NEW YORK — In July 2024, two young police officers arrived at a brick town house in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, responding to a complaint about a brothel operating out of the building.

The officers, Justin Colon and Justin McMillan, shut off their body-worn cameras and approached a woman leaving the building, according to federal prosecutors. They grabbed her cash and a building key from her purse.

Eight hours later, they returned and entered the building using the stolen key, prosecutors said, and saw a woman having sex with a man. After the man fled, McMillan took $200 from the naked woman, a prostitute, and groped her while Colon watched, according to prosecutors.

Now, both men face federal civil rights charges over their conduct, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Each man was charged with conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under color of law, with McMillan facing an additional criminal count of the latter charge.

McMillan, 26, and Colon, 24, were arrested Tuesday and appeared in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn that afternoon. Both men pleaded not guilty and were released. Their lawyers, Susan Kellman and Michael Schneider, declined to comment on the case to reporters after the hearing.

The conspiracy involved “planning, secrecy and, of course, an abuse of power,” Erin Reid, a federal prosecutor, said in court.

McMillan and Colon joined the Police Academy months apart in 2023 and were assigned to the same precinct in Queens. The men resigned from the Police Department in March 2025, when they were indicted on state charges in Queens that included burglary and forcible touching. That case was dismissed in December over a speedy trial violation. NBC New York first reported the dismissal of the case.

Before entering the brothel that night, prosecutors said, McMillan and Colon wrote in their activity logs that the complaint about the brothel had been resolved. They did not file any official paperwork documenting the night’s events, prosecutors said.

McMillan is the son of two retired police officers, who appeared in court to support him on Tuesday. He has been working as an Amazon delivery driver and a DJ since he left the Police Department, Kellman said. Colon has been working in logistics, Schneider said.

Prosecutors said that video surveillance showed the officers entering the brothel, followed by the male customer and prostitute running away from the building. McMillan and Colon then went back to patrolling the area, prosecutors said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Santul Nerkar/Jefferson Siegel
c. 2026 The New York Times Company