GREENBURGH, NC – A dominatrix who claimed she was involved in a saucy sex scandal with a town narcotics officer has settled the marijuana charge against her.
Gina Pane, 31, of Rye Brook will have the January 2006 charges dismissed if she stays out of trouble for one year, according to a deal made in Greenburgh Town Court this week.
But the kinky case, which led to the firing last week of Greenburgh Police Officer Erik Ward, may not be over, said defense attorney Ravi Batra, who represents Pane in the case.
With the criminal case all but settled, Batra said he expects to file a civil suit in federal court.
“It is successfully completed, because this leaves her with no criminal record and it will be sealed,” he said.
But, Batra added, “what the court has heard so far was not the truth under oath.”
Andrew Quinn, an attorney representing Ward, declined to comment yesterday.
Officials at the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office would only confirm that Pane accepted the deal in court.
Pane made headlines last year after she alleged that Ward promised to drop the marijuana charges against her in exchange for a kinky sex act involving a tryst in the woods.
Ward, who was acquitted of a criminal official misconduct charge in Town Court in December, was found guilty of three out of seven departmental charges stemming from his interaction with Pane. He was fired last week by the Greenburgh Board of Police Commissioners.
The veteran officer denied there was any sexual encounter, and said he was simply trying to recruit Pane as an informant. The day after her arrest, Ward met Pane at the parking lot of the Doral Arrowwood Resort and Country Club in Rye Brook, then drove off for about 20 minutes.
But Pane testified that she and Ward, a six-year veteran of the department, drove to a secluded spot where he masturbated while she squatted on a tree branch and defecated to satisfy his sexual fetish.
“”He wanted to go to a motel in the Bronx where I would defecate on him, but I told him I was uncomfortable going to the Bronx,” testified the dominatrix, buttoned up in an olive-gray suit with her black hair pulled back in a bun. “I suggested that we go into a woody area. He was very excited.”
Ward was found guilty of failing to comply with departmental procedures governing confidential informants, of failing to properly report his contact with Pane to his superiors and of conduct that brings discredit upon the department. He was acquitted of the more serious departmental charges of accepting a bribe or a gift and of official misconduct.
Pane was arrested Jan. 21, 2006, in the parking lot of Greenburgh Multiplex Cinemas, charged with marijuana possession and driving while ability impaired by drugs. The latter charge was dropped.
Ward, who joined the Police Department in May 2000, has not decided whether to challenge his firing in state court.
Last year, prosecutors offered to dismiss the marijuana case against Pane, a procedure known as adjournment in contemplation of dismissal – the same deal Pane took in court this week.
But Batra said last year the deal included a stipulation that Pane not pursue a civil lawsuit, and Ward had yet to be tried on disciplinary charges, he said.
He said there was no such stipulation in the deal his client accepted Wednesday.
