Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Queens man faces year in jail for YouTube prank

He's not a cop, he just plays one on YouTube.

Now a 21-year-old Queens man busted for "Web thugging" - impersonating a police officer, scaring a teen and then posting the "stop" on YouTube - faces up to a year in jail.

Gazi Abura was one of three men who allegedly stopped a 16-year-old high school student as he was running on a darkened Queens street in July.

The frightened teen was hauled up against a car, questioned about a robbery and then had his identification flashed for all the world to see, prosecutors said.

"Why'd you try to run on us?" the wide-eyed student is asked as he is ordered to keep his hands on a car hood by three "cops" in the video posted on the popular Web site's "Crack Cops DVD" feature.

"You thought we were going to jump you?" mocks one of the alleged officers during the profanity-laced video as another laughs in the background.

Investigators heard about the video and found the victim, who said he believed the men who stopped him were real cops, sources said.

Detectives used the video to nab Abura, a part-time auto mechanic who insisted the video "was all set up and everybody was in on it," according to a statement he gave at his Astoria home, prosecutors said.

Cops still put Abura in a lineup, and he was identified by the victim, prosecutors said.

"His alleged actions not only damage the reputation of our police officers ... but potentially could have resulted in injury to the victim or even himself," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Defense lawyer Damien Brown suggested the victim may be embarrassed and is lying about his involvement.

Abura, who's out on $15,000 bail on an alleged 2005 robbery, was charged with criminal impersonation, coercion and unlawful imprisonment.

He was ordered held last night on $3,500 bail.

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