Cop cops Plea in Drug Bust

NYPD officer cops a plea in drug bust
The New York Daily News by Nicole Bode - June 27, 2009

A disgraced NYPD officer turned in his badge and pleaded guilty Friday to framing two brothers in a phony drug bust. Police Officer Henry Tavarez, 27, of Manhattan, admitted he and Detective Stephen Anderson worked together to wrongly incriminate brothers Jose and Maximo Colon during a Jan. 5, 2008, sting inside a Queens nightclub. They arrested the brothers on trumped up charges that the Colons sold them cocaine at the Delicias de Mi Tierra bar in Elmhurst, prosecutors said, then tried to cover their tracks by placing in evidence some of the drugs they had purchased during another bust. Tavarez pleaded guilty to felony charges of offering a false report. As part of his plea deal, he resigned from the NYPD and could face five days in jail at sentencing. All charges against the brothers were dropped and they have filed a federal lawsuit against the officers. Anderson resigned from the NYPD prior to the revelation. He could face up to nine years in prison, prosecutors said.