A Manhattan cop whose name was cleared after he was linked to the accused Upper East Side madam has gotten an $11,000-a-year apology from the NYPD.
Sgt. Richard Wall was personally awarded “special assignment” status by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly during a promotion ceremony with other cops last week — less than a month after Anna Gristina’s arrest upended his life.
Wall, who is now assigned to an Internal Affairs office in Queens, will make $112,000 a year with the pay bump. The 14-year NYPD vet was previously assigned to the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side.
Internal Affairs Bureau Chief Charles Campisi personally called Wall to tell him the good news about his promotion and pay raise, sources said.
Residents of the East 78th Street walk-up where Gristina allegedly operated her high-end brothel told investigators that they had seen Wall around the building.
And his name was easy enough to remember that the residents had no trouble recalling it when asked by detectives probing Gristina’s alleged operation.
Wall was dragged before Internal Affairs investigators and ordered to turn over five years’ worth of memo books from his time in the precinct.
At the time, his union denied he had anything to do with the call-girl operation.
Gristina, subject of a five-year investigation by the Manhattan DA’s Office, allegedly had boasted about friends in local and national law-enforcement agencies who protected her multimillion-dollar business.
But investigators determined Wall, 36, was responding to legitimate police calls when he was spotted in the building. One of the calls was a report of people smoking pot in the building vestibule.
He was formally cleared of any connection with the alleged madam.
Sources said it typically takes a cop at least two years in any post before he or she is awarded “special assignment” status.
Wall had just transferred to the Queens Internal Affairs office last winter.
Gristina, who hails from Scotland, remains on Rikers Island unable to post a $1 million bail or a $2 million bond. Her next court appearance is April 9.
The 44-year-old suburban hockey mom allegedly had boasted of famous clients in her little black book. Prosecutors had been hoping to snag a celebrity, cop or government official.
Her alleged accomplice, Jaynie Mae Baker, is free on $100,000 bail.