A Port Authority police officer who moonlights as the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based punk rock band “Cousin Sleeze” was arrested today and charged with insurance fraud for claiming to be injured at the same time he was rocking down the house.
Port Authority Police Officer Christopher Inserra, a five-year PAPD veteran who had been assigned to work at the World Trade Center, was charged by Brooklyn federal prosecutors with mail fraud for filing claims with an insurance company and claiming his arm was injured while on-duty.
Investigators discovered videos and still photographs showing that at the time he was supposedly injured, Inserra, 31, was really onstage performing adrenaline-fueled musical renditions while on the road with his band.
Prosecutors say Inserra is featured in videos while performing at a variety of metro-New York, Mid-Atlantic and Southern clubs and road houses.
Among Inserra’s energetic club performances scrutinized by US postal inspectors during the fraud probe were appearances at The Charleston in Williamsburg, Hank’s Saloon in Boerum Hill, and at the Whiskey Bar in Hoboken, officials said.
Several videos show Inserra as he pumps his “injured” right arm and gyrates with a microphone, and at times is seen “violently flailing and thrashing his right arm in an up and down.”
The feds says these arm movements suggest that Inserra was capable of using his right arm, even though he claimed earlier to have limited movement and could not bend it at the elbow.
“This officer dishonored himself and his department by sliding down the slippery slope of deception and fraud. This prosecution demonstrates that such a violation of the public’s trust will not be tolerated,” said Loretta Lynch, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.
Even if Inserra finds his law enforcement career waning now that he’s facing criminal charges, the music world may still hold promise.
Last summer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette lauded “Cousin Sleeze” as a “hardcore band.”
At the time, band member Ted Katta told the paper that the Brooklyn-based group was “a hybrid,” which classified as “groove metal.”
“We kind of have our own style…it’s very mainstream-approachable, but it also has underground influences that are old-school New York City,” Katta told the paper.
mmaddux@nypost.com