial that Fontan's secrecy about his relationship with Sanchez had put him and others in the undercover drug operation in danger.
The jury found that in October 2008, when asked by the FBI, Fontan lied when he told them he did not have an intimate relationship with Sanchez and when he claimed he never gave her gifts or money.