Boston Cop Pleads Guilty to Faking Injuries

A Boston police detective who was once honored as a department “top cop” for tracking down a missing baby has pleaded guilty to federal charges of faking injuries so he could collect disability payments.

Forty-nine-year-old Eliezer Gonzalez changed his plea Monday to guilty to 34 counts of mail fraud.

Prosecutors say Gonzalez “greatly exaggerated and falsified both his injuries and ongoing physical issues.”

Surveillance tapes showed him arriving up at medical appointments walking slowly with a cane and accompanied by someone to assist him. But he was videotaped walking and acting normally, even riding a motor scooter and sightseeing with friends in Vietnam.

Gonzalez said he suffered a back injury in 2007 when he fell on a cement floor struggling with a suspect.

He faces up to 20 years in prison at his June 3 sentencing