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Friday, February 29, 2008

NYPD to check cops for stop & frisk bias

BY TINA MOORE - DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU - Friday, February 29th 2008

The NYPD is examining ways to track the stop-and-frisk patterns of individual cops to determine whether their actions are racially biased, police said. If instituted, the move would follow one of six recommendations made by the Rand Corp., which studied the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices to determine whether bias existed. "The department is currently examining ways to implement all of the recommendations, including ways to flag anomalous stop patterns by individual officers," said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne.

In recent years, blacks and Hispanics have made up a greater share of the stops than their percentage of the general population, prompting charges of racial profiling. The department has denied racial bias, saying the stops were based on descriptions of crime suspects, a large majority of whom were described as black or Hispanic. The NYPD, which stopped more than 500,000 New Yorkers in 2006, commissioned the Rand Corp. to perform the review. It concluded that the NYPD's tactics were race-neutral.

Rand researchers called it "problematic," however, that 15 cops stopped substantially more minority pedestrians than other officers and suggested tracking individual cops. Chris Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said tracking individual cops was "an important first step." "But it will be essential to see what behavior they will actually track and what steps they will take when they find problems," he said. "On this last point, the department does not have a good track record."

The report made six recommendations, including reviewing the boroughs with the largest racial disparities in stops and tracking the use of force in stops. Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said identifying cops who needed more training was a good thing. "What they don't want to do," he said, "is to start scapegoating cops and sending a mixed message."

tmoore@nydailynews.com

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Retired NYPD officer busted for child porn after month-long investigation

BY ALISON GENDAR AND ETHAN ROUEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS - Thursday, February 28th 2008


A retired NYPD officer was busted for child porn Wednesday after a month-long investigation begun when he attempted to buy sex over the Web with the preteen daughters of a woman working with the cops, police sources said.

Investigators raided Matthew Fanning's Queens home Wednesday and found a stash of child pornography - including photos of girls as young as 5 being raped - an arsenal of guns and bags of marijuana, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Cops are now questioning the 14-year-old daughter of Fanning's girlfriend to make sure he didn't abuse her. Sources said police have evidence that Fanning, 44, traveled abroad - possibly to the Dominican Republic - to have sex with children.

The creepy ex-cop, who retired several years ago on a 75% disability pension, used his AOL screen name, "Gunrunlover," to store and send images of children having sex, according to a criminal complaint. Investigators seized from Fanning's South Ozone Park house two computers packed with porn, more than 2 ounces of pot, a gravity knife, a switchblade, three illegal handguns, a rifle, a shotgun and 1,496 rounds of ammo, police said.

He was charged with 19 weapons and child porn offenses, and was awaiting arraignment last night. A woman who answered the phone at Fanning's home said only, "We have no information. We have no comment."    agendar@nydailynews.com

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

New York City cops charged in assault on Yonkers man

The Journal News by Nicole Neroulias, Will David and Rob Ryser

YONKERS - Three New York City police officers, a former cop who resigned from the force and a fifth person not connected with police were charged today for their roles in the beating of a 26-year-old Yonkers man who is now blind in one eye.

The arrests capped a five-month investigation into the Sept. 14 assault on McLean Avenue's pub row. For their role in the beating at 3:30 a.m. that morning, officer Michael McGhee and former officer Thomas Wimmer were charged in City Court today with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

Both cops were off duty at the time. Wimmer has since resigned. Complicating the assault that morning was a response to the crime scene by fellow New York City police officers from the Bronx.

Two of those officers - Stella Ibanez and Jeffrey Alicea - were charged today with official misconduct, also a misdemeanor, accused of interfering with the investigation before Yonkers police officers could arrive. The fifth suspect, Patrick Tully, was charged with misdemeanor assault. All five suspects were released and scheduled to return to court in April.

The beating outside 942 McLean Ave. - home of the popular Irish pubs Fagan's Ale House and Rockin' Robins Bar and Night Club - brought an investigation by Yonkers detectives and the Public Integrity Unit of the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.

It also resulted in the discipline of six officers assigned to Bronx precincts, who were put on modified duty with their weapons taken away. Details about the beating and about the NYPD response were not immediately available after the suspects surrendered to police and appeared in court.

In addition to the assault charge, McGhee and Wimmer were hit with restraining orders barring them from contacting the victim and witnesses. They are due back in court on April 8. Ibanez and Alicea are scheduled to return to court on April 17.

Wimmer, 25, resigned from the police department a few weeks ago, his attorney said.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

BAD NEWS FOR ANCHOR HUBBY COP

The New York Post by LORENA MONGELLI and DAN MANGAN

February 21, 2008 -- A 17-year-old girl who claims she was raped by the cop husband of a WNBC-TV news anchor accurately described the officer's private parts to authorities, a bombshell report revealed yesterday.
New Rochelle police, executing a search warrant that forced Sgt. David Rodriguez to drop his pants, found that the cop's pubic area is shaved - just as the girl had told investigators, according to the Journal News.

Sgt. Rodriguez - who has three children with wife Darlene Rodriguez, co-anchor of the early-morning "Today in New York" show - has been suspended with pay. The girl told police that Rodriguez raped her Feb. 9 after being among a group of officers who had gone to her New Rochelle residence and arrested her boyfriend. He returned later and raped her, she claimed. "He forced me," the girl told The Post last week. Rodriguez reportedly has denied going back to the girl's house after the boyfriend's second arrest.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Trial for cops in Sean Bell shooting to start

NEWSDAY BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
February 23, 2008

His killer was a cop.

That much, at least, is clear from the way 23-year-old Sean Bell was shot dead in a confrontation with police early on Nov. 25, 2006, outside a notorious strip club in Jamaica. He died just hours before his wedding.

Monday in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens, three of the detectives who were among five plainclothes officers who fired their weapons a total of 50 times will go on trial in connection with Bell's death. Bell's fiance, Nicole Paultre Bell, is expected to be the leadoff witness.

Bell, of Far Rockaway, who like his two wounded friends was unarmed, was struck four times and suffered two fatal wounds, prosecutors said. Two friends, Trent Benefield, 24, and Joseph Guzman, 32, also were shot but have recovered.

The officers, detectives Michael Oliver, 36, Gescard Isnora, 29, and Marc Cooper, 40, will, through their attorneys, argue self-defense. The cops believed someone in the car was armed and that Bell's accelerating Nissan Altima, which crashed into a police van, put the cops at a serious risk of death or injury, according to police officials and sources close to the defense. All three detectives have decided to have Queens State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Cooperman hear the case without a jury.

"We are looking for the judge to do justice," said attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who along with Michael Hardy is representing Bell's family and the other two victims.

Two of the detectives, Oliver and Isnora, are accused of the most serious charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter and face 25 years in prison. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown contends they fired the rounds from their department-issued 9-mm handguns, which contributed to Bell's death. Isnora, who was working undercover during an investigation to ferret out suspected prostitution, discharged 11 rounds. Oliver, who had been stationed outside the club, fired 31 times.

Cooper, who had been in the club for a period of time, is believed to have shot his weapon four times, but only faces a misdemeanor second-degree reckless endangerment charge. One of his bullets blew out the window of a nearby AirTrain station, investigators said.

Bell's death and the numerous shots fired by several cops outside Kalua Cabaret on 94th Avenue sparked a firestorm of criticism over police tactics. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly later announced enhanced training and screening of undercover officers.

Although two of the cops, Isnora and Cooper, are black, the Rev. Al Sharpton jumped in to criticize police for shooting three unarmed black men and to demand justice for the victims. Sharpton couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

Attorneys for the three detectives either declined to comment or couldn't be reached on Friday.

Conventional courthouse wisdom and statistics hold that defendants have a better chance of acquittal during a so-called bench trial. But the three cops are still taking a gamble. In the past, some cops who elected to go nonjury were convicted of less serious offenses.

Defense attorneys and legal experts not involved in the case believe the best defense for the cops is to show they fired their guns under the mistaken belief that someone outside the club was armed and about to use deadly force.

"It is getting hot on Liverpool , for real. I think there's a gun," Isnora said in one phone call to a supervisor moments before the shooting, according to a police report.

To best defend themselves, the cops will take the stand, said the experts.

"They have to. That is why you do a bench trial," said former federal prosecutor and now defense attorney Steven K. Frankel of Manhattan.

The fact that a veteran judge like Cooperman will hear the evidence means that the court will have a more dispassionate view of the testimony, Frankel said.

Crucial to the cops' defense will be their state of mind when they began firing, Frankel said. Evidence about police radio reports that someone in the club may have been armed, although Bell and his friends weren't, is going to be important.

"When you hear someone is armed, you have to assume they are armed," Frankel said.

But more than just the threat of a gun was on the cops' minds. A police report of the shooting stated that witnesses said that Bell's four-door sedan struck Isnora while it was accelerating away from the club. The Nissan then crashed into the police van. The motion of the vehicle, some lawyers said, could have been construed as a deadly threat against Isnora, whose leg was injured. Isnora then fired in self-defense, perhaps triggering the shooting by the other cops.

Murray Richman, a well-known defense attorney from the Bronx who has defended a number of police officers, said that the best defense tactic might be to have only Oliver, the detective who faces the least serious charge, take the stand.

"Put the one defendant on the stand, the one with the misdemeanor, with the least to lose," Richman said.

Oliver, who faces only a year in prison if convicted, would then give a version of events that the court would consider from the viewpoint of the police. However, Richman thinks it would be unwise for the defense teams to put all three officers on the stand because it will be impossible to have them testify consistently because of the chaos of the scene and the different vantage points of the officers.

Richman said the detectives can take the legally defensible position that they had wrong information about someone having a gun. "Even if it is a mistaken belief, it is a valid defense," Richman said.

If the cops are found to have fired in self-defense, Richman doesn't think they will be found guilty of the first-degree manslaughter charge.

But the real battle, Richman said, will come over whether Oliver and Isnora were reckless in firing so many times at a car with three passengers. If the judge determines the firing was reckless, that could support a finding of second-degree manslaughter, which is defined as recklessly causing someone's death, Richman said.

"That is the issue," he said.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

COP'S 3RD WIFE RULED 'HOMICIDE'

The Associated Press

February 23, 2008 -- CHICAGO - Amid the search for former police officer Drew Peterson's fourth wife, an autopsy on the exhumed body of the man's third wife found what her relatives have long suspected - her death was no accident.
Kathleen Savio died by drowning and her death was ruled a homicide, Dr. Larry Blum said in an autopsy report released Thursday by the state's attorney's office. It was the second autopsy performed on Savio.

She was found dead in her bathtub in March 2004, shortly before her divorce with Peterson was finalized. Four years ago, a coroner's jury ruled her death was an accident.

Savio's body was exhumed late last year after Peterson was named a person of interest in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy. He has said Stacy Peterson ran off with another man, but her relatives deny any affair and say she would not have willingly left her two young children.

Blum's report largely echoes the work of nationally known pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who performed a third, unofficial autopsy at the request of Savio's family. Baden concluded that Savio died after a struggle, and her body was placed in the bathtub.

Peterson, 54, who was a sergeant in the Bolingbrook, Ill., police department, has denied any involvement in either case and has not been charged with wrongdoing.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

3 sue over drug busts in Brooklyn South; claim cops faked evidence

The New York Daily News BY JOHN MARZULLI - February 21st 2008

Three men whose drug arrests were tossed because of the Brooklyn South narcotics squad scandal have sued the city, charging undercover cops faked evidence, the Daily News has learned. The mushrooming corruption investigation has prompted the Brooklyn district attorney's office to review nearly 1,000 squad arrests from the past three years - and dismiss 202 cases - spokesman Jerry Schmetterer said Wednesday.

"While some may have been legitimate arrests, the lawsuits that I've brought involve innocent people," lawyer Richard Cardinale said. Aaron Altamirano, Jonathan Robinson and Marc Delorio claim they were falsely arrested last summer and are seeking unspecified monetary damages. Two complaints filed in Brooklyn Federal Court say cops stopped Altamirano and Robinson as they drove through Bay Ridge.

Although no drugs were found, "One or more of the officers involved in the arrest falsely testified in the grand jury that plaintiffs had sold and possessed a controlled substance," the complaint states. Altamirano was indicted for criminal sale and possession of cocaine. Prosecutors dismissed the case last month, citing the ongoing probe. Robinson spent more than a week in jail before the grand jury declined to indict him.

Delorio also was arrested in Bay Ridge on what he claims were trumped-up marijuana charges. The charges were tossed in December on a motion by the prosecutor, citing the ongoing investigation, Cardinale said. Four cops have been arrested as the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau probes the charge that undercover cops took sex, drugs and cash from suspects.

Four high-ranking supervisors in the Brooklyn South squad have been transferred in the shakeup. The suits name two detectives who were involved in the alleged false arrests, Scott Lloyd and Steven Hom. They have not been charged with wrongdoing. jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

Friday, February 22, 2008

Attorney General Wants More Information on Secret Police Fund

THE DAY By Eileen McNamara - February 20, 2008

Old Saybrook, Connecticut - Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is seeking information on a secret police fund administered by Chief Edmund Mosca for the last 30 years.

In a letter to Mosca sent Tuesday, Blumenthal asks Mosca for a broad range of information about the fund that Mosca has refused to make public. Blumenthal has asked Mosca for one year's worth of information about the McMurray-Kirtland Fund, including bank statements and canceled checks for all accouts in the fund's name and check and cash disbursements from the fund.

"As part of our inquiry we would like to review the fund's financial records," Blumenthal said in his letter to Mosca. He also said that if the fund has been soliciting donations it must register under the state's Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act or request an exemption. Blumenthal's request for the information comes after local resident Mary Hansen filed a state Freedom of Information complaint that Mosca had denied her request for information regarding the fund.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

'LYING' COP FACING JAIL

THE NEW YORK POST By DENISE BUFFA

February 21, 2008 -- A veteran Bronx cop caught perjuring himself after a savvy teen secretly recorded him questioning him on his MP3 player won't be offered a sweetheart deal that keeps him out of prison, prosecutors said yesterday.
The "plea offer will be firm - a felony and jail time," Assistant DA Martin Galvin told Detective Christopher Perino at Bronx Supreme Court yesterday.

Perino, a nearly-20-year NYPD veteran, denied grilling attempted-murder suspect Erik Crespo, 17, about a Christmas 2005 shooting. But the teen secretly recorded the interrogation, which lasted an hour and 15 minutes, on the MP3 player he was listening to when cops nabbed him. Perino, 41, faces several perjury counts that could cost the married father of four his freedom and his pension. Crespo is currently serving seven years after prosecutors let him plead guilty to weapons possession.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

New York Cop Charged With Insurance Fraud, Theft, False Report

THE NEW YORK POST

NEW ROCHELLE - A New Rochelle police sergeant has been charged with theft and insurance fraud for falsely reporting his sport utility vehicle stolen days after it was set on fire, New York City police said today. Sgt. Anthony Jones, 41, of Brooklyn, was arrested Friday, the same week another New Rochelle sergeant was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl.

Jones, a veteran officer, surrendered at 9:15 a.m. at Brooklyn's 81st Precinct. An NYPD spokesman said Jones, on Oct. 4, reported to police that his 2001 Land Rover had been stolen. He also filed a claim with his insurance company, Geico. Jones told police he had last seen the vehicle on Oct. 2. However, investigators determined it was set on fire in Brooklyn on Sept. 29.

The car has a resale value in excess of $10,000. Jones was charged with third-degree attempted grand larceny andfourth-degree insurance fraud, felonies, and second-degree issuing a false sworn statement and fifth-degree insurance fraud, misdemeanors.

Jones had been with the depart ment for at least 17 years, and was promoted to sergeant in 1997. New Rochelle police declined to comment on his arrest. A woman who answered the telephone at what police said was Jones' home told a reporter he did not live there and hung up.

It was just last week that New Rochelle police revealed another investigation involving Sgt. David Rodriguez. He is accused of raping a girl at her home shortly after midnight Feb. 9, hours after he and three other officers went to the home and arrested the girl's boyfriend. The boyfriend, who was charged earlier with assaulting the girl, allegedly returned to the home in violation of a restraining order. Rodriguez has been suspended pending the outcome of that probe.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bad Cops From Texas, Boston and Pennsylvania

A Pennsylvania cop's bad habits get him in trouble, a Boston cop goes to prison for steroids and perjury, and a Texas Department of Public Safety technician goes away for a long, long time for ripping off the lab's cocaine stash. Let's get to it:

In Erie, Pennsylvania, an Erie Police lieutenant was arrested Sunday night on charges he stole cocaine from the police evidence room for his personal use. Lt. Robert Liebel, 46, went down in a sting operations where investigators used surveillance equipment to watch him take 12 grams of coke out of a larger stash investigators had placed in the evidence room earlier in the day. When confronted, Liebel admitted having some of the cocaine in his hand and the rest hidden in the Erie police station. He told investigators he took it for his own use. We don't run corrupt cops stories about cops who merely use drugs, but in this case, the drug-using cop went bad when he stole from his employers, who in turn had taken the stash from private (albeit illegal) businesses. Now, he's trying to make a $100,000 bond.

In Boston, a former Boston police officer was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in prison for distributing steroids and committing perjury and obstructing justice in an ongoing federal probe of police corruption. Former officer Edgardo Rodriguez, 38, went down after federal investigators in a 2006 case where three Boston cops were indicted for guarding cocaine shipments heard those cops mention steroid sales within the department on wiretapped phone calls. But it was the perjury and obstruction of justice by lying to a grand jury and trying to convince another Boston cop to do so that got the prosecutor and judge unhappy enough to give him jail time.

In Houston, a former Department of Public Safety technician was sentenced last Friday to 45 years in prison for stealing cocaine from the agency's Jersey Village crime lab. Former tech Jesse Hinojosa, Jr. had pleaded guilty in December to two counts of possession of more than 400 grams of cocaine with intent to distribute after he and three other men were arrested in a scheme to sell more than 50 pounds of coke stolen from the lab. The other three are doing 25, 25, and 45 years.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Florida deputy seen dumping paralyzed man onto jail floor turns herself in

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Sunday, February 17th 2008

TAMPA, Fla. — A deputy who was videotaped dumping a paralyzed man out of his wheelchair onto a Tampa jailhouse floor has been released from jail after posting bail. Jail records show Charlette Marshall-Jones was booked into the Orient Road jail early Saturday after turning herself in.

It is the same jail where Marshall-Jones worked. She is accused of tipping 32-year-old Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair. A videotape of the incident has been widely circulated. The Hillsborough County deputy was charged with one count of felony abuse of a disabled person and released after posting $3,500 bail. An attorney for Marshall-Jones listed in jail records did not return a phone message.

Surveillance footage from Jan. 29 shows Marshall-Jones, 44, dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair and searching him on the floor after he was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation. Sterner said when he was taken into a booking room and told to stand up, Jones grew agitated when he told her that he could not.

Marshall-Jones was suspended without pay, and three other deputies were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. Marshall-Jones is charged with abuse of a disabled person, a third-degree felony, said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. If convicted, she could be sent to prison for five years.

Sterner, who can drive a car but has not been able to walk since a 1994 wrestling accident, was arrested at his Riverview home and taken to the Orient Road Jail on a charge of fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, according to records. He had called for charges to be filed against Marshall-Jones.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The price of corruption; Ex-cops get 3 years in prison

By JULIAN AGUILAR , LAREDO MORNING TIMES - February 16, 2008

After being admonished by U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen for abusing the trust of the Laredo community, two high-ranking Laredo police officers, Lt. Eloy Rodriguez and Sgt. Alfonso Santos, were sentenced to approximately three years in prison Friday for conspiracy to commit extortion."It's a two-edged sword when someone has a position of honor and trust and you're supposed to uphold the law and you start sliding into the dark side," Kazen said. "It's very, very troubling."

Kazen sentenced Rodriguez, 44, and Santos, 51, to 38 and 34 months, respectively, for their role in the 8-liner extortion operation that also brought down former Laredo Police Chief Agustin Dovalina. The sentence came at the recommendation of the federal government. All three former officers pleaded guilty to the same charge; Dovalina's sentencing is forthcoming.

"I want to apologize to my family, to the force and to the City of Laredo for my wrongful actions," Rodriguez told Kazen before learning his fate. "I am going to regret this for the rest of my life. I lost my career. I lost my integrity." Santos expressed similar sentiments, apologizing to his family for hurting them.

"I pled guilty. I admit I made a mistake," he said. "I was selfish. I'm sorry for the embarrassment caused to the Laredo Police Department." Santos also expressed remorse that his son, Jesse Santos, resigned from the police department shortly after being sworn in as an officer because of the pressure Santos' actions caused. The former officer then took a more defensive stance before finishing his statements.

"It's amazing that my failures and my mistakes have been far more interesting than my success as a Laredo police officer," he said. The sentences came more than six months after Rodriguez and Santos were originally charged with 20 and 18 counts of "interference with commerce under color of official right," or extortion, respectively. Rodriguez was also charged with several counts of cocaine possession.

The former police officers subsequently agreed to cooperate with federal investigators, and, in exchange for their cooperation, all but one charge was dropped. During sentencing, Santos' attorney, Emilio Davila, pointed out specific details that he said differentiated his client's case from Rodriguez's, including Rodriguez's drug charges.

Kazen responded that Santos should not be rewarded because the federal government chose not to prosecute Rodriguez on misdemeanor drug charges. Davila also told Kazen that Santos' role was minor because Rodriguez initiated the extortion scam, to which Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wright responded that Santos was indeed the middle man between the government's cooperating witness, identified as former Entertainment World owner Linh "Larry" Tuan Do and Dovalina.

Rodriguez was ordered to forfeit $57,000 and Santos $27,800, the total amount the 65-page indictment claims they extorted in 2006. Kazen expressed his concern and his disappointment that Rodriguez initially came into contact with Do through an investigation into drug trafficking, and said Rodriguez was being friendly with the wrong people.

Davila and Rodriguez's attorney, Fausto Sosa, agreed the sentence was fair under the circumstances. "I think he (Santos) did absolutely everything he physically could to correct the mistake that he made," Davila said outside the courthouse. "We went before Judge Kazen, who is strict, but he's fair, and he was sentenced to 34 months. He's lost his career, but he did everything he could to correct the mistake."

"It was just," Sosa said. "It's what the government recommended, and that's what was done." Octavio Salinas, Dovalina's attorney, said he hoped his client would receive similar treatment at his sentencing. "The only difference between us and them is that their amounts (of money extorted) is a lot larger, and, of course, they were testifying against my client," Salinas said.

Salinas added "the facts speak for themselves" with respect to the government's allegations that Rodriguez became involved in the extortion ring after initially investigating drug traffickers. Kazen told the defendants that because of their actions, the entire Laredo Police Department has been smeared publicly, and expressed concern for a citizenry that does not trust those sworn to protect.

"I don't know how people can function if they don't know whether to trust the police," he said. "You two have caused a real blow to your fellow officers," he said. "It's just a bad scene."

(Julian Aguilar may be reached at 728-2557 or by e-mail at jaguilar@lmtonline.com)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

NYPD cops facing charges in blinding

NYPD cops facing charges in blinding
THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS BY ALISON GENDAR AND ETHAN ROUEN
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU - Saturday, February 16th 2008

Four NYPD officers were arrested Friday for their roles in a Yonkers bar fight that ended with a bartender being blinded, police said.
Officers Michael McGhee, 30, and Thomas Wimmer, 25, were off-duty when they attacked Peter Cummins on Sept. 14 as he walked his girlfriend home from a McLean Ave. bar, authorities said Friday. Cummins, 26, told prosecutors that one of the off-duty cops insulted his girlfriend, sparking an argument. The cops then jumped him, delivering a savage beating, prosecutors said. Cummins lost his left eye in the assault.

NYPD Officers Jeffrey Alicea and Stella Ibanez were on patrol in the Bronx's 47th Precinct near the Yonkers border when they were called to the scene, not knowing off-duty cops were involved, authorities said. They arrived as McGhee was punching Cummins in the face, prosecutors said. Alicea, 32, and Ibanez, 39, initially arrested McGhee, who is assigned to the Bronx's 44th Precinct. But they freed him and let him leave after discovering he was a fellow officer, prosecutors said.

Wimmer, who has resigned from the NYPD, and McGhee, who has been suspended, pleaded not guilty to assault charges Friday.
"We deny that he's done anything wrong," said McGhee's lawyer, Howard Tanner. "He's cooperated fully with the investigation."
Alicea and Ibanez, who have both been suspended by the NYPD, pleaded not guilty to two counts of official misconduct.
A third man who was with the off-duty cops, Patrick Tully, 26, also was charged with assault.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Former Lower Township cop fired for sex on duty drops bid to get job back

The Press of Atlantic City - Published: Friday, February 15, 2008

ATLANTIC CITY - A former Lower Township police officer caught in a love triangle of sorts and then fired for having sex while on duty has abandoned his quest to get his job back.

Bruce Miller, a patrolman for 12 years before being fired for misconduct in 2006, was scheduled to appear before Administrative Law Judge W. Todd Miller on Thursday morning but dropped his appeal to get his job back.

An often-decorated patrolman, whom Police Chief Ed Donohue called "a good street officer," Miller admitted having sex with Buffi Hinker, a former police secretary and now Miller's wife, and Denise Hennessey, an aide to state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.

The police said the misconduct went on approximately from 1999 to 2005. The internal report said Miller had sex with Hennessey as many as 40 times, sometimes in his patrol car and at locations around the township that included Bree Zee Lee Marina, Mill Creek Marina, Penn Turbo Aviation, the Millman Center and the parking area at Big Lots. Police said they documented about 15 liaisons, beginning in 2004, with Buffi Hinker, who later became Donohue's secretary. Donohue said the case shows the public that the department will police itself.

"Obviously, I'm very concerned whenever an officer brings the department into disrepute. The continuing egregious on-duty conduct of this officer would not be tolerated. I think the township acted correctly in terminating the officer," Donohue said.

Miller said the sex was while on duty but during breaks. The police dispute this. Township Attorney Paul Baldini said the sex was often much longer than the breaks. Internal charges said it sometimes lasted three hours. Police Capt. Lou Russo said Miller sometimes had others respond to calls when he was having relations. "We're never on break," Russo said. "I think Chief Donohue has set a tone of integrity. The officers understand they are held to a higher level."

Hennessey was set to testify for the township against Miller. Her statement to police alleges she had sex several times with Miller around the township, including inside a recreational vehicle police dubbed "the love shack," which Miller parked near the Lower Township Public Safety Building.

Police also had computer records from Jonathan Hinker, Buffi's ex-husband, that include e-mails between the now-married couple. The former police secretary was subpoenaed but did not show. The township also engaged an expert witness, psychologist Dr. Alvin Krass, to testify that Miller should not get his job back due to authority and self-control issues.

The parties met in a private conference room for about 90 minutes before Miller's attorney, Joseph Rodgers, came to open court and withdrew the appeal. Rodgers blamed the media presence and said Miller wanted to spare his children the negative publicity. "My client arrived and saw the press. He was quite concerned. He has three children and went through a difficult divorce," Rodgers said. "He is simply not going to put his family through this."

Baldini said the complaint was withdrawn "because he can't win" and because any testimony put on the record could have been used against Miller at an upcoming hearing on whether he gets a disability pension.

Miller, who has been injured several times in the line of duty, put in for the disability prior to being fired but after the department issued a "preliminary notice of discipline." Rodgers said the injuries occurred before he was fired. These are issues for the pension board. Hennessey, who handles constituent relations for Van Drew, was visibly upset when she saw the media and tried to avoid having her picture taken.

"We're trying to calm the witness down," said Russo at one point.

Statements made to police by Hennessey and Hinker paint the picture of a love triangle. It may have been more than a triangle. Miller was still married then to ex-wife Kelly and police have looked into another potential lover, a secretary at Penn Turbo Aviation. This is the business next to the Public Safety Building where the recreational vehicle was parked, and where Miller worked part time. Russo said this witness moved out of town and was never located. Miller denies having sex with her.

Miller was fired Oct. 6, 2006, under charges that included misconduct, conduct unbecoming an employee, neglect of duty and misuse of public property. The last charge relates to using a police car to have sex or for transport to a place to have sex.

Miller admitted in an Aug. 7, 2006, statement to superiors he had sex several times per month with Hennessey, usually between 3:30 and 5:30 a.m. and often at Penn Turbo in the hangar, an office or his motor home. He said Hennessey drove around the township at night looking for him and he tried several times to end the relationship, but Hennessey threatened to go to his superiors or his wife. Miller said Hennessey contacted his wife on at least three occasions but did not reveal the relationship.

When Miller became estranged from his wife, he said Hennessey, who lived in Wildwood at the time, wanted to move the relationship forward. He said she would call, text his cell phone, and show up at his house uninvited. She ultimately went to the police and signed a complaint against Miller. "She stated she was doing so because her estranged husband would no longer speak to their daughter if she did not," Miller said.

Hennessey was 34 when police interviewed her on Aug. 7, 2006, but said she had known Miller, who was previously in the Coast Guard, since she was 22. Hennessey said relations went from 1999 to October 2005.

"I mean everything sexually happened from A to Z," she said at one point as Detective Sgt. Thomas Keywood interviewed her.

She added other locations to the police list including Miller's boat, Douglass Park, Cold Spring Village, near Menz's Restaurant and the Cape May County Zoo when Miller was in Middle Township for a class.

Keywood said, "Wow, you really know the town." Hennessey replied, "I've been around a lot."

Hennessey said she came forward because Miller was saying she forced him to have sex with her for five years. She told Keywood he was "a schmuck." Miller admitted having sex with Hinker beginning in 2004 but said she was not working for the department during this time.

Keywood interviewed Hinker on Aug. 11, 2006. She admitted having relations with Miller less than 10 times but said sexual intercourse was "maybe once or twice." Hinker said it was during Miller's breaks and would last 15 to 20 minutes. She said she felt "more than a little coerced" to give a statement after Township Manager Kathy McPherson said her job was in jeopardy.

Hinker said Hennessey began running into her, giving her dirty looks and threatening her through Miller, at one point telling him she would "set me on fire" or find someone to "set me on fire." She said Miller got constant phone calls from Hennessey when she was with him. Hinker said she believed Hennessey went to police because Miller ended up with her. Hennessey declined comment. Rodgers claimed she is "just a pawn" in the case.

To e-mail Richard Degener at The Press: RDegener@pressofac.com

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Two ex-cops also nabbed in mob sweep

The New York Daily News
BY JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER - Thursday, February 14th 2008

Two ex-NYPD cops are among the 62 wiseguys and Mafia associates swept up in the feds' massive strike against the Gambino crime family, the Daily News has learned.

Ronald Flam and Frank (Frankie) Vassallo are buried deep in the 170-page racketeering indictment unsealed last week in Brooklyn Federal Court, charged with illegal gambling.

Flam, 35, is accused of being part of a bookmaking ring along with reputed Gambino capos Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo and Leonard DiMaria and a gaggle of other gang figures.

Vassallo, 38, is charged with operating illegal Joker Poker machines with reputed Gambino soldier Vincent Dragonetti.

Flam was a cop in the 63rd Precinct and on the job for less than two years before he was injured in a vehicular accident, sources said. His financial affidavit filed with the court does not specify a pension or his income, but it noted that he has a $3,000-a-month mortgage. Flam had a gambling problem, sources said.

Vassallo was a detective in the 83rd Precinct and retired with a $4,200 monthly disability pension. He pays $3,000 a month in child support, documents say.

There have been crooked cops linked to the Mafia as long as there has been organized crime, said Thomas Reppetto, author of "Bringing Down the Mob" (Henry Holt). Their ties to gangsters usually predate their police careers.

So-called Mafia cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were found guilty in 2006 of carrying out murders for the Luchese crime family and leaking confidential information.

A federal judge tossed the convictions; the government is appealing.

"I would say it is far less common today for police officers to become involved with organized crime than in the past because there are more controls over the police," Reppetto said.

Lawyers for the ex-cops declined to comment. Flam and Vassallo are free on bail.

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Jury deliberating case of North Providence officer

PROVIDENCE — A jury is continuing its deliberations this morning in the Superior Court trial of suspended North Providence police Sgt. Michael Ciresi.

Ciresi is charged with two counts of burglary, two counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, receiving a stolen generator, receiving a stolen bracelet (a felony), attempted larceny from a stolen ATM, harboring and obstruction of a police officer.

The jury started its deliberations yesterday after listening to lawyers argue whether Ciresi was a “good cop” who has been falsely accused or a “dirty cop” who enlisted his drug-dealing informants to commit crimes for his financial gain.

Much of the closing arguments yesterday centered on charges linked to Ciresi’s alleged role in the burglary of a drug dealer’s apartment at 459 East Ave., Pawtucket, two days before Christmas 2004.

Jurors ordered lunch this morning, so they could be at work a while longer.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Car-theft ring splits - Dirty cop pressures breakaway rogues

Car-theft ring splits - Dirty cop pressures breakaway rogues
published: Monday | February 11, 2008

This is part two of a story first published yesterday in The Sunday Gleaner, exposing a multimillion-dollar car-stealing network involving the police, that led to the disappearance of businessman Oliver Duncan, 35, and Kemar Walters, a 20-year-old mechanic apprentice. Both men were accosted by policemen on December 23, 2004 at a plaza on Washington Boulevard in St Andrew, and have been missing since.

Although original members of the car-stealing ring wanted to expose a police investigator and his colleagues, who were accomplices, the ringleader would have none of it; he believed that having the cops around meant additional security. In addition, the police's connections at the Inland Revenue Department were vital to the car-stealing activities.

One of the body repairmen in the car-stealing ring, who was not in agreement with the policemen's involvement, subsequently left the group, taking along with him two accomplices - a car alarm technician and a locksmith. The body repairman also made good on the relationship that he had established with the clients of the illegal ring. He took a large portion of the market with him, putting a huge dent in the profits of the leader of the car-stealing network, which was spread across the island. Furthermore, the ringleader was now forced to pay the body repairman for his services of changing chassis numbers on motor vehicles.

The body repairman, who originated from the wider Olympic Gardens/Molynes Road area of St Andrew, had met the leader of the car-stealing ring and joined it during frequent visits to Kitson Town, St Catherine, in the late 1990s.

Double life

The head of the breakaway car-stealing group soon purchased a Toyota Hiace minibus in his common-law wife's name and used it to transport the disassembled vehicle parts. He was quiet, non-confrontational and a dedicated family man. His relatives had no clue of the secret life that he led.

He and his accomplices continued to evade the law while wreaking havoc throughout the island, sometimes not coming home for days. In the process, the body repairman added a cousin from St Mary to his crew. The cousin had spent a number of years in the United States before fleeing that country after his suspected involvement in a number of drug-related incidents and electronic fraud.

The sudden departure of key members of his outfit angered the ringleader and his friend, the police investigator. They decided that the only way to reclaim control of the car-stealing market was to get rid of his former accomplice - the body repairman - who had set up a competing criminal enterprise. An anonymous tip to the police about him led to the crooked police investigator spearheading an investigation against his one-time accomplice. He began to frequent the body repairman's home every time a car was reported missing.

This continued until the police investigator seized the Hiace minibus and charged the body repairman's common-law wife with receiving stolen goods, unlawful possession and conspiracy. This, however, did not deter the body repairman, who continued to make millions of dollars from his illegal activities. Not all the vehicles stolen were scrapped; many were sold to unsuspecting buyers. The body repairman was considered an expert at changing chassis numbers, a skill which benefited the ringleader of the car-stealing network, and later himself.

Beginning of the end

When in late 2003 the body repairman stole a motor car that belonged to a prominent Jamaican political figure, it was the beginning of the end for him. The politician, who was deeply involved in drug running in Portland and St Mary in the late 1990s, as well as the trafficking of illegal drugs throughout the Caribbean and North America, placed a $1.5 million bounty on the head of the body repairman. The politician also placed another large sum for information on the whereabouts of his prized car. Some of his friends in the Jamaica Constabulary Force were also asked to assist in recovering the vehicle.

With a bounty on his head the repairman decided to lie low for a while, and hid a number of his more prized stolen units at another location in the Molynes Road area of St Andrew.

With the body repairman lying low, his crony - the car alarm technician - took charge of the illicit operations. Things got ugly between the two when on December 21, 2004, the latter turned up with a Toyota sedan that he, unknowingly, stole from an auto parts dealer who secretly did business with the body repairman.

The latter ordered the technician to return the vehicle but he refused, so the vehicle had to be forcibly taken from him and returned to the owner.

The angry accomplice threatened to expose his boss - the body repairman - to police friends; but the boss countered that he knew thugs and could point them to where the accomplice lived.

Tomorrow: Showdown on Washington Boulevard.

Crime line

1990s: Organised Crime Unit stumbles on car-stealing operation in Golden Spring, St Andrew.

2001: Police team accepts money offered by suspected car thieves in the Forest Hills area of St Andrew and releases them.

2002-2004: Policeman regularly visits leader of car-stealing ring in prison.

2003: Breakaway car-stealing ring steals motor car of high-profile politician.

2004: Renegade car thief steals motor car owned by crooked client of his boss.

Monday, February 11, 2008

'HOOKER' COP GOT OFF HOOK

By LARRY CELONA and JEANE MacINTOSH

February 11, 2008 -- Police brass were tipped off years ago that accused pimp cop Wayne Taylor had a thing for young hookers - but let him off with a wrist slap after investigating the claims, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Taylor - a Queens detective busted last month for allegedly prostituting teen girls - was probed in 2003 by the Investigations Unit of the NYPD's Organized Crime Control Bureau over a relationship with a 17-year-old hooker, sources said.

But he was ultimately docked "a few hours" pay after the girl refused to cooperate with the probe, said one source.

At the time, Taylor worked in the Narcotics Division, which is part of OCCB, a bureau that has been scandalized by the arrests of dozens of its officers.

Taylor, 35, was finally dumped from Narcotics and placed on modified assignment for misusing a police vehicle.

He was working in the Housing Bureau when he was nabbed last month with girlfriend Zelika Brown, 29, as the duo drove a 17-year-old to a strip party, officials said.

They were charged with kidnapping, promoting prostitution, assault and child endangerment.

The arrests were sparked by a tip from a 13-year-old Brooklyn runaway who told police she worked for the pair.

Five years earlier, Taylor had been investigated under similar circumstances, sources said, after NYPD cops responded to a 911 call about a dispute involving him and a female friend.

Officers quickly learned Taylor's friend had nearly a dozen arrests for prostitution - and an outstanding bench warrant - and hauled her in, a source said.

Under questioning, Taylor's gal pal claimed he was also "involved" with a 17-year-old runaway from out of state. OCCB investigators tracked the girl down, and she admitted knowing the cop, but clammed up when her parents stepped in.

The case had first been referred to Internal Affairs, said a source, but was passed to OCCB probers as a "misconduct case."

Taylor was ultimately disciplined only for his role in the dispute, sources said.

In 2005, the OCCB's Investigations Unit was virtually dismantled by NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

But the shakeup has had little impact. The problems at OCCB - commanded by Chief Anthony Izzo, who previously led the Narcotics Division - have continued, most infamously with the Sean Bell shooting.

Taylor's lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

NYPD Chief Michael Collins said, "The earlier complaint was fully investigated by the department." He declined further comment, pending results of the current probe of Taylor.

larry.celona@nypost.com

Sunday, February 10, 2008

FORMER BORDER OFFICER CONVICTED OF TRADING SEX FOR ACCESS TO THE U.S.

Jury Deliberates Two Days Before Returning Guilty Verdict Following Five Day Trial - January 24, 2008

DESMONE BASTIAN, 33, of Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada , was convicted today in U.S. District Court in Seattle of Accepting a Bribe. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on three of the charges and found BASTIAN not guilty of Aiding and Abetting the Importation of Marijuana. BASTIAN, a U.S. citizen residing in Canada , worked for U.S. Customs and Border Protection as an Officer, screening vehicles and drivers seeking to cross into the United States at the Blaine , Washington , Port of Entry. At trial, prosecutors showed how BASTIAN repeatedly allowed a Canadian woman, with whom he had a sexual relationship, to pass into the U.S. without any search of her car or person. The jury deliberated for two days following a five day trial. BASTIAN faces up to 15 years in prison when sentenced by U.S. District Judge James S. Robart on April 7, 2008.

“We are pleased that the jury found Mr. Bastian guilty of the criminal conduct at the heart of this case,” said United States Attorney Jeffrey Sullivan. “The integrity of our borders is too important to be compromised by the taking of illegal bribes be it money, sex or other items of value.”

BASTIAN was arrested on October 25, 2006, when he finished his shift at the border. According to records and testimony at trial, BASTIAN sought out a Vancouver escort service owner and paid her for sex in 2001 or 2002. BASTIAN told the woman about his job and even wore his uniform to her brothel in Vancouver . In late 2004 and 2005, BASTIAN no longer paid for sex with the woman. Instead, in exchange for sex, he allowed her to cross the border through his lane on multiple occasions without checking her car for any contraband or referring her on to secondary inspection. The woman, who testified at trial, brought numerous large loads of BC Bud marijuana across the border by coordinating with BASTIAN as to which lane he was working so she could avoid detection. The woman bragged to her drug conspirators that she had a connection at the border which allowed her to easily get the drugs into the U.S. At trial, prosecutors presented phone calls taped by Canadian law enforcement where the woman discusses with her drug supplier how her contact (BASTIAN) had checked records and she was not flagged in the system for inspection. However, the woman was stopped and arrested in April, 2006, with a load of oxycontin. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison. The investigation of BASTIAN’s activities followed her arrest.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Drug Money Very, Very Tempting

The Detroit drug squad is under investigation, a Pennsylvania police chief is accused of stealing money from drug busts, and a Wisconsin prison has a problem with pill-stealing guards. Let's get to it:

In Detroit, the Detroit Police Department has invited the FBI to join its investigation of the department's Narcotics Unit. The move comes as the department digs into the unit's "conspiracy crews," teams of narcotics officers who work on long-term investigations of big-time drug dealers. Some members of one of the crews are suspected of stealing as much as a half million dollars. The accused officers have been reassigned to other duties pending the results of the investigation. A minimum of four officers are alleged to be involved, and perhaps more.

In Lykens, Pennsylvania, the police chief was arrested Monday for stealing money seized in drug busts. Chief W.R. Wade, who was suspended with pay two months ago, is charged with two counts of theft for stealing the money, as well as another count of unsworn falsification, for lying about a previous arrest on his job application. He is now suspended without pay. Wade went down after he announced the arrests of 21 people on drug charges, but in the end only arrested seven and failed to provide any evidence. Investigators found $3,800 in missing seized cash from one case and $200 from another in his home.

In Portage, Wisconsin, a prison guard was arrested January 7 for stealing narcotic drugs intended for sick prisoners. David Yatalese, 53, a guard at the Columbia Correctional Institution, is charged with theft, possession of a controlled substance and possession at or near a prison, a felony. According to prison officials, an internal CCI investigation tracked missing oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone back to Yatalese after another prison worker noticed prisoners' prescriptions coming up in need of renewal too quickly. Yatalese is the third guard caught stealing prisoners' drugs in the previous 20 months. One is awaiting trial, and the other got two years probation and drug treatment. Prison officials said they have a "serious problem" and are working on solutions.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Drugs, Sex & Rock `n Roll: Cops Across the Land Seduced by Drug War

Lately the news has been filled with stories of law enforcement officers accused of violating the very laws they swore to uphold and the sacred trust of those they swore to protect.

* NYPD has been rocked by a corruption scandal involving the midnight crew of the Brooklyn South Narcotics Division. Accusations include: stealing drugs, using drugs to pay informants, sex with prostitutes and informants.

* In Santa Fe, New Mexico one of the two former members of the SFPD narcotics squad charged by federal agents last year has pleaded to one felony count of theft of $5,000.00.

* In McAllen, Texas Carlos Landin Martinez, a former police commander in Mexico was just found guilty on charges from his assistance of the Gulf cartel's smuggling operations.

* And, in what has to be a tragic comedy of errors, 23-year old Carsten Douglas, a detention center guard, has been accused of smuggling pot into the jail after being blackmailed by inmates who stole his handcuff keys.

When I compare the NYPD scandal to Officer Douglas' SNAFU, I almost feel sorry for Douglas. As for a department with a history of scandal that precedes the events that made Frank Serpico famous and nearly cost him his life I hope justice is served - this time, at least.

There is so much that can be written about how narcotics assignments can seduce officers with so much temptation in so many ways. Perhaps, another time, the economy cries out for a focus on the financial impact of corruption. Oh, yes, these incidents represent a tremendous waste of taxpayer money and criminal justice system resources.

Add salaries of personnel - narcotics officers, administrative personnel, prosecution staff, public defender staff, lab tests, evidence processing and storage, court costs, etc. - for the initial investigations. Then add the costs associated with internal investigations. Now add the costs of prosecuting the officers of all ranks. Add the costs of reviewing all the cases made by the officers, the costs of incarceration of previous defendants who may be freed, the proceedings to determine whether defendants will have their guilty verdicts overturned, the new prosecutions in instances where prosecutors think they can overcome taint of corrupt officers, add the costs associated with jurors and jury duty (both to the state and to the individuals), and then you might have an idea of how much corruption costs taxpayers.

In New Orleans they are asking if they can afford the cost of the drug war in an economy damaged by Hurricane Katrina. I think citizens and taxpayers across the globe, but especially here in the U.S.A., should be asking a similar question, Can we as a society afford the war on drugs?

Thursday, February 7, 2008

NYPD DETECTIVE AND SERGEANT FACE FEDERAL FELONY CHARGES IN BROOKLYN

Detective Charged With Drug Trafficking, Obstruction Of Justice, And Bank Fraud – Sergeant Charged With Obstruction Of Justice And False Statements; 2 others charged also.

A superseding indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging NYPD Detective LUIS M. BATISTA, ALEXANDER ALCANTARA, and DEYANIRA SANCHEZ with a conspiracy to distribute cocaine base ("crack") and cocaine; Detective BATISTA and NYPD Sergeant HENRY CONDE with obstructing justice and conspiring to obstruct justice; and CONDE with two counts of making false statements

The charges announced today are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumedinnocent unless and until proven guilty.

Also unsealed was a separate indictment charging BATISTA with bank fraud. BATISTA was arrested earlier today and his arraignment is scheduled this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky, at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. The case is assigned to United States District Judge Dora L. Irizarry. ALCANTARA, SANCHEZ, and CONDE will be arraigned by Judge Irizarry on February 5, 2008.

The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Division, and Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department.

According to the indictments and other court filings, the government's investigation into drug trafficking and related acts of violence began in October 2004. In April 2006, the FBI learned that Detective BATISTA, who was assigned to the 90th Precinct Detective Squad in Brooklyn, had been providing a drug dealer, identified in the indictment as John Doe #1, with confidential law enforcement information. Between 2002 and 2007, ALCANTARA allegedly sold large quantities of cocaine to John Doe #1, who distributed both cocaine and crack to others, with the assistance of SANCHEZ. The continuing investigation resulted in the arrest of John Doe #1 and a second alleged drug trafficker, John Doe #2, on drug trafficking charges later in 2006. Subsequent to those arrests, Detective BATISTA allegedly became concerned that he might be under criminal investigation and contacted Sergeant CONDE, who was assigned to an Internal Affairs Bureau ("IAB") squad in Queens. According to the government's pleadings, CONDE searched IAB's computer database and learned that a confidential informant had provided IAB with information linking BATISTA to a drug dealer, John Doe #1. CONDE also learned that the confidential informant had identified BATISTA's picture in a photo array. Shortly thereafter, CONDE shared this confidential law enforcement information with Detective BATISTA.

The superceding indictment also alleges that when Special Agents from the FBI questioned Sergeant CONDE about his having accessed IAB's database for other police officers, he acknowledged the assistance he provided to Detective BATISTA, but falsely denied having done so for another police officer.

According to the separate indictment also unsealed today, Detective BATISTA submitted a forged and fraudulent home inspection report in order to obtain funds from the Municipal Credit Union.

If convicted, BATISTA, ALCANTARA, and SANCHEZ face a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. CONDE faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lee J. Freedman.

The Defendants are LUIS M. BATISTA Age: 34, HENRY CONDE Age: 34, ALEXANDER ALCANTARA - Alias: " Moreno" Age: 28
DEYANIRA SANCHEZ -Aliases: "Yanira" and "Yadira" Age: 35

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Cop in 'tranny hooker sex' relationship

Australia News Service by Staff Writers - February 06, 2008

A CORRUPTION watchdog has its hands on allegations of an illegal relationship between a senior police officer and illegal - and possibly transvestite - prostitutes. The Office of Police Integrity (OPI) in Victoria has information regarding allegations of corrupt conduct by an officer from a Melbourne police station.

A spokesman for the OPI told NEWS.com.au that the office had received information about the alleged corruption. “We’re quite aware of the allegations,” the spokesman said. Investigators from the OPI have been interviewing junior officers at the station about the conduct of their senior colleagues, ninemsn has reported.

The website also reported that one male officer was believed to have been accused of having a sexual relationship with a transvestite prostitute and there may be “incriminating” pictures that could “embarrass” the police force.

It has also been alleged that officers covered-up traffic “incidents” involving unauthorised use of police vehicles.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Ex-Cop Goes on Trial in Pregnant Killing

The Associated Press - By JOE MILICIA - February 4, 2008

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — A former police officer accused of strangling a woman pregnant with his child knew where her body was but had nothing to do with her death, a defense lawyer told jurors at the man's murder trial Monday. The lawyer said prosecutors did not have evidence that Bobby Cutts Jr. killed Jessie Marie Davis and hoped only to enrage jurors enough to convict him of murder. "They hope that you'll lose your way," Fernando Mack said.

Prosecutors said Cutts strangled Davis, dumped her body and lied to police as thousands searched for her last summer in a case that drew national attention. Their 2 1/2-year-old son, Blake, gave investigators some of the first clues after his 26-year-old mother disappeared, saying: "Mommy's in the rug."

"He rolled Jessie up in the comforter from her bed and put her in the back of his truck," said prosecutor Chryssa Hartnett, adding that Davis' feet hung out of the comforter.

Cutts, 30, a former Canton patrolman, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and other charges in the death of Davis and her female fetus. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Davis was reported missing June 15 by her mother, who found Blake alone, wearing a dirty diaper, and Davis' bedroom in disarray. Her body was found in a park June 23 about 20 miles away from her home near North Canton, some 45 miles south of Cleveland.

The jury heard two audio recordings in which Cutts denied any knowledge of what happened to Davis, who was due to deliver their second child about two weeks after her death, prosecutors said. Cutts, who was married, told police that he didn't know whether the child was his because she also was seeing someone else.

Hartnett said Cutts was feeling the pressure of his crumbling marriage, financial debt and supporting several children.
Cutts told police that he'd last spoken to Davis on June 13 and that he called her the next day when she didn't bring Blake over for him to watch. In one of the phone calls, he left an angry message, saying, "You could at least call," Hartnett said. At the time, Blake was home alone.

Jessie Davis' mother, Patricia Porter, testified that when she found Blake, he told her: "Mommy's crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in the rug." Blake later told police: "Daddy's mad."

After the slaying, prosecutors say, Cutts headed to the home of a high school classmate and told her that he used his arm to strangle Davis, Hartnett said. He told her to say that he had arranged for her to baby-sit for Blake — part of his plan to cover up his involvement in the crime, Hartnett said.

Prosecutors say the classmate later told police of the admission. Cutts led police to Davis' body, Hartnett said.
Mack said jurors wouldn't like that Cutts knew where her body was and left Blake alone for 26 hours, referring to charges of gross abuse of a corpse and child endangering. He pointed out that a medical examiner was unable to determine how Davis was killed, listing the cause as "unspecified homicidal violence."

"They don't have a cause of death; rather, they have hypotheticals," he said. The trial is expected to resume Tuesday and last at least two weeks.

Monday, February 4, 2008

PBA faces trial over drunk cop

The New York Daily News - BY JOHN MARZULLI - Monday, February 4th 2008

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and two former delegates must stand trial on charges of obstructing the investigation of a drunken cop who mowed down four people, a judge has ruled.

Federal Judge Nina Gershon said a civil court jury will decide whether union delegates Louis Gallo and Michael Immitt engaged in a coverup to protect off-duty cop Joseph Gray after he killed the victims on Aug. 4, 2001.

"This trial is going to expose what the PBA does to protect officers from criminal and civil liability," said Alan Shapey, the lawyer for Victor Herrera, whose eight-months-pregnant wife, Maria, 23, died in the accident in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Their son, Anthony, 4; the child she was carrying, delivered by emergency c-section, and her sister, Delcia Pena, 16, also were killed.

Several years ago, the PBA was accused of obstructing the probe into the torture of immigrant Abner Louima at the 70th Precinct. The union settled the case for $1.6 million.

Shapey said the PBA had better be prepared to fork over "similar damages, if not more" in the pending case. Herrera and his mother-in-law received a $1.5 million payout from the city two years ago.

Shapey said the award might have been higher if the PBA had not succeeded in suppressing evidence of Gray's drunkenness.

The suit accuses Gallo and Immitt of counseling Gray not to take Breathalyzer and coordination tests after learning the confidential results of a field sobriety test.

A court-ordered blood sample taken four hours after the accident showed Gray had a 0.16 blood-alcohol level - twice the legal limit of 0.08.

Gallo also cut off questioning of Gray by a captain and was allowed to ride with him in a radio car to the stationhouse, the suit charges.

The PBA argued that Gallo and Immitt were not acting as cops or investigators but as union representatives.

"While this was an unfortunate and tragic incident, we don't believe there is any basis to hold the PBA liable for the act of an off-duty police officer in his private vehicle," PBA president Patrick Lynch said in a statement.

"The judge has decided that there are issues of fact that must be resolved, and the PBA will fight this case to its conclusion and through appeal, if necessary."

Gray admitted guzzling 13 beers in the stationhouse parking lot and at a strip bar before getting behind the wheel.

Gray was convicted of manslaughter and DWI and is serving five to 15 years. He is eligible for parole next year. Gallo and Immitt have retired.

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

Sunday, February 3, 2008

2 cops didn't learn from earlier sting

BY CARRIE MELAGO - NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER - Sunday, February 3rd 2008

Two city traffic enforcement agents were arrested for writing bogus summonses - just a few months after an undercover sting snared four of their co-workers, police said Saturday.

Agents Mohammad Islam and Mohammed Saleh were slapped Friday with charges that include forgery and official misconduct.
Last summer, an NYPD sting uncovered four other agents writing up a slew of phony tickets, sometimes not even bothering to leave the summonses on vehicles.

In fact, the two-month probe revealed the rogue civil servants rarely left their air-conditioned squad cars.
They allegedly handwrote summonses - to avoid computer time stamps - for nonexistent violations.

Authorities said the four agents targeted out-of-state drivers whom they assumed wouldn't fight the tickets, but investigators were tipped off by a large number of complaints.

It's unclear if Islam and Saleh are accused of using similar tactics. They also face charges of falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Police Corruption Case Dies

TheStar.com - RON BULL - TORONTO STAR
Charges against Ray Pollard (left), Steven Correia, Richard Benoit, Ned Maodus, Joe Miched and John Schertzer were stayed today. Judge rules right to a fair trial was delayed by excessive delays

February 01, 2008 - Nick Pron - Courts Bureau
The case that has been called the "largest police corruption scandal in Canadian history" began more than 10 years ago.


Yesterday, in a downtown courtroom, the prosecution of six former Toronto police drug squad officers came to an abrupt and surprising teary end when Justice Ian Nordheimer stayed the charges, blaming the Crown for its inept handling of the prosecution.

"No explanation for the glacial progress of this prosecution has been offered," said Nordheimer, in his 54-page ruling. "The vast majority of the time that has passed in this prosecution resulted from the crown's inability to make full and complete disclosure (of the evidence)."

Immediately after the ruling, the packed courtroom erupted in applause as many of the six officers, Staff Sgt. John Schertzer along with Constables Steve Correia, Joseph Miched, Raymond Pollard, Richard Benoit and Ned Maodus, broke down in tears after realizing the investigation into their alleged misdeeds that began a decade ago was finally over.

"My life has been hell for the past 10 years," said Miched, who quit the force in frustration as the case dragged on in the courts, and is now selling cars. Like the others, he had an unblemished police record before he was accused of stealing money from drug dealers and falsifying search warrants.

"It's been a long, stressful and painful journey for us all," said Schertzer, who also retired in frustration from the job that he loved.

He has a lawsuit pending against former chief Julian Fantino, and members of the special task force that spent more than $3 million, accumulating nearly a million pages of evidence in what then-RCMP Chief Supt. John Neily, the head of the task force, called a "precedent setting criminal investigation ... the largest police corruption scandal known in Canadian history."

Schertzer's wife, Joyce, also a police officer who attended nearly every court appearance, rushed from the gallery after court ended, hugging her husband as the officers tearfully embraced one another and their lawyers – Peter Brauti, John Rosen, Harry Black, Joanne Mulcahy, Earl Levy, Pat Ducharme and Alan Gold.

The six veteran officers had been charged with obstruction of justice, perjury, extortion and assault after allegedly falsifying notes, not getting search warrants, beating up drug dealers and stealing their money while investigating Toronto street gangs.

The usually loquacious Brauti, the lawyer who filed a two-metre high stack of briefs in his Charter of Rights motion to have the charges dropped for "unreasonable delay," which was accepted by Nordheimer, was almost at a loss for words.

"These men dedicated themselves to the justice system," he said later. "They certainly deserved better prosecution."

During a party afterwards, Brauti said all the officers were furious that some 200 cases their squad investigated were tossed from the courts after they were charged.

"They can't believe that drug dealers got a free walk while police officers and their families were put through a decade of hell," said Brauti.

The six went to court yesterday, expecting that only the charges against Benoit, whose part in the alleged scandal was minor, would be dropped.

But their spirits lifted as Nordheimer continually zeroed in on the Crown and the investigators who handled the case over the course of the three hours that he read his judgment.

Nordheimer described how many of the six suffered psychological trauma, with several needing medication for depression.

Most had joined the force right out of high school. They had been originally charged in 2000, charges that were dropped, only to be re-charged in 2004.

The six were immediately ostracized by the force, several marriages ended, their children were bullied at school and even the fathers of two of the officers became estranged from their sons after they were charged.

The day before his ruling, Nordheimer told the court that he had found "two clear-cut instances of misconduct" by detectives with the special task force that laid charges against the six, along with former police union head Rick McIntosh and Const. Bill McCormack over alleged extortion of bar owners in the Entertainment District, in a separate case still before the courts.

To a man, at a celebration party last night, they were enraged over comments from Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, who called for an investigation into what went wrong with the case.

"Everyone keeps assuming we were guilty. There should be a public inquiry all right, but it should be focused on the cops who investigated the cops," said Schertzer.

"We had the gangs in this city under control," said Schertzer. "Now look at what is happening. Gunplay almost daily, along with shootings and murders."

In his ruling, Nordheimer said that "certain investigators" with the task force deliberately leaked information to the media "on more than one occasion," an apparent bid to "encourage adverse publicity," which further prejudiced their right to a fair trial.

In one of the leaks, it was alleged that the money supposedly stolen by the squad was put into offshore bank accounts, an accusation that Nordheimer said during a pre-trial hearing was totally false.

Rosen said that while the officers were relieved that the charges were stayed, they were "saddened by the fact they weren't able to face their accusers ... and be vindicated in the courtroom. But the main thing is that they have suffered enough and that's what the court has found."

He said it was up to Chief Bill Blair to decide if the six should face internal police charges, but added "I would hope that this case is over."

The Crown has 30 days to decide if they will appeal the ruling. Lead prosecutor Milan Rupic declined to comment.

Nordheimer said in his ruling that a year before the charges were laid in 2004, Neily, the head of the task force, wrote to the attorney general, outlining his concern that prosecutors were botching the case.

"I remain extremely concerned with what appears to be a lack of any overt action to review our court briefs, review our materials ... or to work with us to formalize a prosecution strategy," wrote Neily, said the judge.

"We cannot continue to wait months and months for action on your part," he said about the prosecutors. "I have said this to you time and again and yet there is no change."

With files from Dale Anne Freed and Rob Ferguson

Friday, February 1, 2008

Veteran NYPD charged with conspiring to sell crack, tipping off gang

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS - BY TINA MOORE AND JOHN MARZULLI - Friday, February 1st 2008

A city detective was charged Thursday with conspiring to sell crack and tipping off members of a violent drug gang in Brooklyn.

Luis Batista, a 10-year veteran, was the second NYPD detective arrested in as many days on corruption charges. "Absolutely not guilty your honor," Batista, 34, said at his arraignment in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Batista first got on law enforcement's radar in 2006 when an informant claimed he and the cop went to a Bushwick hotel where they had sex with a woman and watched others use drugs, according to court papers.

The FBI then discovered that Batista was passing confidential information to a drug dealer, Virgilio Hiciano, before he fled to the Dominican Republic, authorities said. Batista was working in the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg and knew several drug dealers from the neighborhood, where he was raised.

When Batista feared he was under investigation, he called NYPD Sgt. Henry Conde, who was assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau. Conde allegedly accessed the IAB database and told Batista about the informant's allegations against him. Five crack dealers also have been indicted, and Conde was charged with obstructing justice.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was bombarded with questions from reporters yesterday about Batista and another detective busted Wednesday for pimping out a 13-year-old girl.

"If these allegations [against Batista] prove to be true, it's despicable conduct," Kelly said.

Former Queens detective made 13-year-old work sex parties, say police

BY KERRY BURKE, OREN YANIV, TAMER EL-GHOBASHY, XANA O'NEILL AND ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS - Friday, February 1st 2008

A pimp cop and his prostitute girlfriend threw kinky parties at the Queens Holiday Inn and attempted to pass off a 13-year-old hostage as experienced "sexual talent," law enforcement sources said Thursday.

Zelika Brown, a prostitute known as Mommy Z, would book a hotel room and then advertise sex parties on craigslist.org, sources said. She also text-messaged regular customers with party info, the sources said.

Detective Wayne Taylor told investigators all he did was drive Brown's "dancers" to parties hosted by Brown, his girlfriend. But cops say the 14-year veteran, a father of three, was the muscle for the sex parties.

Taylor also threatened a 13-year-old Brooklyn runaway whom he and his girlfriend "bought" for $500 from another pimp, telling her if she didn't perform "like a pro, she would get slapped down," the sources said.

Taylor, 35, and Brown, 29, were being held at Rikers Island on $250,000 bail. They allegedly forced the teen to have sex with as many as 20 men.

"This cop was telling this little kid that she better shake her a-- more if she wanted to pay off their $500 'investment,'" a source said.

The duo, along with 18-year-old prostitute Krystal Tudy, were arrested Tuesday. Tudy's job was to make sure the 13-year-old gave all her customers "A-1 treatment," sources said. But her family called her a victim.

"She was a victim because of the detective. It was his job to protect her," said Tudy's grandmother, Lillie Tudy, 74. "Why would he do this? How could he be on the police force? It's their job to protect people."

Cops got wind of the twisted scheme when the couple passed the 13-year-old to another pimp and she escaped. The girl told her mother that she had been abused and directed cops to Brown's Jamaica home. Taylor's role was exposed when a license plate was traced back to him.

The 13-year-old victim met with detectives again yesterday as they investigated whether Taylor and Brown had victimized other underage girls.