NYPD captain charged in NJ with kidnapping, assaulting woman; case carries possible 15-to-30 year sentence.
Capt. Hariton Marachilian faces counts of kidnapping, assault, criminal restraint and criminal coercion in the Dec. 10, 2022, incident in Paterson, the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release. The most serious charge in the criminal complaint, first-degree kidnapping, under New Jersey law carries a possible penalty of 15 to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors say they will ask that Marachilian be held while awaiting trial. He was due to appear in court in Paterson on Thursday.
Marachilian, the president of the NYPD’s Middle East & Turkic Society, was suspended by the NYPD Nov. 30 and arrested Dec. 1 after the department learned a warrant for his arrest had been issued, said a Police Department source. He was held at Rikers Island until he was transported to New Jersey on Wednesday.
Marachilian and a police source told the New York Daily News last week that the NYPD removed him as commander of the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg, stripped him of his gun and badge, and moved him to a desk job after a New Jersey woman filed an order of protection against him.
The woman, a belly dancer, had performed at events for the Turkic & Middle East Society, Marachilian said. He claimed she had misinterpreted the meaning of their relationship.
”She thought it was more than what it was,” Marachilian told the Daily News in an interview Nov. 29, the day before his arrest. The woman “found out I was still married — that’s what sparked her anger.
“She alleged a verbal dispute,” Marichilian said. “But I’m confident — my lawyer is confident — that it will be thrown out. There’s nothing there.”
Marachilian, who joined the NYPD in 2004, also told the Daily News he had just filed his retirement papers.
Upon his arrest Nov. 30, the NYPD suspended Marachilian without pay, putting his pension and other benefits at risk if he leaves the department while still under investigation.
