A police union boss wormed his way into standing next to Pope Francis — then refused orders to step away, disciplinary papers reveal.
Pushy Port Authority PBA President Paul Nunziato slipped into a secure enclosure at the 9/11 Memorial where Francis was praying with Timothy Cardinal Dolan during the pontiff’s city visit in September.
As Francis was at the reflecting pools contemplating the names of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, Nunziato stood feet away, looking officious. But Nunziato, a patrolman by rank, wasn’t on papal patrol. He had no business being there.
And he wouldn’t leave.
“On three separate occasions and by three different superior officers, Police Officer Nunziato was ordered to remove himself from this restricted area and he failed to do so,” said a complaint against Nunziato by the commanding officer of the PAPD’s World Trade Center Command.
Nunziato, according to the Oct. 2, 2015, memo obtained by The Post, was charged with violating the department’s rules of conduct. Not only was he encroaching, he was flouting the department rule that “caps be worn in a military manner.”
“Nunziato was observed out-of-uniform in that he did not wear his cap, but instead placed it onto the right side of his gun belt where it remained,” said the memo titled “Derogatory Incident at the WTC Command.”
Nunziato is unrepentant.
“I think I earned the right to stand next to that reflecting pool as the pope blessed it, and anyone who disagrees with that can kiss my ass,” he told The Post.
Nunziato said the Secret Service let him pass.
“I had 37 police officers’ names on that reflecting pool that the pope was going to bless, and I told them if anyone was going to stand here as he blessed that pool, it was going to be me,” he said.
‘I earned the right to stand next to that reflecting pool…anyone who disagrees with that can kiss my ass’
- Paul Nunziato
He said he went to the ceremony at the behest of two 9/11 widows who didn’t want the PAPD to be overshadowed by the NYPD and FDNY. And, he said, he removed his hat as a sign of respect for the pontiff.
The union boss, who represents 1,800 rank-and-file officers, was a key figure in the Bridgegate scandal. He is close to David Wildstein, a former PA executive who is an ally of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Wildstein was an architect of the September 2013 traffic debacle at the George Washington Bridge, when local access lanes were closed as payback to the Fort Lee mayor who refused to back Christie’s re-election bid. Nunziato said he had suggested the “traffic study” at the bridge — the official cover story for the lane closings — to Wildstein.
Nunziato was subpoenaed by a legislative committee investigating Bridgegate and was reportedly questioned by the feds. He was not charged.
The 53-year-old cop joined the PAPD in 1987.
It was unclear what punishment Nunziato might face for the pope incident. A PA spokesman declined to comment.