Trooper vs. Miami cop: police, public see clash differently
The Miami Herald by Diana Moskovitz and David Ovalle - November 5, 2011
A dashboard video cam that captured the image of Florida state trooper Donna Jane Watts marching a uniformed, handcuffed Miami police officer to her squad car, all the while berating him for speeding, has sparked a figurative slugfest in the blogosphere that seems to be intensifying by the hour. The core issue that has transfixed Miami’s law enforcement community in the past few days appears to be this: whether Watts, a trooper with a no-nonsense attitude, crossed the line when she sped south on Florida’s Turnpike behind the police car of Miami officer Fausto Lopez, as he broke speed limits to get to an early-morning off-duty assignment. When Lopez finally stopped — and there is considerable debate over whether he was traveling the previously reported 120 miles per hour — Watts approached him like any other suspect and not a brother officer on the side of the dark road. She pulled her sidearm — highly unusual for a speeding stop — aimed and shouted at him as she approached. Then she cuffed him and escorted him back to her vehicle. Therein lies the firestorm. Watts violated one of the unwritten rules of the profession: It holds that an officer should try at all costs to avoid pulling over a fellow officer for minor infractions. Kick it to the higher ups and let them hash it out. “This is not police corruption,’’ said retired North Miami Police Maj. Bob Lynch, a police instructor. “These are not criminal offenses, but traffic violations.” He says he warns his classes: “Don’t ever put yourself, on-duty, in a position where you’re asking for a confrontation.” Many outside law enforcement are also upset, but for an entirely different reason. They want to know why any officer would feel he or she has carte blanche to break laws they have been sworn to uphold. Or, as Herald reader Joe Canas of Kendall said in response to an online query, echoing many: “I can’t remember a single time where a police car was ever following posted speed limits. All of them — and I mean all of them save for FHP — get on the left-most side of the highway and speed with impunity.” Lynch and other trainers say both law officers are to blame — Lopez for speeding enough to warrant FHP attention, and Watts for agitatedly handcuffing a uniformed officer, despite his polite protests. “I felt the gun should have been put away and I don’t think she should have made the physical arrest,” said Francis “Bucky” Greene, a former Miami-Dade sergeant and retired police trainer. “If she called a supervisor to come to the scene, I think the guy would have his [city-owned] car taken away on the spot.”
VIRAL VIDEO
Fueled by anger from both law enforcement and citizens, the video of the traffic stop has gone viral. Officers have mocked Watts in online postings, doctoring photos. Conversely, Watts supporters have started a Facebook page. Here is what is known about the early morning incident from Oct. 11: Watts, while on patrol, spotted a police cruiser whiz past her in the southbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike in Broward. In her report, Watts would write that Lopez was weaving in and out of traffic at speeds of more than 120 miles per hour. With lights and sirens blazing, she began following the sedan. A recording later released by FHP at the request of the news media showed that superiors tried unsuccessfully by radio to get Watts to stand down and “back off.” But she did not. Ultimately, Watts released Lopez after issuing him a ticket charging reckless driving, a second-degree misdemeanor. And then there are the unknowns: Since she pulled her firearm, Watts must have thought she was in danger, so why didn’t she wait for backup? Once she realized it was a fellow law enforcement officer, why didn’t she request a supervisor? Did the chaotic back-and-forth over the radio prevent Watts from hearing the admonition to “back off?” Lopez would later say he hadn’t realized the flashing lights of the FHP squad car were for him and he moved to another lane to get out of the way. He has hired a lawyer. Miami’s police union had harsh words for the trooper. “The law enforcement community is not upset with her because for her traffic summons,’’ Miami Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Javier Ortiz told The Herald. “We’re upset with her because of her reckless behavior in pulling a firearm on a uniformed patrolman in a marked patrol unit.” In the aftermath, an online law enforcement message board, LeoAffairs.com, exploded with opinions, many threatening toward Watts. His photo has been plastered across the Internet, sometimes digitally altered to include a bottle of vodka.
RE-ENACTMENT
Uniformed Hialeah officers posed for a photo comically re-enacting the episode. The make-believe Watts is a male wearing a blonde, curly wig to mimic the real trooper. “It’s the classic thin blue line,” Lynch said, explaining the backlash and not his own feelings toward the incident. “One of my buddies gets shafted, and we all think it’s wrong. We’re all going to defend him and sometimes it gets out of hand. It’s childish and it needs to stop.” This wasn’t the first time the decision of an officer to ticket another officer has been questioned. In 1997, a confrontation between two officers that began with a traffic stop vaulted into prime time news across the country after it was caught on camera. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office pulled over Metro-Dade police Maj. Aaron Campbell because he changed lanes without signaling. Campbell, who is black, believed he was pulled over because of racial profiling and because he was driving a new car with Miami-Dade license tags. Deputies denied the accusation. The confrontation resulted in a full-blown trial, a lawsuit that was later dropped and a lot of bad feelings. In 2006, the issue arose again when Miami police Lt. Armando Bello got news that his son, a Miami-Dade officer, had been critically injured in an off-duty crash. Bello, in the Florida Keys when he got word of the accident, jumped in his Mercedes and raced north. FHP trooper Jose Burgos ticketed him for going 91 in a 55-mph zone. In later reviewing the ticket amid an outpouring of criticism, FHP said the trooper didn’t know about the crash, which resulted in the death of Bello’s son. This isn’t the first time Watts has ticketed a fellow cop. Broward court records show she cited Miami Beach officer Philip Elmore in June for going 82 in a 55 mph zone. The case went to trial and Elmore was convicted but adjudication was withheld, according to records. The records did not indicate if Elmore was on or off duty or what kind of vehicle he was driving. Watts became a deputy with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in 2003. Before coming to South Florida, she patrolled the western Panhandle for FHP. In 2008, she was among a dozen or more troopers honored for making more than 100 drunk-driving arrests the prior year.
COMMENDATIONS
Lopez , a Miami cop for five years, has received several commendations for good work, according to his personnel jacket. Earlier for this year, he was written up for failing to immediately report damage to the driver’s side fender of his cruiser. And his record shows a driving complaint reported to internal affairs in 2009, but it doesn’t show how it was resolved. His lawyer, Bill Matthewman, said he understood that it was dismissed. “You know, for being on the street that long and having no complaints of any merit at all, it shows that he is a very level-headed and reasonable officer who treats people fairly,” Mattewman said. Outside the law enforcement community, the response to the incident has little to do with Lopez’s record. Many are nursing a grudge, saying they’ve spent a lifetime watching police cars bob and weave through traffic at reckless speeds, and switch their lights and sirens on and off at intersections, solely to avoid obeying traffic lights. “Many times I see Dade-based police speeding north in Broward County,” said Sean Schwinghammer of Miami Lakes. “I have called police departments about it regularly and reported the numbers on the back of the cruisers. Only once was I called back, and they told me they would deal with it.” Dennis Chang of Miami concurred that police drive as if the laws apply to others and not them, adding: “If we are observing the speed limit, why aren’t they?” On the LEO website used by law officers, one person posted: “Please know tonight that citizens across this country are reading your posts….I support law enforcement but am telling you now that you are and will lose in the COURT of PUBLIC OPINION on this issue if you continue to debate this in open forums.’’ Ultimately, the stop and the furor it has generated underscores a characteristic of many professions, not just law enforcement, said professor Dennis Kenney, a former Polk County law officer who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Each profession has its courtesies, fair or not — and citizens can feel slighted when officers catch a break from a fellow cop. “They are right,’’ Kenney said. “The law should apply evenly to everyone. To the citizen who is getting the ticket, it’s expensive. To the officer writing the ticket, it’s work product,’’ something they do all day, every day. El Nuevo Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report. dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Police Chief Arrested By FBI
East Washington police chief, protection offer linked
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review by Brian Bowling - November 1, 2011
A Washington County police chief agreed to buy Tasers and act as protection for people he thought were drug dealers, an FBI agent testified on Monday. Three days after the FBI arrested East Washington police Chief Donald Solomon, 55, authorities explained how he violated the Hobbs Act, which prohibits government officials from using their positions to extort money. Solomon pleaded not guilty. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell ordered him held without bail, saying the chief presented himself to undercover agents as "the best cop that money could buy" and bragged about killing people or having others kill for him. Assistant Federal Public Defender Marketa Sims argued for Solomon's release because he has no history of violence or crime before the charges. She said agents coaxed him into bragging about killing people or having others hurt or kill people, but there is no evidence he's done any of that. "He's suddenly blossomed into this violent, Tony Soprano figure? That's not what we know about people," she said. East Washington Solicitor Cary Jones said borough officials did not expect the charges because the council never received a complaint about Solomon during his two years as chief or the previous two decades as a part-time police officer. "I just think it was a shock to people on borough council and borough residents because it seems out of character," Jones said. Solomon has always been "polite, professional, friendly, hard working, intelligent -- he just did his job." FBI Special Agent Joseph Bieshelt testified that police were investigating a drive-by shooting that damaged a car and the house where Solomon's ex-girlfriend lived this year. The car belonged to her current boyfriend, Bieshelt said.
The investigation led them to Solomon, who agreed to supply Tasers, restricted to law enforcement use, for an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer, the agent said. Solomon also agreed to provide protection for two fake drug deals conducted by undercover agents, the indictment states. The agents paid Solomon $500 "per kilogram" for the protection, according to the indictment. Sims said there would be little argument about the facts in the case, but considerable debate over how they should be interpreted. The FBI coaxed Solomon into making threats against his ex-girlfriend and an unnamed borough councilman, and he went along with them because he was desperate for the money they offered, Sims said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Cessar argued that Solomon is a danger to himself and the community because he was recorded repeatedly threatening his ex-girlfriend, the councilman and others, as well as telling a friend that he'd shoot himself rather than go to jail. He said the drive-by shooting happened before the FBI got involved. Authorities did not elaborate in court about Solomon's alleged boasts of killing people. Solomon appeared in court unshaven and wearing red jail garb. Other than responding to questions from Mitchell, he remained silent. Solomon's arrest took borough officials by surprise. On Friday, Mayor Mark Pacilla, who oversees the police department, said that Solomon was suspended with pay. A community of 2,234 people, East Washington neighbors the county seat. Part of Washington & Jefferson College sits within its limits. Timothy D. Johnson, 40, of Washington also was arraigned yesterday. During Solomon's hearing, authorities identified Johnson as the man who shot the car and house. He is charged only with illegal possession and transfer of a silencer. Mitchell ordered Johnson held without bail. Johnson's lawyer, Lee Markovitz, said after the hearing that Johnson is a truck driver who has been steadily employed with no criminal record since he got out of the Army in 1992. Johnson made a "somewhat inculpatory" statement to investigators when he thought that he wouldn't be charged in the case, Markovitz said. Brian Bowling can be reached at bbowling@tribweb.com or 412-325-4301.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review by Brian Bowling - November 1, 2011
A Washington County police chief agreed to buy Tasers and act as protection for people he thought were drug dealers, an FBI agent testified on Monday. Three days after the FBI arrested East Washington police Chief Donald Solomon, 55, authorities explained how he violated the Hobbs Act, which prohibits government officials from using their positions to extort money. Solomon pleaded not guilty. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell ordered him held without bail, saying the chief presented himself to undercover agents as "the best cop that money could buy" and bragged about killing people or having others kill for him. Assistant Federal Public Defender Marketa Sims argued for Solomon's release because he has no history of violence or crime before the charges. She said agents coaxed him into bragging about killing people or having others hurt or kill people, but there is no evidence he's done any of that. "He's suddenly blossomed into this violent, Tony Soprano figure? That's not what we know about people," she said. East Washington Solicitor Cary Jones said borough officials did not expect the charges because the council never received a complaint about Solomon during his two years as chief or the previous two decades as a part-time police officer. "I just think it was a shock to people on borough council and borough residents because it seems out of character," Jones said. Solomon has always been "polite, professional, friendly, hard working, intelligent -- he just did his job." FBI Special Agent Joseph Bieshelt testified that police were investigating a drive-by shooting that damaged a car and the house where Solomon's ex-girlfriend lived this year. The car belonged to her current boyfriend, Bieshelt said.
The investigation led them to Solomon, who agreed to supply Tasers, restricted to law enforcement use, for an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer, the agent said. Solomon also agreed to provide protection for two fake drug deals conducted by undercover agents, the indictment states. The agents paid Solomon $500 "per kilogram" for the protection, according to the indictment. Sims said there would be little argument about the facts in the case, but considerable debate over how they should be interpreted. The FBI coaxed Solomon into making threats against his ex-girlfriend and an unnamed borough councilman, and he went along with them because he was desperate for the money they offered, Sims said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Cessar argued that Solomon is a danger to himself and the community because he was recorded repeatedly threatening his ex-girlfriend, the councilman and others, as well as telling a friend that he'd shoot himself rather than go to jail. He said the drive-by shooting happened before the FBI got involved. Authorities did not elaborate in court about Solomon's alleged boasts of killing people. Solomon appeared in court unshaven and wearing red jail garb. Other than responding to questions from Mitchell, he remained silent. Solomon's arrest took borough officials by surprise. On Friday, Mayor Mark Pacilla, who oversees the police department, said that Solomon was suspended with pay. A community of 2,234 people, East Washington neighbors the county seat. Part of Washington & Jefferson College sits within its limits. Timothy D. Johnson, 40, of Washington also was arraigned yesterday. During Solomon's hearing, authorities identified Johnson as the man who shot the car and house. He is charged only with illegal possession and transfer of a silencer. Mitchell ordered Johnson held without bail. Johnson's lawyer, Lee Markovitz, said after the hearing that Johnson is a truck driver who has been steadily employed with no criminal record since he got out of the Army in 1992. Johnson made a "somewhat inculpatory" statement to investigators when he thought that he wouldn't be charged in the case, Markovitz said. Brian Bowling can be reached at bbowling@tribweb.com or 412-325-4301.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Cop Charged With Obstruction and Civil Rights Violations
Dolton cop charged with civil rights violations, obstruction
The Chicago Tribune - WGN Radio by Steve Schmadeke - November 1, 2011
DOLTON, ILLINOIS - A Dolton police officer was arrested Tuesday and charged with “unlawfully” striking two people in the head and later threatening to hurt the town’s police chief for cooperating with a federal investigation into the assaults. Patrol officer Kevin Fletcher, 34, of South Holland, has been on desk duty since 2009 after allegations of a civil-rights violation, said Dolton spokeswoman TaQuoya Kennedy. He was not arrested at work, she said. Fletcher pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of violating civil rights by using excessive force and one count of obstruction of justice. He was released on a $15,000 secured bond, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. On May 17, 2009, Fletcher was allegedly acting as a police officer when he struck two Calumet City residents in the head with a law-enforcement-style baton, according to an indictment made public Tuesday. Less than a year later, he allegedly “threatened to cause bodily injury” to then-Chief Robert Fox for turning over records to a grand jury investigating the civil-rights violations and providing information to the FBI, the indictment says. The south suburb has “fully cooperated” during the investigation, Kennedy said. “We recognize that the misfortune falls upon the officer, but it also falls upon the community and the entire police force,” Kennedy said in an email. “We will continue to do all that we can to help resolve this matter.” The department has had issues with officers using excessive force. During the same month Fletcher allegedly struck two people, another Dolton police officer, Christopher Lloyd, was caught on camera allegedly breaking a special-needs student’s nose because the 15-year-old boy hadn’t tucked in his shirt. Lloyd was fired after the incident, officials said at the time. sschmadeke@tribune.com
The Chicago Tribune - WGN Radio by Steve Schmadeke - November 1, 2011
DOLTON, ILLINOIS - A Dolton police officer was arrested Tuesday and charged with “unlawfully” striking two people in the head and later threatening to hurt the town’s police chief for cooperating with a federal investigation into the assaults. Patrol officer Kevin Fletcher, 34, of South Holland, has been on desk duty since 2009 after allegations of a civil-rights violation, said Dolton spokeswoman TaQuoya Kennedy. He was not arrested at work, she said. Fletcher pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of violating civil rights by using excessive force and one count of obstruction of justice. He was released on a $15,000 secured bond, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. On May 17, 2009, Fletcher was allegedly acting as a police officer when he struck two Calumet City residents in the head with a law-enforcement-style baton, according to an indictment made public Tuesday. Less than a year later, he allegedly “threatened to cause bodily injury” to then-Chief Robert Fox for turning over records to a grand jury investigating the civil-rights violations and providing information to the FBI, the indictment says. The south suburb has “fully cooperated” during the investigation, Kennedy said. “We recognize that the misfortune falls upon the officer, but it also falls upon the community and the entire police force,” Kennedy said in an email. “We will continue to do all that we can to help resolve this matter.” The department has had issues with officers using excessive force. During the same month Fletcher allegedly struck two people, another Dolton police officer, Christopher Lloyd, was caught on camera allegedly breaking a special-needs student’s nose because the 15-year-old boy hadn’t tucked in his shirt. Lloyd was fired after the incident, officials said at the time. sschmadeke@tribune.com
Cop Pleads Guilty, Resigns After Coercion Incident
Cop Pleads Guilty, Resigns After Coercion Incident in East Meadow
Officer pleads guilty to misconduct after sexually inappropriate behavior during traffic stop.
A Nassau County police officer from the Third Precinct pled guilty and resigned Wednesday after being charged with official misconduct in relation to a traffic stop in East Meadow during which he reportedly coerced a woman into touching him sexually. The former officer, Garrett Mannerz, had served as a Nassau County police officer since November 2005. He resigned at 12:25 p.m. on Wednesday and is ineligible for a NCPD pension. Mannerz, 34, was arrested on June 15 following an investigation by the Nassau District Attorney’s Office Public Corruption Bureau in conjunction with the Nassau County Police Department Internal Affairs Unit (IAU). According to Nassau DA Kathleen Rice, Mannerz stopped a vehicle that was travelling in the vicinity of Hempstead Turnpike and Newbridge Road in East Meadow on Feb. 27, 2011. Three women in their early 20s were inside the car. After performing field sobriety tests on the driver, Mannerz ordered one of the passengers out of the car, asked for her phone number and had the woman walk over to his patrol car where he told her that if she “did something for him,” then he would allow the driver to leave the location without receiving a summons or being charged criminally, Rice said. According to Rice, after allowing the women to leave, Mannerz then began to place sexually suggestive calls to the woman. He was arrested after the victim recorded one of the phone calls and brought it to police. Hon. John Kase sentenced Mannerz to 80 hours of community service and issued orders of protection prohibiting Mannerz from contacting the three women who were in the car and granted a conditional discharge. Mannerz had been facing up to seven years in prison on multiple charges, including felony bribe receiving, but a plea deal knocked the case down to a single misdemeanor official misconduct charge. “Garrett Mannerz abused his authority by taking advantage of a woman while on duty, and his conduct was a disgrace to the Nassau County Police Department,” Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. “Nassau County is a safer place with Garrett Mannerz off the police force.”
The East Meadow Patch by Geoffrey Walter - November 2, 2011
Officer pleads guilty to misconduct after sexually inappropriate behavior during traffic stop.
A Nassau County police officer from the Third Precinct pled guilty and resigned Wednesday after being charged with official misconduct in relation to a traffic stop in East Meadow during which he reportedly coerced a woman into touching him sexually. The former officer, Garrett Mannerz, had served as a Nassau County police officer since November 2005. He resigned at 12:25 p.m. on Wednesday and is ineligible for a NCPD pension. Mannerz, 34, was arrested on June 15 following an investigation by the Nassau District Attorney’s Office Public Corruption Bureau in conjunction with the Nassau County Police Department Internal Affairs Unit (IAU). According to Nassau DA Kathleen Rice, Mannerz stopped a vehicle that was travelling in the vicinity of Hempstead Turnpike and Newbridge Road in East Meadow on Feb. 27, 2011. Three women in their early 20s were inside the car. After performing field sobriety tests on the driver, Mannerz ordered one of the passengers out of the car, asked for her phone number and had the woman walk over to his patrol car where he told her that if she “did something for him,” then he would allow the driver to leave the location without receiving a summons or being charged criminally, Rice said. According to Rice, after allowing the women to leave, Mannerz then began to place sexually suggestive calls to the woman. He was arrested after the victim recorded one of the phone calls and brought it to police. Hon. John Kase sentenced Mannerz to 80 hours of community service and issued orders of protection prohibiting Mannerz from contacting the three women who were in the car and granted a conditional discharge. Mannerz had been facing up to seven years in prison on multiple charges, including felony bribe receiving, but a plea deal knocked the case down to a single misdemeanor official misconduct charge. “Garrett Mannerz abused his authority by taking advantage of a woman while on duty, and his conduct was a disgrace to the Nassau County Police Department,” Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. “Nassau County is a safer place with Garrett Mannerz off the police force.”
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Experts Say NYPD Isn’t Policing Itself
Experts Say N.Y. Police Dept. Isn’t Policing Itself
The New York Times by William K. Rashbaum, Joseph Goldstein and Al Baker - November 2, 2011
Seven narcotics investigators are convicted of planting drugs on people to meet arrest quotas. Eight current and former patrol officers are charged with smuggling guns into the state. Another is charged with making a false arrest, apparently as a favor for his cousin. Three more are convicted of robbing a perfume warehouse. All these cases involved New York City police officers and unfolded or were resolved in recent months. But beyond the fact of criminal charges against those sworn to protect the public, they all had another thing in common: Each case was uncovered by an outside agency, not the Internal Affairs Bureau of the New York Police Department, the unit responsible for unearthing and investigating officers’ wrongdoing. This spate of unrelated corruption prosecutions, and what some see as the Internal Affairs Bureau’s spotty record of uncovering major cases involving crooked officers, raise questions about the department’s ability to police itself, said nearly a dozen current and former prosecutors who have handled corruption cases, as well as some current and former Internal Affairs supervisors and investigators. Several of them blamed a lack of effective outside oversight of the department’s anticorruption program, characterizing the monitoring as weak at best in recent years, with monitors having neither the political will to press the department nor support from City Hall. They also cited low starting salaries for new officers, poor morale, recruits drawn from a smaller pool of qualified candidates and a hidebound Internal Affairs Bureau bureaucracy. For his part, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly disputed any weaknesses in Internal Affairs, saying it was as aggressive as ever, if not more so, and noting that its ranks and budget had swelled even as the department’s manpower and budget had been cut back. He said Internal Affairs officers were front and center in making several of the recent cases. The case of the corrupt narcotics investigators — seven have been convicted, one on Wednesday at a trial where testimony suggested that such conduct was pervasive — was initially uncovered by the office of the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, with federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Manhattan, have uncovered other cases, and the case of the officers convicted in September of the armed robbery of the perfume warehouse was uncovered by the Carlstadt, N.J., police and the F.B.I.
Another sensational case that became public with the indictments of 16 officers last week — a long-running investigation of ticket-fixing in the Bronx — was indeed uncovered by Internal Affairs. But that was hardly a clean-cut coup. Several people involved in the matter said the bureau initially did not want to pursue the ticket case, directing investigators instead to focus more narrowly on a drug case against one officer that had prompted it. Police officials vehemently disputed that version of events. With the ticket-fixing indictments on Friday, and the announcement three days earlier of the charges accusing eight current and former officers of smuggling M-16 assault rifles, Commissioner Kelly twice found himself standing at news conferences talking about the arrests of officers. In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Kelly, joined by Chief Charles V. Campisi, the head of the Internal Affairs Bureau, said the budget for the bureau had risen to $66 million, from about $41 million in 2001. “We have increased the staffing in I.A.B., core I.A.B., we have increased it by over 100 from 2001 to the present,” Mr. Kelly said. He added, “The vast majority of cases I.A.B. does are initiated by I.A.B.” Mr. Kelly said previously that as a result of the ticket-fixing investigation, in which some officers were accused of altering their testimony in traffic court, he had assigned additional officers from other commands to monitor traffic court testimony. Chief Campisi said the officer who had been charged with making a false arrest for his cousin was already being investigated by Internal Affairs, though for a different matter, when the F.B.I. began investigating him. He said the case of the narcotics officers was, for the most part, an Internal Affairs case, even if the original arrests of falsely accused civilians first came under scrutiny by the Queens district attorney’s office. And Mr. Kelly and Mr. Campisi said that the Carlstadt department was first involved in investigating the perfume warehouse robbery only because the crime occurred there, and that as soon as the role of New York officers was revealed, Internal Affairs joined in. There is a tiny city agency responsible for monitoring the Internal Affairs Bureau: the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Police Corruption. But it has no subpoena power — it must rely on the department’s good will, and its modest budget and staff of five are spread thin.
A new study by the Citizens Crime Commission in New York, provided by Richard Aborn, its president, shows that other major municipal police departments are overseen by agencies that do have subpoena power and can focus more broadly on misconduct. The chairman of the mayor’s commission, Michael F. Armstrong, served in the 1970s as the counsel to the Knapp Commission, which grew out of one of the Police Department’s worst scandals. Mr. Armstrong said he felt his current panel was doing an effective job and praised the department’s anticorruption efforts. But he acknowledged that the commission was significantly limited in what it could do. One former Internal Affairs Bureau investigator who was involved in scores of cases in recent years said the number of corruption complaints — “logs” in police parlance — had been on the rise, climbing to about 65,000 a year from about 45,000 a year in a little under a decade. The bureau’s top management classifies those complaints into three categories: “corruption,” the most serious; “misconduct,” which includes off-duty and less serious wrongdoing; and “outside guidelines” cases, the least serious. They are known as C, M and OG cases. While the number of C cases has hovered at about 1,000 a year for that entire period, the former Internal Affairs investigator said, many in Internal Affairs believe that number is kept artificially constant. “They hold steady miraculously,” said the former Internal Affairs investigator, who insisted on anonymity for fear of retaliation. A number of current and former prosecutors said that the Internal Affairs Bureau, when it is brought in on a case, often provided invaluable assistance. Most added that they had never seen bureau supervisors or Chief Campisi, who starts work between 4 and 5 a.m., seek to cover up misconduct. Several praised his work and commitment. But others, and current and former Internal Affairs Bureau supervisors and investigators, said the crushing weight of its bureaucratic approach to investigations — put in place, they say, because officials feared criticism by the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Police Corruption — kept it focused on small-bore cases and did more to generate paperwork than productive investigations. Current and former Internal Affairs investigators said very little of the bureau’s day-to-day effort was spent trying to identify corruption or spot worrisome trends and practices among the police. “We don’t have anything proactive where we can sit there and think like cops and track corruption,” the former Internal Affairs investigator said. “There is no real detective work going on.” The person added, “Everything in I.A.B. is all reactive.” The former Internal Affairs investigator said that nearly all investigative work was spent looking into the thousands of complaints it received each year, many of which were brought anonymously, often with the complainant unable to identify the suspect officers. While some logs look promising, others seem like dead-ends. But such cases are never closed after a cursory review, and even the least promising require months of intermittent investigation before they may be closed out. “No matter how outlandish it is,” the person said, “they’ll do a 60 or 70 page file on it.”
Seven narcotics investigators are convicted of planting drugs on people to meet arrest quotas. Eight current and former patrol officers are charged with smuggling guns into the state. Another is charged with making a false arrest, apparently as a favor for his cousin. Three more are convicted of robbing a perfume warehouse. All these cases involved New York City police officers and unfolded or were resolved in recent months. But beyond the fact of criminal charges against those sworn to protect the public, they all had another thing in common: Each case was uncovered by an outside agency, not the Internal Affairs Bureau of the New York Police Department, the unit responsible for unearthing and investigating officers’ wrongdoing. This spate of unrelated corruption prosecutions, and what some see as the Internal Affairs Bureau’s spotty record of uncovering major cases involving crooked officers, raise questions about the department’s ability to police itself, said nearly a dozen current and former prosecutors who have handled corruption cases, as well as some current and former Internal Affairs supervisors and investigators. Several of them blamed a lack of effective outside oversight of the department’s anticorruption program, characterizing the monitoring as weak at best in recent years, with monitors having neither the political will to press the department nor support from City Hall. They also cited low starting salaries for new officers, poor morale, recruits drawn from a smaller pool of qualified candidates and a hidebound Internal Affairs Bureau bureaucracy. For his part, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly disputed any weaknesses in Internal Affairs, saying it was as aggressive as ever, if not more so, and noting that its ranks and budget had swelled even as the department’s manpower and budget had been cut back. He said Internal Affairs officers were front and center in making several of the recent cases. The case of the corrupt narcotics investigators — seven have been convicted, one on Wednesday at a trial where testimony suggested that such conduct was pervasive — was initially uncovered by the office of the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, with federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Manhattan, have uncovered other cases, and the case of the officers convicted in September of the armed robbery of the perfume warehouse was uncovered by the Carlstadt, N.J., police and the F.B.I.
Another sensational case that became public with the indictments of 16 officers last week — a long-running investigation of ticket-fixing in the Bronx — was indeed uncovered by Internal Affairs. But that was hardly a clean-cut coup. Several people involved in the matter said the bureau initially did not want to pursue the ticket case, directing investigators instead to focus more narrowly on a drug case against one officer that had prompted it. Police officials vehemently disputed that version of events. With the ticket-fixing indictments on Friday, and the announcement three days earlier of the charges accusing eight current and former officers of smuggling M-16 assault rifles, Commissioner Kelly twice found himself standing at news conferences talking about the arrests of officers. In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Kelly, joined by Chief Charles V. Campisi, the head of the Internal Affairs Bureau, said the budget for the bureau had risen to $66 million, from about $41 million in 2001. “We have increased the staffing in I.A.B., core I.A.B., we have increased it by over 100 from 2001 to the present,” Mr. Kelly said. He added, “The vast majority of cases I.A.B. does are initiated by I.A.B.” Mr. Kelly said previously that as a result of the ticket-fixing investigation, in which some officers were accused of altering their testimony in traffic court, he had assigned additional officers from other commands to monitor traffic court testimony. Chief Campisi said the officer who had been charged with making a false arrest for his cousin was already being investigated by Internal Affairs, though for a different matter, when the F.B.I. began investigating him. He said the case of the narcotics officers was, for the most part, an Internal Affairs case, even if the original arrests of falsely accused civilians first came under scrutiny by the Queens district attorney’s office. And Mr. Kelly and Mr. Campisi said that the Carlstadt department was first involved in investigating the perfume warehouse robbery only because the crime occurred there, and that as soon as the role of New York officers was revealed, Internal Affairs joined in. There is a tiny city agency responsible for monitoring the Internal Affairs Bureau: the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Police Corruption. But it has no subpoena power — it must rely on the department’s good will, and its modest budget and staff of five are spread thin.
A new study by the Citizens Crime Commission in New York, provided by Richard Aborn, its president, shows that other major municipal police departments are overseen by agencies that do have subpoena power and can focus more broadly on misconduct. The chairman of the mayor’s commission, Michael F. Armstrong, served in the 1970s as the counsel to the Knapp Commission, which grew out of one of the Police Department’s worst scandals. Mr. Armstrong said he felt his current panel was doing an effective job and praised the department’s anticorruption efforts. But he acknowledged that the commission was significantly limited in what it could do. One former Internal Affairs Bureau investigator who was involved in scores of cases in recent years said the number of corruption complaints — “logs” in police parlance — had been on the rise, climbing to about 65,000 a year from about 45,000 a year in a little under a decade. The bureau’s top management classifies those complaints into three categories: “corruption,” the most serious; “misconduct,” which includes off-duty and less serious wrongdoing; and “outside guidelines” cases, the least serious. They are known as C, M and OG cases. While the number of C cases has hovered at about 1,000 a year for that entire period, the former Internal Affairs investigator said, many in Internal Affairs believe that number is kept artificially constant. “They hold steady miraculously,” said the former Internal Affairs investigator, who insisted on anonymity for fear of retaliation. A number of current and former prosecutors said that the Internal Affairs Bureau, when it is brought in on a case, often provided invaluable assistance. Most added that they had never seen bureau supervisors or Chief Campisi, who starts work between 4 and 5 a.m., seek to cover up misconduct. Several praised his work and commitment. But others, and current and former Internal Affairs Bureau supervisors and investigators, said the crushing weight of its bureaucratic approach to investigations — put in place, they say, because officials feared criticism by the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Police Corruption — kept it focused on small-bore cases and did more to generate paperwork than productive investigations. Current and former Internal Affairs investigators said very little of the bureau’s day-to-day effort was spent trying to identify corruption or spot worrisome trends and practices among the police. “We don’t have anything proactive where we can sit there and think like cops and track corruption,” the former Internal Affairs investigator said. “There is no real detective work going on.” The person added, “Everything in I.A.B. is all reactive.” The former Internal Affairs investigator said that nearly all investigative work was spent looking into the thousands of complaints it received each year, many of which were brought anonymously, often with the complainant unable to identify the suspect officers. While some logs look promising, others seem like dead-ends. But such cases are never closed after a cursory review, and even the least promising require months of intermittent investigation before they may be closed out. “No matter how outlandish it is,” the person said, “they’ll do a 60 or 70 page file on it.”
The Blue Wall Cracks, Cops Approve Corruption
The Blue Wall Cracks: NYPD Officers Approve Corruption
The Epoch Times by John Christopher Fine - November 2, 2011
The Epoch Times by John Christopher Fine - November 2, 2011
"Corruption of the most evil sort, proved by taped recordings, with the worst motives and language, is condoned."
NEW YORK—They are sworn to uphold the law. When they go wrong there is nobody to stop them. That there are corrupt cops is not surprising. That their criminal conduct is condoned, even applauded, by other police officers is appalling. A continuing scandal in the New York Police Department under Commissioner Ray Kelly, has sparked protests by tough looking cops rallying around the courthouse to support Officer Joe Ramos, a 17-year veteran of the NYPD. Ramos was indicted for making a heroin buy and delivering it while on duty in his patrol car. Ramos is also charged with stealing $50,000 from a police undercover operative that posed as a drug dealer and for revealing an informant’s identity. Corruption of the most evil sort, proved by taped recordings, with the worst motives and language, is condoned. Sixteen NYPD officers were indicted on charges that they used the law they were sworn to uphold for their own purposes. Police Lieutenant Jennara Everleth-Cobb was reported to have leaked information about the investigation to a Police Benevolent Association (PBA) official and other cops. Wiretaps issued by the court, revealed in the indictments in Bronx Supreme Court, quoted Lt. Jennara Everleth-Cobb saying “Be careful when you’re on the phone. They’re listening.” Jose Ramos is quoted on the wires saying “I stopped caring about the law a long time ago…I could drive a dead body in the trunk of my car where I want to and nobody would stop me.” Officer Christopher Scott was recorded saying to other cops in an assault cover-up fix, “We don’t know who did this, ok? We’re going to make this go away for him.” Another NYPD officer, Jamie Pagan, fixed a relative’s ticket and was recorded saying, “Whatever you need, you tell me and I’ll take care of it. You won’t get no f… hassle. It will be like it never happened.” Pagan is a PBA Delegate. That these NYPD officers were caught is a wonder in and of itself. That many of them were involved as officers with the PBA is a disgrace to police officers everywhere.
John Christopher Fine served as senior Assistant District Attorney in New York County’s Rackets Bureau where he investigated and prosecuted matters involving official corruption and organized crime. He served as head of the Organized Crime Task Force and was Special Counsel to a U.S. Senate investigating committee. He continues as a consultant to government for matters involving official corruption and organized crime. THE EPOCH TIMES
NEW YORK—They are sworn to uphold the law. When they go wrong there is nobody to stop them. That there are corrupt cops is not surprising. That their criminal conduct is condoned, even applauded, by other police officers is appalling. A continuing scandal in the New York Police Department under Commissioner Ray Kelly, has sparked protests by tough looking cops rallying around the courthouse to support Officer Joe Ramos, a 17-year veteran of the NYPD. Ramos was indicted for making a heroin buy and delivering it while on duty in his patrol car. Ramos is also charged with stealing $50,000 from a police undercover operative that posed as a drug dealer and for revealing an informant’s identity. Corruption of the most evil sort, proved by taped recordings, with the worst motives and language, is condoned. Sixteen NYPD officers were indicted on charges that they used the law they were sworn to uphold for their own purposes. Police Lieutenant Jennara Everleth-Cobb was reported to have leaked information about the investigation to a Police Benevolent Association (PBA) official and other cops. Wiretaps issued by the court, revealed in the indictments in Bronx Supreme Court, quoted Lt. Jennara Everleth-Cobb saying “Be careful when you’re on the phone. They’re listening.” Jose Ramos is quoted on the wires saying “I stopped caring about the law a long time ago…I could drive a dead body in the trunk of my car where I want to and nobody would stop me.” Officer Christopher Scott was recorded saying to other cops in an assault cover-up fix, “We don’t know who did this, ok? We’re going to make this go away for him.” Another NYPD officer, Jamie Pagan, fixed a relative’s ticket and was recorded saying, “Whatever you need, you tell me and I’ll take care of it. You won’t get no f… hassle. It will be like it never happened.” Pagan is a PBA Delegate. That these NYPD officers were caught is a wonder in and of itself. That many of them were involved as officers with the PBA is a disgrace to police officers everywhere.
- PBA Trustee Brian McGuckin was charged with 2 counts of forgery, 2 counts criminal possession of a forged instrument, 62 counts of official misconduct and more.
- PBA Trustee Joseph Anthony was charged with 1 count tampering with a public record, 10 counts of grand larceny, 44 counts of official misconduct and more.
- PBA Trustee Michael Hernandez was charged with 1 count tampering with public records, 22 counts of grand larceny, 48 counts of official misconduct and more.
- PBA Delegate Luis Rodriguez was charged with 17 counts of grand larceny, 40 counts official misconduct, 19 counts of conspiracy and more.
John Christopher Fine served as senior Assistant District Attorney in New York County’s Rackets Bureau where he investigated and prosecuted matters involving official corruption and organized crime. He served as head of the Organized Crime Task Force and was Special Counsel to a U.S. Senate investigating committee. He continues as a consultant to government for matters involving official corruption and organized crime. THE EPOCH TIMES
More on Tulsa Police Department Corruption
Judge grants more time for prosecutors to file response to Tulsa officer's acquittal motion
The Republic - The Associated Press - November 2, 2011
Tulsa, Okla. — A federal judge has granted a 10-day extension for prosecutors to reply to a motion for acquittal by a Tulsa Police officer convicted of perjury and Civil rights violations. U.S. District Judge Bruce Black approved the extension Tuesday for U.S. attorneys to prepare their response to Officer Jeff Henderson's request for a new trial and acquittal. Attorneys for Henderson suggest in their motion that jurors could have been confused when entering some of the verdicts against him, among other allegations. In August, jurors found Henderson guilty on eight of the 53 counts against him, including six counts of perjury and Civil rights violations. They cleared fellow officer William Yelton on all eight charges he faced. Five officers were indicted last year on more than 80 charges in a widespread corruption probe that roiled the department and the city.
********** BACKGROUND:
Corruption Investigation of the Tulsa Police Department
The Republic - The Associated Press - November 2, 2011
Tulsa, Okla. — A federal judge has granted a 10-day extension for prosecutors to reply to a motion for acquittal by a Tulsa Police officer convicted of perjury and Civil rights violations. U.S. District Judge Bruce Black approved the extension Tuesday for U.S. attorneys to prepare their response to Officer Jeff Henderson's request for a new trial and acquittal. Attorneys for Henderson suggest in their motion that jurors could have been confused when entering some of the verdicts against him, among other allegations. In August, jurors found Henderson guilty on eight of the 53 counts against him, including six counts of perjury and Civil rights violations. They cleared fellow officer William Yelton on all eight charges he faced. Five officers were indicted last year on more than 80 charges in a widespread corruption probe that roiled the department and the city.
********** BACKGROUND:
Corruption Investigation of the Tulsa Police Department
The Tulsa World - www.TulsaWorld.com
First police trial: May 31 to June 10
Defendants: Tulsa police officers Nick DeBruin, Bruce Bonham and retired Cpl. Harold R. Wells. DeBruin and Bonham are assigned to patrol; Wells was also a patrol corporal.
Indictments: Unsealed July 20, 2010, alleging the officers stole money during an FBI sting May 18, 2009 and planted drugs on individuals to gain convictions. Wells indicted on 10 counts, DeBruin on six and Bonham on five.
Prosecutor: First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Duke, Eastern District of Arkansas
Judge: U.S. District Judge Bruce Black, of New Mexico
Outcome: Wells convicted of five counts; DeBruin and Bonham acquitted on all counts. Sentencing for Wells, who is being held in the Tulsa Jail, has not been set. DeBruin and Bonham are on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.
Second police trial: Aug. 1 to Aug. 24
Defendants: Tulsa police officers Jeff Henderson and Bill Yelton, assigned to the Special Investigations Division
Indictments: Unsealed July 20, 2010. Henderson is charged with 53 counts related to perjury, civil rights violations, drugs, witness tampering and one firearms count. Yelton is charged with eight counts: four related to civil rights violations, two related to witness tampering, one related to suborning perjury and one count of attempted retaliation against a witness, which was added in September 2010.
Prosecutor: First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Duke, Eastern District of Arkansas
Judge: U.S. District Judge Bruce Black, of New Mexico
Outcome: Officer Jeff Henderson was found guilty on eight counts; officer Bill Yelton was acquitted. Henderson was found not guilty on 45 other counts. Jurors deliberated for 23 hours over four days. Henderson was found guilty on count 39, which relates to a charge of deprivation of civil rights stemming from the search of Carah Bartel and William Kinnard. His other guilty counts relate to perjury in testimony Henderson gave during a suppression hearing in the federal case of Ronald Crawford. Each perjury count carries not more than five years. Deprivation of civil rights is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum of one year. The judge has discretion to run them consecutively or concurrently.
Officers indicted or named in grand jury probe
Tulsa Police Officer Jeff Henderson
- Hired June 5, 1995. Placed on paid leave in March; suspended without pay July 23.
- Current assignment: Special Investigations Division.
- Indicted July 20 on 58 counts: 22 counts related to perjury, 20 related to civil rights violations, 12 related to drugs, two witness tampering counts, one firearms count and one attempted bribery count. Ordered held without bail July 23.
- Henderson was convicted Aug. 24 on two counts of civil rights violations and six counts of perjury. He was acquitted on 45 counts of perjury, civil rights violations, drug conspiracy and witness tampering. He could be sentenced to one year for each civil rights violations and five years for each perjury count.
Former ATF Agent Brandon McFadden
- Hired by U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on July 15, 2002.
- Resigned from ATF on Sept. 25, 2009.
- Pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy May 6, 2010 in federal court
- Cooperating with prosecutors and released to home in Lubbock, Texas, pending trial.
Former Tulsa Police Officer Harold R. Wells
- Hired Oct. 1, 1975.
- Retired in May
- Assignment before retiring: Gilcrease Division.
- Indicted July 20, 2010 on 10 counts: three related to civil rights violations, three related to drugs, two related to theft of U.S. funds, one firearms count and one count of using a telephone to commit a felony. Released on bond.
- Convicted June 10, 2011 of five counts: knowingly carrying and possessing a firearm during and in relation to drug trafficking crime, conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substance (methamphetamine), Conspiracy to steal U.S. funds, stealing U.S. funds and use of a telephone to commit a felony.
- Being held in the Tulsa Jail pending sentencing, which has not been set. Faces 15 years in prison.
- On Aug. 22, U.S. District Judge Bruce Black acquitted Wells of a single count of carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime. While Black threw out the gun charge, he rejected a motion by Wells' attorneys to dismiss all the counts against him. Wells remains convicted on four counts.
Tulsa Police Officer Nick DeBruin
- Hired July 6, 1999.
- Assigned to Special Investigations Division, 2002-05, later assigned to patrol.
- Placed on paid leave July 21; suspended without pay July 23.
- Indicted July 20, 2010 on six counts: two counts related to theft of U.S. funds, two related to civil rights violations, one drug count and one firearm count. Released on bond.
- Acquitted of all counts June 10, 2011
- Pay was reinstated on June 13
Tulsa Police Officer Bruce Bonham
- Hired Aug. 13, 1990.
- Placed on paid leave July 21; suspended without pay July 23.
- Indicted July 20, 2010 on five counts: two counts related to theft of U.S. funds, one count related to civil rights violations, one drug count and one firearm count. Released on bond.
- Acquitted of all counts June 10, 2011
- Pay was reinstated on June 13
Tulsa Police Officer Bill Yelton
- Hired April 16, 1985.
- Current assignment: Special Investigations Division.
- Placed on administrative duty June 18 and paid leave July 21; suspended without pay July 23.
- Indicted July 20 on seven counts: four related to civil rights violations, two related to witness tampering and one related to perjury.
- Ordered held without bail July 23.
- Acquitted on all counts Aug. 24. Released from jail the same day. He is suspended with pay pending an Internal Affairs investigation.
Former Tulsa Police Officer John K. Gray
- Hired March 1, 1990.
- Retired in May.
- Assignment before retiring: Mingo Valley Division.
- Pleaded guilty June 14 in federal court to stealing money during an FBI sting.
- Cooperating with prosecutors and released on bond.
Tulsa Police Officer Eric Hill
- Hired July 5, 2005.
- Former assignment: Gilcrease Division.
- Placed on paid leave June 22.
- Court records say he admitted stealing drug money during a bust.
- Arrested July 19 on unrelated complaint of domestic assault and battery.
- Fired Aug. 18, 2010 for admitting that he planted drugs during drug arrests.
- On Sept. 14, 2010, Hill was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. The case was dismissed Jan. 28, 2011.
Former Tulsa Police Officer Callison Kaiser
- Hired Oct. 8, 2004.
- Resigned August 2008 to work for U.S. Secret Service.
- Resigned from Secret Service in early June.
- Assignment before resigning from TPD: Gilcrease Division.
- Court records say he admitted stealing drug money during a bust.
- Cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Unindicted co-conspirators
Officer Sean Larkin
- Hired: Jan. 6, 1997
- Previous assignment -- UDE
- Transferred to Special Investigations Division -- April 8, 2007
Officer Frank Khalil
- Hired: Jan. 3, 2000
- Previous assignment -- detective
- Transferred to Special Investigations Division -- Aug. 29, 2004
Officer Shawn Hickey
- Hired: March 20, 1989
- Previous assignment -- UDN
- Transferred to Special Investigations Division -- Aug. 26, 2001
First police trial: May 31 to June 10
Defendants: Tulsa police officers Nick DeBruin, Bruce Bonham and retired Cpl. Harold R. Wells. DeBruin and Bonham are assigned to patrol; Wells was also a patrol corporal.
Indictments: Unsealed July 20, 2010, alleging the officers stole money during an FBI sting May 18, 2009 and planted drugs on individuals to gain convictions. Wells indicted on 10 counts, DeBruin on six and Bonham on five.
Prosecutor: First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Duke, Eastern District of Arkansas
Judge: U.S. District Judge Bruce Black, of New Mexico
Outcome: Wells convicted of five counts; DeBruin and Bonham acquitted on all counts. Sentencing for Wells, who is being held in the Tulsa Jail, has not been set. DeBruin and Bonham are on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.
Second police trial: Aug. 1 to Aug. 24
Defendants: Tulsa police officers Jeff Henderson and Bill Yelton, assigned to the Special Investigations Division
Indictments: Unsealed July 20, 2010. Henderson is charged with 53 counts related to perjury, civil rights violations, drugs, witness tampering and one firearms count. Yelton is charged with eight counts: four related to civil rights violations, two related to witness tampering, one related to suborning perjury and one count of attempted retaliation against a witness, which was added in September 2010.
Prosecutor: First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Duke, Eastern District of Arkansas
Judge: U.S. District Judge Bruce Black, of New Mexico
Outcome: Officer Jeff Henderson was found guilty on eight counts; officer Bill Yelton was acquitted. Henderson was found not guilty on 45 other counts. Jurors deliberated for 23 hours over four days. Henderson was found guilty on count 39, which relates to a charge of deprivation of civil rights stemming from the search of Carah Bartel and William Kinnard. His other guilty counts relate to perjury in testimony Henderson gave during a suppression hearing in the federal case of Ronald Crawford. Each perjury count carries not more than five years. Deprivation of civil rights is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum of one year. The judge has discretion to run them consecutively or concurrently.
Officers indicted or named in grand jury probe
Tulsa Police Officer Jeff Henderson
- Hired June 5, 1995. Placed on paid leave in March; suspended without pay July 23.
- Current assignment: Special Investigations Division.
- Indicted July 20 on 58 counts: 22 counts related to perjury, 20 related to civil rights violations, 12 related to drugs, two witness tampering counts, one firearms count and one attempted bribery count. Ordered held without bail July 23.
- Henderson was convicted Aug. 24 on two counts of civil rights violations and six counts of perjury. He was acquitted on 45 counts of perjury, civil rights violations, drug conspiracy and witness tampering. He could be sentenced to one year for each civil rights violations and five years for each perjury count.
Former ATF Agent Brandon McFadden
- Hired by U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on July 15, 2002.
- Resigned from ATF on Sept. 25, 2009.
- Pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy May 6, 2010 in federal court
- Cooperating with prosecutors and released to home in Lubbock, Texas, pending trial.
Former Tulsa Police Officer Harold R. Wells
- Hired Oct. 1, 1975.
- Retired in May
- Assignment before retiring: Gilcrease Division.
- Indicted July 20, 2010 on 10 counts: three related to civil rights violations, three related to drugs, two related to theft of U.S. funds, one firearms count and one count of using a telephone to commit a felony. Released on bond.
- Convicted June 10, 2011 of five counts: knowingly carrying and possessing a firearm during and in relation to drug trafficking crime, conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substance (methamphetamine), Conspiracy to steal U.S. funds, stealing U.S. funds and use of a telephone to commit a felony.
- Being held in the Tulsa Jail pending sentencing, which has not been set. Faces 15 years in prison.
- On Aug. 22, U.S. District Judge Bruce Black acquitted Wells of a single count of carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime. While Black threw out the gun charge, he rejected a motion by Wells' attorneys to dismiss all the counts against him. Wells remains convicted on four counts.
Tulsa Police Officer Nick DeBruin
- Hired July 6, 1999.
- Assigned to Special Investigations Division, 2002-05, later assigned to patrol.
- Placed on paid leave July 21; suspended without pay July 23.
- Indicted July 20, 2010 on six counts: two counts related to theft of U.S. funds, two related to civil rights violations, one drug count and one firearm count. Released on bond.
- Acquitted of all counts June 10, 2011
- Pay was reinstated on June 13
Tulsa Police Officer Bruce Bonham
- Hired Aug. 13, 1990.
- Placed on paid leave July 21; suspended without pay July 23.
- Indicted July 20, 2010 on five counts: two counts related to theft of U.S. funds, one count related to civil rights violations, one drug count and one firearm count. Released on bond.
- Acquitted of all counts June 10, 2011
- Pay was reinstated on June 13
Tulsa Police Officer Bill Yelton
- Hired April 16, 1985.
- Current assignment: Special Investigations Division.
- Placed on administrative duty June 18 and paid leave July 21; suspended without pay July 23.
- Indicted July 20 on seven counts: four related to civil rights violations, two related to witness tampering and one related to perjury.
- Ordered held without bail July 23.
- Acquitted on all counts Aug. 24. Released from jail the same day. He is suspended with pay pending an Internal Affairs investigation.
Former Tulsa Police Officer John K. Gray
- Hired March 1, 1990.
- Retired in May.
- Assignment before retiring: Mingo Valley Division.
- Pleaded guilty June 14 in federal court to stealing money during an FBI sting.
- Cooperating with prosecutors and released on bond.
Tulsa Police Officer Eric Hill
- Hired July 5, 2005.
- Former assignment: Gilcrease Division.
- Placed on paid leave June 22.
- Court records say he admitted stealing drug money during a bust.
- Arrested July 19 on unrelated complaint of domestic assault and battery.
- Fired Aug. 18, 2010 for admitting that he planted drugs during drug arrests.
- On Sept. 14, 2010, Hill was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. The case was dismissed Jan. 28, 2011.
Former Tulsa Police Officer Callison Kaiser
- Hired Oct. 8, 2004.
- Resigned August 2008 to work for U.S. Secret Service.
- Resigned from Secret Service in early June.
- Assignment before resigning from TPD: Gilcrease Division.
- Court records say he admitted stealing drug money during a bust.
- Cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Unindicted co-conspirators
Officer Sean Larkin
- Hired: Jan. 6, 1997
- Previous assignment -- UDE
- Transferred to Special Investigations Division -- April 8, 2007
Officer Frank Khalil
- Hired: Jan. 3, 2000
- Previous assignment -- detective
- Transferred to Special Investigations Division -- Aug. 29, 2004
Officer Shawn Hickey
- Hired: March 20, 1989
- Previous assignment -- UDN
- Transferred to Special Investigations Division -- Aug. 26, 2001
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Cop in Ticket-Fix Scandal Covered-Up Brutal Beating
NYPD cop in ticket-fix scandal covered up 'near deadly beating' for friend: sources
The New York Daily News by Kevin Deutsch - November 1, 2011
Allegedly enlisted other officers to make charges go away after receiving phone call from assailant
A Bronx man severely beaten by a paint store manager whose NYPD pals then allegedly covered up his crime is now suing his attackers, the Daily News has learned. The hobbled victim, Jose Ayala, will likely testify against the cops who tried to squash the case — including one officer who is accused of being one of the most egregious offenders in the NYPD ticket-fixing scandal, sources said. Ayala, 51, suffered numerous broken ribs and debilitating muscle injuries during the alleged Oct. 2010 beatdown at the hands of paint-store manager Michael Loturco. Ayala had snitched after seeing Loturco and another store manager slash a rival’s tires, prosecutors said, leading the men to seek a bloody vengeance with their fists. “He just kept beating me,” Ayala said of Loturco, who was indicted Friday along with 16 cops in the ticket-fixing scandal. “I’m still hurting.” As Ayala lay bleeding and hurt outside the New Palace Paint and Supply Shop on E. 180th St., Loturco called his longtime pal, Officer Christopher Scott. Scott, who fixed hundreds of tickets in the months before and after Loturco’s call, agreed to quash the assault case that his friend would have faced for the beating of Ayala, prosecutors said. To ensure Loturco beat the rap, Scott allegedly enlisted the help of Police Officers Marc Manara, Ruben Peralta, Jeffrey Regan and Lisa Marsh. The cops knew Loturco beat Ayala but turned a blind eye as a favor to Scott, prosecutors said. They falsified paperwork for Ayala's complaint, listing the perpetrator as unknown, court papers show. All the cops but Marsh were indicted and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, falsifying records, hindering prosecution and official misconduct. Marsh may be called to testify against her comrades at trial, sources said. Loturco was connected and used that connection to avoid going to jail, said a source with knowledge of the case. Ayala was a completely innocent victim who had his assault complaint swept under the rug. He was just being a good Samaritan. It was vile. A bodega worker who knows Ayala said they were within a couple blows of killing him. It was ugly, he added. But they were like ... untouchable. The cover-up was sniffed out by NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau investigators, who listened to the plot unfold because Scott's phone was wiretapped. Scott, who works in the 48th Precinct, was once lauded as a hero for helping to save 12 people from a burning building in 2007. But prosecutors say he tarnished his badge by turning into one of the most prolific ticket-fixers in the NYPD. He faces nearly 200 criminal counts in connection with the ticket-fixing indictments, and 20 more counts for the assault cover-up. Loturco was released on $10,000 bail Saturday. Neither he nor his lawyer could be reached for comment. At the paint store where Loturco worked, an employee threatened a Daily News reporter who quizzed him about the assault. Get the f--k out of here! yelled the worker, who would not give his name. Ayala, meanwhile, still gets physical therapy every day for his injuries. He said he s glad the cops and Loturco have been brought to justice. Police should be better than that, he said. kdeutsch@nydailynews.com
The New York Daily News by Kevin Deutsch - November 1, 2011
Allegedly enlisted other officers to make charges go away after receiving phone call from assailant
A Bronx man severely beaten by a paint store manager whose NYPD pals then allegedly covered up his crime is now suing his attackers, the Daily News has learned. The hobbled victim, Jose Ayala, will likely testify against the cops who tried to squash the case — including one officer who is accused of being one of the most egregious offenders in the NYPD ticket-fixing scandal, sources said. Ayala, 51, suffered numerous broken ribs and debilitating muscle injuries during the alleged Oct. 2010 beatdown at the hands of paint-store manager Michael Loturco. Ayala had snitched after seeing Loturco and another store manager slash a rival’s tires, prosecutors said, leading the men to seek a bloody vengeance with their fists. “He just kept beating me,” Ayala said of Loturco, who was indicted Friday along with 16 cops in the ticket-fixing scandal. “I’m still hurting.” As Ayala lay bleeding and hurt outside the New Palace Paint and Supply Shop on E. 180th St., Loturco called his longtime pal, Officer Christopher Scott. Scott, who fixed hundreds of tickets in the months before and after Loturco’s call, agreed to quash the assault case that his friend would have faced for the beating of Ayala, prosecutors said. To ensure Loturco beat the rap, Scott allegedly enlisted the help of Police Officers Marc Manara, Ruben Peralta, Jeffrey Regan and Lisa Marsh. The cops knew Loturco beat Ayala but turned a blind eye as a favor to Scott, prosecutors said. They falsified paperwork for Ayala's complaint, listing the perpetrator as unknown, court papers show. All the cops but Marsh were indicted and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, falsifying records, hindering prosecution and official misconduct. Marsh may be called to testify against her comrades at trial, sources said. Loturco was connected and used that connection to avoid going to jail, said a source with knowledge of the case. Ayala was a completely innocent victim who had his assault complaint swept under the rug. He was just being a good Samaritan. It was vile. A bodega worker who knows Ayala said they were within a couple blows of killing him. It was ugly, he added. But they were like ... untouchable. The cover-up was sniffed out by NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau investigators, who listened to the plot unfold because Scott's phone was wiretapped. Scott, who works in the 48th Precinct, was once lauded as a hero for helping to save 12 people from a burning building in 2007. But prosecutors say he tarnished his badge by turning into one of the most prolific ticket-fixers in the NYPD. He faces nearly 200 criminal counts in connection with the ticket-fixing indictments, and 20 more counts for the assault cover-up. Loturco was released on $10,000 bail Saturday. Neither he nor his lawyer could be reached for comment. At the paint store where Loturco worked, an employee threatened a Daily News reporter who quizzed him about the assault. Get the f--k out of here! yelled the worker, who would not give his name. Ayala, meanwhile, still gets physical therapy every day for his injuries. He said he s glad the cops and Loturco have been brought to justice. Police should be better than that, he said. kdeutsch@nydailynews.com
Judge 'Shocked' by 'Cowboy Culture' of Narcotics Cops
Brooklyn judge 'shocked' by 'cowboy culture' of narcotics cops
The New York Daily News by Oren Yaniv - November 1, 2011
Officer Jason Arbeeny planted drugs on innocent people he arrested, judge finds
Police officer Jason Arbeeny at State Supreme Court in Brooklyn where he was found guilty of 8 counts of official misconduct and filing false records by a judge following a bench trial. He faces up to 4 years in prison. A Brooklyn judge declared himself shocked by the "cowboy culture" of narcotics cops Tuesday when he convicted a detective of planting crack on an innocent couple. "Having been a judge for 20 years, I thought I was not naïve regarding the reality of narcotics enforcement," said Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach. "But even the Court was shocked, not only by the seeming pervasive scope of the misconduct, but even more distressingly by the seeming casualness by which such conduct is employed." He found Detective Jason Arbeeny guilty of eight counts of falsifying records and official misconduct in an explosive bench trial that revealed the police practice of "flaking" - nabbing blameless people to pad arrest quotas and earn overtime. The judge noted that several witnesses said narcotics officers were expected to make 60% of their arrests for felonies and that cops would spread collars around so they could all meet the quotas. The judge even said that paled in comparison to the "mindset in Narcotics that seemingly embraces a cowboy culture where anything goes in the never-ending war on drugs." Arbeeny, one of eight cops to be charged in the scandal, was found guilty of planting a twist of crack under a car seat during a Coney Island bust in January 2007 and for doctoring paperwork to make the arrest stick. He was cleared of 43 other counts, mostly related to two separate incidents that same year. The 14-year veteran faces up to four years in prison when he's sentenced early next year. He left court without comment. "It's a sad day when a police officer abuses his authority to plant drugs," prosecutor Charles Guria said after the verdict. "It's a very disturbing charge." Most troubling, Judge Reichbach said, was the "casualness" of arresting innocents, which emerged at trial. The attitude was made worse by officers' rationalizing that charges would likely be dismissed anyway - "a rationale that is transparently pharisaical," the judge said. Alluding to movies about police corruption, he said some of the testimony painted the Brooklyn South Narcotics squad "as a cross between 'Training Day' and 'Prince of the City.'" oyaniv@nydailynews.com
The New York Daily News by Oren Yaniv - November 1, 2011
Officer Jason Arbeeny planted drugs on innocent people he arrested, judge finds
Police officer Jason Arbeeny at State Supreme Court in Brooklyn where he was found guilty of 8 counts of official misconduct and filing false records by a judge following a bench trial. He faces up to 4 years in prison. A Brooklyn judge declared himself shocked by the "cowboy culture" of narcotics cops Tuesday when he convicted a detective of planting crack on an innocent couple. "Having been a judge for 20 years, I thought I was not naïve regarding the reality of narcotics enforcement," said Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach. "But even the Court was shocked, not only by the seeming pervasive scope of the misconduct, but even more distressingly by the seeming casualness by which such conduct is employed." He found Detective Jason Arbeeny guilty of eight counts of falsifying records and official misconduct in an explosive bench trial that revealed the police practice of "flaking" - nabbing blameless people to pad arrest quotas and earn overtime. The judge noted that several witnesses said narcotics officers were expected to make 60% of their arrests for felonies and that cops would spread collars around so they could all meet the quotas. The judge even said that paled in comparison to the "mindset in Narcotics that seemingly embraces a cowboy culture where anything goes in the never-ending war on drugs." Arbeeny, one of eight cops to be charged in the scandal, was found guilty of planting a twist of crack under a car seat during a Coney Island bust in January 2007 and for doctoring paperwork to make the arrest stick. He was cleared of 43 other counts, mostly related to two separate incidents that same year. The 14-year veteran faces up to four years in prison when he's sentenced early next year. He left court without comment. "It's a sad day when a police officer abuses his authority to plant drugs," prosecutor Charles Guria said after the verdict. "It's a very disturbing charge." Most troubling, Judge Reichbach said, was the "casualness" of arresting innocents, which emerged at trial. The attitude was made worse by officers' rationalizing that charges would likely be dismissed anyway - "a rationale that is transparently pharisaical," the judge said. Alluding to movies about police corruption, he said some of the testimony painted the Brooklyn South Narcotics squad "as a cross between 'Training Day' and 'Prince of the City.'" oyaniv@nydailynews.com
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Federal Court Orders City to Turn Over Police Records
Federal Court Orders City to Turn Over Police Records
The New York Law Journal by John Caher - November 1, 2011
Noting that federal courts do not recognize the confidentiality privilege in New York Civil Rights Law §50-a, a Western District magistrate judge has ordered the city of Buffalo to turn over the personnel and disciplinary records of a police officer for in camera review. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott gave the city 30 days to deliver the records, shielded from disclosure by state law, on Officer Raymond Harrington. Justin L. Levy, the plaintiff in Levy v. Harrington, 09-cv-720A, accuses the officer of false arrest and imprisonment, and excessive force. After the defendants removed the case to federal court, Mr. Levy sought records that are not obtainable in state court due to the privilege delineated in Civil Rights Law §50-a. Magistrate Judge Scott noted that no federal rule precludes discovery of police disciplinary or personnel files and, after concluding that Mr. Levy met his initial burden of showing materiality and relevance, said he would review the records in camera to determine if they should be revealed to the plaintiff. The magistrate judge said the same issue has been raised in another case pending in his court, Paulding v. City of Buffalo, 10-cv-712. Steven M. Cohen of HoganWillig in Amherst represents the plaintiffs in both cases.
The New York Law Journal by John Caher - November 1, 2011
Noting that federal courts do not recognize the confidentiality privilege in New York Civil Rights Law §50-a, a Western District magistrate judge has ordered the city of Buffalo to turn over the personnel and disciplinary records of a police officer for in camera review. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott gave the city 30 days to deliver the records, shielded from disclosure by state law, on Officer Raymond Harrington. Justin L. Levy, the plaintiff in Levy v. Harrington, 09-cv-720A, accuses the officer of false arrest and imprisonment, and excessive force. After the defendants removed the case to federal court, Mr. Levy sought records that are not obtainable in state court due to the privilege delineated in Civil Rights Law §50-a. Magistrate Judge Scott noted that no federal rule precludes discovery of police disciplinary or personnel files and, after concluding that Mr. Levy met his initial burden of showing materiality and relevance, said he would review the records in camera to determine if they should be revealed to the plaintiff. The magistrate judge said the same issue has been raised in another case pending in his court, Paulding v. City of Buffalo, 10-cv-712. Steven M. Cohen of HoganWillig in Amherst represents the plaintiffs in both cases.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Two More Cops Plead Guilty in Towing Scheme
Two More Baltimore Police Officers Plead Guilty in Towing Scheme
The Essex-Middle River Patch by Ron Snyder - October 24, 2011
Two more Baltimore City police officers have pleaded guilty to illegally steering car accident victims to a Rosedale auto repair shop. Jerry Diggs, Jr., 25, of Baltimore, and Osvaldo Valentine, 39, of Edgewood, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit and committing extortion, acording to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. The two are the eighth and ninth officers to plead guilty to similar charges. The owners of Majestic Auto Repair paid Diggs, Valentine and other Baltimore City Police officers to arrange for their company, rather than a city-authorized business, to tow vehicles from accident scenes and make repairs, states a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. The officers contacted Majestic owners Herman Alexis Moreno and Edwin Javier Mejia for towing and repair services, even though Majestic was not an authorized Baltimore City towing company, according to the officers' plea deal. In exchange, the owners paid Diggs and Valentine up to $300 for each vehicle they referred to Majestic, according to the release. Valentine also recruited multiple other city officers to participate in the conspiracy and extortion scheme, according to the release. Moreno, 30, of Rosedale, and Mejia, 27, of Middle River, pleaded guilty in July to bribing police. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18. As part of the alleged conspiracy, the officers persuaded accident victims to allow their cars to be sent to Majestic by telling the victims that the business could tow the car, provide repair services, help with the insurance claim, assist in getting a rental car and waive the owner’s deductible, according to the release. Federal prosecutors said that from January to September 2010, Moreno or Mejia paid Valentine $14,400 in checks for vehicle referrals. In September 2010, the owners paid Valentine in cash. In February 2010, Diggs also had Moreno scratch his car with a key which allowed the officer to file an insurance claim for the scratched area, the release states. His insurance company then paid Majestic $2,809 to fix the scratches. Diggs also falsified police reports stating some vehicles had more damage than they actually had sustained so the auto shop could charge more, according to the release. Overall, from March 2010 to February 2011, the Majestic owners paid Diggs $5,050 for his referrals, according to the release. Both officers face a maximum of five years in prison for the conspiracy, and a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,0000 fine. Sentencing is set for March 12, 2012.
Two more Baltimore City police officers have pleaded guilty to illegally steering car accident victims to a Rosedale auto repair shop. Jerry Diggs, Jr., 25, of Baltimore, and Osvaldo Valentine, 39, of Edgewood, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit and committing extortion, acording to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. The two are the eighth and ninth officers to plead guilty to similar charges. The owners of Majestic Auto Repair paid Diggs, Valentine and other Baltimore City Police officers to arrange for their company, rather than a city-authorized business, to tow vehicles from accident scenes and make repairs, states a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. The officers contacted Majestic owners Herman Alexis Moreno and Edwin Javier Mejia for towing and repair services, even though Majestic was not an authorized Baltimore City towing company, according to the officers' plea deal. In exchange, the owners paid Diggs and Valentine up to $300 for each vehicle they referred to Majestic, according to the release. Valentine also recruited multiple other city officers to participate in the conspiracy and extortion scheme, according to the release. Moreno, 30, of Rosedale, and Mejia, 27, of Middle River, pleaded guilty in July to bribing police. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18. As part of the alleged conspiracy, the officers persuaded accident victims to allow their cars to be sent to Majestic by telling the victims that the business could tow the car, provide repair services, help with the insurance claim, assist in getting a rental car and waive the owner’s deductible, according to the release. Federal prosecutors said that from January to September 2010, Moreno or Mejia paid Valentine $14,400 in checks for vehicle referrals. In September 2010, the owners paid Valentine in cash. In February 2010, Diggs also had Moreno scratch his car with a key which allowed the officer to file an insurance claim for the scratched area, the release states. His insurance company then paid Majestic $2,809 to fix the scratches. Diggs also falsified police reports stating some vehicles had more damage than they actually had sustained so the auto shop could charge more, according to the release. Overall, from March 2010 to February 2011, the Majestic owners paid Diggs $5,050 for his referrals, according to the release. Both officers face a maximum of five years in prison for the conspiracy, and a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,0000 fine. Sentencing is set for March 12, 2012.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
8 NYPD Cops Charged in Gun Smuggling Case
8 City Officers Charged in Gun Smuggling Case
Eight current and former New York police officers were arrested on Tuesday and charged in federal court with accepting thousands of dollars in cash to drive a caravan of firearms into the state, an act of corruption that brazenly defied the city’s strenuous efforts to get illegal guns off the streets. The officers — five are still on the force, and three are retired — and four other men were accused of transporting M-16 rifles and handguns, as well as what they believed to be stolen merchandise across state lines, according to a complaint filed in the case in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The current and retired officers, most of whom at one time or another worked in the same Brooklyn station house, were arrested at their homes before sunrise by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and investigators from the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, officials said. Also arrested were a New Jersey correction officer, a former New York City Sanitation Department police officer and two men identified in the complaint as his associates. The gun-trafficking accusations strike at the heart of one of the Police Department’s most hard-fought and robust initiatives, and one that has been a central theme of the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg: getting guns off the city’s streets. Mr. Bloomberg is the head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 600 municipal chief executives from around the nation. And the arrests come at a difficult time for a department, the largest municipal police force in the nation, already besieged by corruption accusations. In recent weeks, testimony at the trial of a narcotics detective has featured accusations that he and his colleagues in Brooklyn and Queens planted drugs or lied under oath to meet arrest quotas and earn overtime, leading to the arrests of eight officers, the dismissal of hundreds of drug cases because of their destroyed credibility and the payout of more than $1 million in taxpayer money to settle false arrest lawsuits. Two other officers, in unrelated federal cases, have been charged in recent weeks with criminal civil-rights violations accusing them of trumping up charges against innocent victims. In one case, on Staten Island, a white officer is accused of falsely arresting a black man and then bragging about it using a racial slur. And in the coming days, 16 officers are expected to face charges in a ticket-fixing scandal in the Bronx. Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, announced the charges at a news conference with the head of the criminal division of New York’s F.B.I. office, Diego Rodriguez, and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly.
Janice K. Fedarcyk, the assistant F.B.I. director in charge of the New York office, who was out of town on business, said in a prepared statement that the investigation began in 2009. “These crimes are without question reprehensible, particularly conspiring to import untraceable guns and assault rifles into New York,” Ms. Fedarcyk said. In an ironic twist, the new case began after an F.B.I. confidential informant sought to have a traffic ticket fixed in exchange for payment. He was introduced to one of the officers, William Masso, 47, according to the complaint. They developed a relationship, and Officer Masso began expressing interest in working with the informant to obtain and sell contraband, largely cigarettes. It grew into a yearlong undercover operation conducted by its agents and investigators from the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, with wiretaps on the phones of Officer Masso, the former Sanitation Department officer and four undercover agents, said the complaint, which was sworn out by Kenneth Hosey, an F.B.I. special agent. The charges include conspiracy to transport firearms across state lines, conspiracy to transport defaced firearms across state lines, conspiracy to sell firearms across state lines and conspiracy to transport and receive stolen property across state lines, according to the complaint. Most of the initial trips, in October and November 2010, involved ferrying cigarettes into New York. As months went by, the cargo would also include what the officers believed to be stolen or counterfeit goods, including slot machines, clothing and handbags, and eventually the firearms. In addition, one of the officers, along with two co-defendants, sold a shotgun to an undercover F.B.I. agent in July. As of late Tuesday afternoon, lawyers for the men were not available for comment. The accusations leveled against the men in the four-count complaint depict the current and former officers and their co-defendants as little more than a loose confederation of petty crooks. One of the officers, Ali Oklu, 35, suggested at one point that there were certain things he would not do. “As long as we’re not tying anybody up, I don’t care,” he said in a conversation that the undercover agent secretly recorded after Officer Oklu was paid $15,000 for his role in helping steal 200 cases of cigarettes with several other officers in a sting the F.B.I. arranged in May. He added that he did not care “as long as there’s no drugs and guns involved..” Four months later, on Sept. 22, the undercover agent paid Officer Oklu, three other current officers, two of their retired colleagues and two of the other men $2,000 to $5,000 to transport 22 weapons, including three M-16 assault rifles and 16 handguns from New Jersey to New York, according to the complaint. The weapons, which were provided by the undercover agent, were inoperable, but the defendants knew that the serial numbers on many of the guns were defaced, according to the complaint, which prevents them from being traced to their source if used in a crime.
In a statement, Mayor Bloomberg said that if the charges proved true, the officers’ actions “would be a disgraceful and deplorable betrayal of the public trust,” noting that the city “has lost too many people — and too many police officers — to criminals who buy guns illegally.” The mayor and Commissioner Kelly each defended the department, suggesting that the rogue actions of a few officers did not impeach the entire force. “The sad reality is that some people are going to violate their oath of office,” Mr. Kelly said at the news conference, adding: “I would submit to you that it is a very small minority. But if you had 1 percent of 50,000 people you would have 500 people.” In addition to Officers Oklu and Masso, the current police officers charged in the case are Gary Ortiz, 27, of Brooklyn; Eddie Goris, 31, of Queens; and John Mahoney, 26, of Staten Island. The retired officers are Joseph Trischitta and Richard Melnik, both 42 and of Staten Island, and Marco Venezia, 46, of Brooklyn. Officers Masso, Goris and Mahoney work in the 68th Precinct in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. The three retired officers worked at the 68th Precinct when they retired. Also charged were David Kanwisher, 38, of Tuckerton, N.J., a correction officer in New Jersey; Anthony Santiago, 45, of Tuckerton, a former officer with the New York City Sanitation Department police, and two of his associates, Michael Gee, 40, and Eric Gomer, 28, both of Staten Island. Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
The New York Times by William K Rashbaum and Joseph Goldstein - October 25, 2011
Eight current and former New York police officers were arrested on Tuesday and charged in federal court with accepting thousands of dollars in cash to drive a caravan of firearms into the state, an act of corruption that brazenly defied the city’s strenuous efforts to get illegal guns off the streets. The officers — five are still on the force, and three are retired — and four other men were accused of transporting M-16 rifles and handguns, as well as what they believed to be stolen merchandise across state lines, according to a complaint filed in the case in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The current and retired officers, most of whom at one time or another worked in the same Brooklyn station house, were arrested at their homes before sunrise by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and investigators from the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, officials said. Also arrested were a New Jersey correction officer, a former New York City Sanitation Department police officer and two men identified in the complaint as his associates. The gun-trafficking accusations strike at the heart of one of the Police Department’s most hard-fought and robust initiatives, and one that has been a central theme of the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg: getting guns off the city’s streets. Mr. Bloomberg is the head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 600 municipal chief executives from around the nation. And the arrests come at a difficult time for a department, the largest municipal police force in the nation, already besieged by corruption accusations. In recent weeks, testimony at the trial of a narcotics detective has featured accusations that he and his colleagues in Brooklyn and Queens planted drugs or lied under oath to meet arrest quotas and earn overtime, leading to the arrests of eight officers, the dismissal of hundreds of drug cases because of their destroyed credibility and the payout of more than $1 million in taxpayer money to settle false arrest lawsuits. Two other officers, in unrelated federal cases, have been charged in recent weeks with criminal civil-rights violations accusing them of trumping up charges against innocent victims. In one case, on Staten Island, a white officer is accused of falsely arresting a black man and then bragging about it using a racial slur. And in the coming days, 16 officers are expected to face charges in a ticket-fixing scandal in the Bronx. Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, announced the charges at a news conference with the head of the criminal division of New York’s F.B.I. office, Diego Rodriguez, and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly.
Janice K. Fedarcyk, the assistant F.B.I. director in charge of the New York office, who was out of town on business, said in a prepared statement that the investigation began in 2009. “These crimes are without question reprehensible, particularly conspiring to import untraceable guns and assault rifles into New York,” Ms. Fedarcyk said. In an ironic twist, the new case began after an F.B.I. confidential informant sought to have a traffic ticket fixed in exchange for payment. He was introduced to one of the officers, William Masso, 47, according to the complaint. They developed a relationship, and Officer Masso began expressing interest in working with the informant to obtain and sell contraband, largely cigarettes. It grew into a yearlong undercover operation conducted by its agents and investigators from the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, with wiretaps on the phones of Officer Masso, the former Sanitation Department officer and four undercover agents, said the complaint, which was sworn out by Kenneth Hosey, an F.B.I. special agent. The charges include conspiracy to transport firearms across state lines, conspiracy to transport defaced firearms across state lines, conspiracy to sell firearms across state lines and conspiracy to transport and receive stolen property across state lines, according to the complaint. Most of the initial trips, in October and November 2010, involved ferrying cigarettes into New York. As months went by, the cargo would also include what the officers believed to be stolen or counterfeit goods, including slot machines, clothing and handbags, and eventually the firearms. In addition, one of the officers, along with two co-defendants, sold a shotgun to an undercover F.B.I. agent in July. As of late Tuesday afternoon, lawyers for the men were not available for comment. The accusations leveled against the men in the four-count complaint depict the current and former officers and their co-defendants as little more than a loose confederation of petty crooks. One of the officers, Ali Oklu, 35, suggested at one point that there were certain things he would not do. “As long as we’re not tying anybody up, I don’t care,” he said in a conversation that the undercover agent secretly recorded after Officer Oklu was paid $15,000 for his role in helping steal 200 cases of cigarettes with several other officers in a sting the F.B.I. arranged in May. He added that he did not care “as long as there’s no drugs and guns involved..” Four months later, on Sept. 22, the undercover agent paid Officer Oklu, three other current officers, two of their retired colleagues and two of the other men $2,000 to $5,000 to transport 22 weapons, including three M-16 assault rifles and 16 handguns from New Jersey to New York, according to the complaint. The weapons, which were provided by the undercover agent, were inoperable, but the defendants knew that the serial numbers on many of the guns were defaced, according to the complaint, which prevents them from being traced to their source if used in a crime.
In a statement, Mayor Bloomberg said that if the charges proved true, the officers’ actions “would be a disgraceful and deplorable betrayal of the public trust,” noting that the city “has lost too many people — and too many police officers — to criminals who buy guns illegally.” The mayor and Commissioner Kelly each defended the department, suggesting that the rogue actions of a few officers did not impeach the entire force. “The sad reality is that some people are going to violate their oath of office,” Mr. Kelly said at the news conference, adding: “I would submit to you that it is a very small minority. But if you had 1 percent of 50,000 people you would have 500 people.” In addition to Officers Oklu and Masso, the current police officers charged in the case are Gary Ortiz, 27, of Brooklyn; Eddie Goris, 31, of Queens; and John Mahoney, 26, of Staten Island. The retired officers are Joseph Trischitta and Richard Melnik, both 42 and of Staten Island, and Marco Venezia, 46, of Brooklyn. Officers Masso, Goris and Mahoney work in the 68th Precinct in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. The three retired officers worked at the 68th Precinct when they retired. Also charged were David Kanwisher, 38, of Tuckerton, N.J., a correction officer in New Jersey; Anthony Santiago, 45, of Tuckerton, a former officer with the New York City Sanitation Department police, and two of his associates, Michael Gee, 40, and Eric Gomer, 28, both of Staten Island. Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
Five Cops Arrested For Smuggling Illegal Guns
Five NYPD officers arrested in sting operation for smuggling illegal guns, contraband
The New York Daily News by Scott Shifrel, Rocco Parascandola and Tracy Connor - Ocotber 25, 2011
A rogue Brooklyn cop running a crew of NYPD henchmen-for-hire smuggled guns through the city for a lousy $6,000, the feds said Tuesday. Officer William Masso is part of a dirty dozen accused of bringing weapons, slot machines and cigarettes across state lines to fill their pockets. During a sting operation last year, he allegedly eyeballed three M-16 rifles, handguns with defaced serial numbers and a shotgun. After showing the illegal firearms to two cronies, he drove the cache from a New Jersey warehouse, across the Verrazano Bridge and on to Long Island, the feds say. For this shocking sellout of his badge, he received the not-so-princely sum of $6,000 - and his fellow cops got even less for the caper, court papers say. The FBI made the guns inoperable before the sting, but Masso and his moonlighting miscreants didn't know that, officials said. Mayor Bloomberg said the allegations were "deplorable" but didn't diminish the work of honest cops who have fought to get guns off the street. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he was most disturbed by the charge that Masso "actually saw what he must have certainly believed were functioning guns. It was a betrayal of the highest order of an officer's oath." Masso, 47, and his lawbreaking lawmen shattered that oath over and over, also smuggling slot machines, cigarettes and clothing, the feds charge. They held clandestine meetings in hotel rooms and parking lots, filled car trunks with cases of illegal smokes, and broke into trucks, court papers say. They did so at the behest of an FBI informant who was introduced to Masso while looking for someone to fix traffic tickets. A source said Masso's name surfaced on a wiretap in the summons scandal that has rocked the Police Department. Masso was disciplined by the NYPD in 1998 for sending a letter to then-Manhattan .Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder pleading for leniency in sentencing his cousin, Alphonse Malangone. A Genovese crime family soldier, Malangone faced up to 25 years and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for racketeering.
In this latest mark against him, the 18-year veteran told the informant he used to sell bootleg cigarettes from an Indian reservation and agreed to help him with similar schemes, court, papers say. Masso, who worked the midnight tour at the 68th Precinct in Bay Ridge, recruited fellow cops and buddies to assist the informant and undercover agents posing as criminals, the feds say. In secret recordings, Masso bragged about being a twisted headhunter, court papers say. "I'm getting a good army set up here," he said on one tape. "You want a guy who beat the s--t out of somebody who bothers him. We got that. We got cops with vests and guns," he promised on another tape. The 12 co-defendants - who face up to five years in prison on the top charge - were ordered freed on $100,000 bail each. Masso, who has to wear an electronic monitoring device, will plead not guilty. "He's coming back and he's fighting the charges," lawyer Joe Mure said. Those arrested with Masso Tuesday include 68th Precinct cops Eddie Goris and John Mahoney, Brooklyn South Task Force Officer Ali Oklu and 71st Precinct cop Gary Ortiz.
Also arrested were Joseph Trischitta and Marco Venezia, who were 68th cops while allegedly involved in the plots but have since retired, and Richard Melnik, also a retired cop. Ex-sanitation cop Anthony Santiago, New Jersey correction officer David Kanwisher and Santiago pals Michael Gee and Eric Gomer were also busted. Four more officers named in the complaint but not charged have been placed on modified .duty pending an NYPD probe. The informant was an illegal immigrant who received money and help staying in the U.S. in exchange for his work with the FBI. He introduced Masso and others to undercover agents who were posing as criminals. None of the items transported across state lines were actually stolen, but transcripts of secret recordings show the defendants were told they were. In one episode last May, members of the group allegedly went to Virginia to break into tractor-trailers outside a warehouse. They bought bolt cutters, snipped the locks and made off with 200-plus cases of cigarettes worth $500,000. Masso's team got $92,000 for that job, the feds say. All told, they allegedly pocketed more than $170,000 - though Masso whined they were underpaid. "They're risking a lot for a little," he said at one point. At the cops' homes, relatives and neighbors expressed disbelief. Ortiz'relatives in Brighton Beach said the charges must be a misunderstanding. "He loves being a cop," said Tommy Rodenzo, 19, who dates the cop's niece. "He says there is no better reward than to help people." With Edgar Sandoval, Kevin Deutsch, Trevor Kapp and Jennifer H. Cunningham tconnor@nydailynews.com
The New York Daily News by Scott Shifrel, Rocco Parascandola and Tracy Connor - Ocotber 25, 2011
A rogue Brooklyn cop running a crew of NYPD henchmen-for-hire smuggled guns through the city for a lousy $6,000, the feds said Tuesday. Officer William Masso is part of a dirty dozen accused of bringing weapons, slot machines and cigarettes across state lines to fill their pockets. During a sting operation last year, he allegedly eyeballed three M-16 rifles, handguns with defaced serial numbers and a shotgun. After showing the illegal firearms to two cronies, he drove the cache from a New Jersey warehouse, across the Verrazano Bridge and on to Long Island, the feds say. For this shocking sellout of his badge, he received the not-so-princely sum of $6,000 - and his fellow cops got even less for the caper, court papers say. The FBI made the guns inoperable before the sting, but Masso and his moonlighting miscreants didn't know that, officials said. Mayor Bloomberg said the allegations were "deplorable" but didn't diminish the work of honest cops who have fought to get guns off the street. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he was most disturbed by the charge that Masso "actually saw what he must have certainly believed were functioning guns. It was a betrayal of the highest order of an officer's oath." Masso, 47, and his lawbreaking lawmen shattered that oath over and over, also smuggling slot machines, cigarettes and clothing, the feds charge. They held clandestine meetings in hotel rooms and parking lots, filled car trunks with cases of illegal smokes, and broke into trucks, court papers say. They did so at the behest of an FBI informant who was introduced to Masso while looking for someone to fix traffic tickets. A source said Masso's name surfaced on a wiretap in the summons scandal that has rocked the Police Department. Masso was disciplined by the NYPD in 1998 for sending a letter to then-Manhattan .Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder pleading for leniency in sentencing his cousin, Alphonse Malangone. A Genovese crime family soldier, Malangone faced up to 25 years and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for racketeering.
In this latest mark against him, the 18-year veteran told the informant he used to sell bootleg cigarettes from an Indian reservation and agreed to help him with similar schemes, court, papers say. Masso, who worked the midnight tour at the 68th Precinct in Bay Ridge, recruited fellow cops and buddies to assist the informant and undercover agents posing as criminals, the feds say. In secret recordings, Masso bragged about being a twisted headhunter, court papers say. "I'm getting a good army set up here," he said on one tape. "You want a guy who beat the s--t out of somebody who bothers him. We got that. We got cops with vests and guns," he promised on another tape. The 12 co-defendants - who face up to five years in prison on the top charge - were ordered freed on $100,000 bail each. Masso, who has to wear an electronic monitoring device, will plead not guilty. "He's coming back and he's fighting the charges," lawyer Joe Mure said. Those arrested with Masso Tuesday include 68th Precinct cops Eddie Goris and John Mahoney, Brooklyn South Task Force Officer Ali Oklu and 71st Precinct cop Gary Ortiz.
Also arrested were Joseph Trischitta and Marco Venezia, who were 68th cops while allegedly involved in the plots but have since retired, and Richard Melnik, also a retired cop. Ex-sanitation cop Anthony Santiago, New Jersey correction officer David Kanwisher and Santiago pals Michael Gee and Eric Gomer were also busted. Four more officers named in the complaint but not charged have been placed on modified .duty pending an NYPD probe. The informant was an illegal immigrant who received money and help staying in the U.S. in exchange for his work with the FBI. He introduced Masso and others to undercover agents who were posing as criminals. None of the items transported across state lines were actually stolen, but transcripts of secret recordings show the defendants were told they were. In one episode last May, members of the group allegedly went to Virginia to break into tractor-trailers outside a warehouse. They bought bolt cutters, snipped the locks and made off with 200-plus cases of cigarettes worth $500,000. Masso's team got $92,000 for that job, the feds say. All told, they allegedly pocketed more than $170,000 - though Masso whined they were underpaid. "They're risking a lot for a little," he said at one point. At the cops' homes, relatives and neighbors expressed disbelief. Ortiz'relatives in Brighton Beach said the charges must be a misunderstanding. "He loves being a cop," said Tommy Rodenzo, 19, who dates the cop's niece. "He says there is no better reward than to help people." With Edgar Sandoval, Kevin Deutsch, Trevor Kapp and Jennifer H. Cunningham tconnor@nydailynews.com
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Day Two of Police Corruption Hearing Concluses
Day 2 of police corruption hearing concludes
The Monroe News by Ray Kisonas - October 25, 2011
Monroe, Michigan - The second day of testimony in a police corruption hearing concluded this afternoon with more tales of forfeited items being purchased by police officers before the property was made available to the public. The so-called pre-auction distribution involved a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy, who testified that he bought a hot tub for $250 and installed it at his house. He also took a non-working ATV with the intention of paying for it, but never did. Deputy John Bills took the stand in the embezzlement case against his two former supervisors while working in the undercover drug operation known as OMNI. Suspended Michigan State lieutenants Luke Davis and Emmanuel Riopelle have been charged with numerous counts of embezzlement, misconduct in office, racketeering and other felonies. A third man, Lawrence Dusseau of Deerfield, faces 5 criminal counts. Deputy Bills testified today that in 2007 he bought the small hot tub without a receipt or other paperwork or without paying taxes. The hot tub was seized in a drug raid at a home in the Kimberly Estates Mobile Home Park that same year. Under direct examination by prosecutor Oronde Patterson of the Michigan Attorney General Office, Deputy Bills also testified that he saw a flat-screen television hanging on a wall inside Lt. Davis’ home that was also purchased prior to auction. But during cross examination, Lt. Davis’ attorney, Neil H. Fink of Birmingham, said in court that it was common practice for police officers serving in OMNI to purchase seized items before they were made available in auction. “It was no secret,” Mr. Fink said. “You certainly didn’t think you were doing anything wrong?” “No sir,” Deputy Bills answered. Regarding the ATV that was seized from a house on Darling Rd. in 2007, Deputy Bills said he never could get it running. He ended up returning the items. The case is a preliminary hearing being heard before First District Judge Terrence Bronson and is expected to continue through the week. www.MonroeNews.com
The Monroe News by Ray Kisonas - October 25, 2011
Monroe, Michigan - The second day of testimony in a police corruption hearing concluded this afternoon with more tales of forfeited items being purchased by police officers before the property was made available to the public. The so-called pre-auction distribution involved a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy, who testified that he bought a hot tub for $250 and installed it at his house. He also took a non-working ATV with the intention of paying for it, but never did. Deputy John Bills took the stand in the embezzlement case against his two former supervisors while working in the undercover drug operation known as OMNI. Suspended Michigan State lieutenants Luke Davis and Emmanuel Riopelle have been charged with numerous counts of embezzlement, misconduct in office, racketeering and other felonies. A third man, Lawrence Dusseau of Deerfield, faces 5 criminal counts. Deputy Bills testified today that in 2007 he bought the small hot tub without a receipt or other paperwork or without paying taxes. The hot tub was seized in a drug raid at a home in the Kimberly Estates Mobile Home Park that same year. Under direct examination by prosecutor Oronde Patterson of the Michigan Attorney General Office, Deputy Bills also testified that he saw a flat-screen television hanging on a wall inside Lt. Davis’ home that was also purchased prior to auction. But during cross examination, Lt. Davis’ attorney, Neil H. Fink of Birmingham, said in court that it was common practice for police officers serving in OMNI to purchase seized items before they were made available in auction. “It was no secret,” Mr. Fink said. “You certainly didn’t think you were doing anything wrong?” “No sir,” Deputy Bills answered. Regarding the ATV that was seized from a house on Darling Rd. in 2007, Deputy Bills said he never could get it running. He ended up returning the items. The case is a preliminary hearing being heard before First District Judge Terrence Bronson and is expected to continue through the week. www.MonroeNews.com
Monday, October 24, 2011
2 Cops Accused of Stealing, Kidnapping and Lying
Two Fort Lauderdale cops accused of stealing, kidnapping and lying in drug case
The Orland Sentinel by Paula McMahon - October 25, 2011
At least two Fort Lauderdale police officers accused of stealing cash from pain clinic clients, kidnapping a man and lying about cases are expected to be criminally charged next week, sources say. Detectives Billy Koepke and Brian Dodge, of the department's Street Crimes Unit, have been under investigation for several months. The probe began with a hotel security video that contradicted the officers' accounts of two arrests they made at a Red Roof Inn in Oakland Park. Investigators from a police corruption task force now believe that Koepke and Dodge went after drug buyers and sellers, claimed they found cocaine on one person who had none, and stole several thousand dollars in cash that should have been placed in evidence, according to five sources. Koepke, 32, and Dodge, 30, have been "relieved from duty with pay" since April 18, police department officials said. A third suspended detective, Matthew Moceri, 28, is still under investigation, his lawyer confirmed. A sergeant in the unit, Michael Florenco, 34, was cleared of criminal misconduct by prosecutors this month, but the police department has not yet allowed him to return to duty, the sources said. Koepke and Dodge are paid $75,878 a year, Moceri's salary is $71,406, and Florenco's is $88,732. All four officers were at the Oakland Park hotel on Aug. 24, 2010, when two suspects were arrested on charges of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.
An arrest form obtained by the Sun Sentinel shows that Koepke and Dodge said they had arrested a driver and passenger after they saw them dropping crack cocaine on the floor of their vehicle in the hotel parking lot. The officers wrote that the two suspects came to the lot to deliver drugs to the officers' "informational source." But when investigators reviewed video footage from the hotel's lobby and parking area, they found that the so-called "passenger" was not even in the vehicle and had been arrested in the lobby, several sources said. The video contradicted the officers' written reports as well as a sworn statement that Dodge gave about the arrest, the sources said. Prosecutors later dropped the criminal charges against both men. Meanwhile, the police corruption task force, comprised of Fort Lauderdale police, FBI agents and the Broward State Attorney's Office, went to work. Dodge's lawyer, Mike Dutko, said on Tuesday he had been hearing for months that his client was about to be arrested. "Based on my knowledge and insight into this investigation, I am unaware of any basis for these serious charges," Dutko said. He said he understands that there is a discrepancy between the police report and the video about where one of the suspects was arrested. Dutko said he knows there are "alleged inconsistencies between the Red Roof Inn police report and the videotape, but it's not an inconsistency that can't be explained … A mistake is not tantamount to [a] false statement." Reached by phone Tuesday, Koepke said he could not comment but that there are two sides to every story. "You'll have to contact my lawyer," he said. Koepke's attorney, James Stark, could not be reached for comment despite phone messages left with his assistant. Efforts to contact the other three officers on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Moceri's lawyer, Anthony Livoti Jr., said, "I can't talk to you about an ongoing criminal investigation but after a complete and thorough investigation by the State Attorney's Office, Officer Moceri will be vindicated." Livoti said Moceri is a Marine Corps veteran who investigates "pill mills." "This is difficult [work] and these guys are placed in difficult situations," Livoti said. "Things move very quickly in these situations." Florenco's lawyer, Howard Greitzer, said he could not comment. Koepke and Dodge are expected to be charged with racketeering, kidnapping, false imprisonment, grand theft and official misconduct. Police internal affairs investigators are also looking at whether departmental rules were violated. The sources said that a third man, who informed police about the two suspects at the hotel, was not arrested but was handcuffed and held against his will for several hours. Moceri and Florenco were at the scene of the arrest but they did not file reports. Florenco came under investigation because his initials and police identification number were written on some of the reports. However, he gave a sworn statement that he never initialed or signed off on the police records and the sources said investigators were satisfied it was not his handwriting. "Due to the fact that it is an ongoing investigation by the State Attorney's Office, we cannot comment on the case as we do not want to jeopardize their investigation," Detective Travis Mandell, Fort Lauderdale police spokesman, said on Tuesday. Tim Donnelly, the chief of the Broward State Attorney's special prosecutions unit, declined to comment on the case Tuesday. Defense attorney Carter Hilstrom, who represented the suspects charged at the hotel, also said he could not discuss the matter because he believed it was still an active federal investigation. Koepke joined Fort Lauderdale police about six years ago, Dodge is an 11-year veteran, Moceri came to the department in 2005 and Florenco has worked there since 1999. Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report. pmcmahon@tribune.com or 954-356-4533.
The Orland Sentinel by Paula McMahon - October 25, 2011
At least two Fort Lauderdale police officers accused of stealing cash from pain clinic clients, kidnapping a man and lying about cases are expected to be criminally charged next week, sources say. Detectives Billy Koepke and Brian Dodge, of the department's Street Crimes Unit, have been under investigation for several months. The probe began with a hotel security video that contradicted the officers' accounts of two arrests they made at a Red Roof Inn in Oakland Park. Investigators from a police corruption task force now believe that Koepke and Dodge went after drug buyers and sellers, claimed they found cocaine on one person who had none, and stole several thousand dollars in cash that should have been placed in evidence, according to five sources. Koepke, 32, and Dodge, 30, have been "relieved from duty with pay" since April 18, police department officials said. A third suspended detective, Matthew Moceri, 28, is still under investigation, his lawyer confirmed. A sergeant in the unit, Michael Florenco, 34, was cleared of criminal misconduct by prosecutors this month, but the police department has not yet allowed him to return to duty, the sources said. Koepke and Dodge are paid $75,878 a year, Moceri's salary is $71,406, and Florenco's is $88,732. All four officers were at the Oakland Park hotel on Aug. 24, 2010, when two suspects were arrested on charges of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.
An arrest form obtained by the Sun Sentinel shows that Koepke and Dodge said they had arrested a driver and passenger after they saw them dropping crack cocaine on the floor of their vehicle in the hotel parking lot. The officers wrote that the two suspects came to the lot to deliver drugs to the officers' "informational source." But when investigators reviewed video footage from the hotel's lobby and parking area, they found that the so-called "passenger" was not even in the vehicle and had been arrested in the lobby, several sources said. The video contradicted the officers' written reports as well as a sworn statement that Dodge gave about the arrest, the sources said. Prosecutors later dropped the criminal charges against both men. Meanwhile, the police corruption task force, comprised of Fort Lauderdale police, FBI agents and the Broward State Attorney's Office, went to work. Dodge's lawyer, Mike Dutko, said on Tuesday he had been hearing for months that his client was about to be arrested. "Based on my knowledge and insight into this investigation, I am unaware of any basis for these serious charges," Dutko said. He said he understands that there is a discrepancy between the police report and the video about where one of the suspects was arrested. Dutko said he knows there are "alleged inconsistencies between the Red Roof Inn police report and the videotape, but it's not an inconsistency that can't be explained … A mistake is not tantamount to [a] false statement." Reached by phone Tuesday, Koepke said he could not comment but that there are two sides to every story. "You'll have to contact my lawyer," he said. Koepke's attorney, James Stark, could not be reached for comment despite phone messages left with his assistant. Efforts to contact the other three officers on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Moceri's lawyer, Anthony Livoti Jr., said, "I can't talk to you about an ongoing criminal investigation but after a complete and thorough investigation by the State Attorney's Office, Officer Moceri will be vindicated." Livoti said Moceri is a Marine Corps veteran who investigates "pill mills." "This is difficult [work] and these guys are placed in difficult situations," Livoti said. "Things move very quickly in these situations." Florenco's lawyer, Howard Greitzer, said he could not comment. Koepke and Dodge are expected to be charged with racketeering, kidnapping, false imprisonment, grand theft and official misconduct. Police internal affairs investigators are also looking at whether departmental rules were violated. The sources said that a third man, who informed police about the two suspects at the hotel, was not arrested but was handcuffed and held against his will for several hours. Moceri and Florenco were at the scene of the arrest but they did not file reports. Florenco came under investigation because his initials and police identification number were written on some of the reports. However, he gave a sworn statement that he never initialed or signed off on the police records and the sources said investigators were satisfied it was not his handwriting. "Due to the fact that it is an ongoing investigation by the State Attorney's Office, we cannot comment on the case as we do not want to jeopardize their investigation," Detective Travis Mandell, Fort Lauderdale police spokesman, said on Tuesday. Tim Donnelly, the chief of the Broward State Attorney's special prosecutions unit, declined to comment on the case Tuesday. Defense attorney Carter Hilstrom, who represented the suspects charged at the hotel, also said he could not discuss the matter because he believed it was still an active federal investigation. Koepke joined Fort Lauderdale police about six years ago, Dodge is an 11-year veteran, Moceri came to the department in 2005 and Florenco has worked there since 1999. Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report. pmcmahon@tribune.com or 954-356-4533.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Officer Charged in On-Duty Assault of Two Women
South Bend police officer charged in assaulting two women while on duty
WSJV - FOX 28 by Adam Ziegler - October 23, 2011
South Bend, Indiana - A South Bend police officer is accused of fondling two different women, while under the guise of enforcing the law. Police say 26-year-old Jeffery Chester has been relieved of his duty while the case plays out in court. One of the women says Chester approached her in her car at Potawatami Park on September 1st. According to court papers, she told police Officer Chester went to search her then quote, "cupped her buttocks over her dress with his hand"... and "flipped her dress up with his hand and exposed her bare skin, including her breasts." The second woman told police Chester pulled her over at the corner of South St. Louis and Wayne Street on September 30th and that he quote "touched her right breast with his left hand" and "tried to kiss her." The woman says Chester told her he wouldn't take her to jail for her suspended license if she let him touch her. "Exerting your authority to accomplish some sort of crime of this kind is definitely, it adds to the gravity of this situation," says Captain Phil Trent of the South Bend Police Department. The St. Joseph County Prosecutor says 26-year-old Jeffery Chester of Mishawaka is facing two counts of Official Misconduct and two counts of Battery in the case. Chester was being held on $10,000 bond.
WSJV - FOX 28 by Adam Ziegler - October 23, 2011
South Bend, Indiana - A South Bend police officer is accused of fondling two different women, while under the guise of enforcing the law. Police say 26-year-old Jeffery Chester has been relieved of his duty while the case plays out in court. One of the women says Chester approached her in her car at Potawatami Park on September 1st. According to court papers, she told police Officer Chester went to search her then quote, "cupped her buttocks over her dress with his hand"... and "flipped her dress up with his hand and exposed her bare skin, including her breasts." The second woman told police Chester pulled her over at the corner of South St. Louis and Wayne Street on September 30th and that he quote "touched her right breast with his left hand" and "tried to kiss her." The woman says Chester told her he wouldn't take her to jail for her suspended license if she let him touch her. "Exerting your authority to accomplish some sort of crime of this kind is definitely, it adds to the gravity of this situation," says Captain Phil Trent of the South Bend Police Department. The St. Joseph County Prosecutor says 26-year-old Jeffery Chester of Mishawaka is facing two counts of Official Misconduct and two counts of Battery in the case. Chester was being held on $10,000 bond.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Hudson County sheriff's officer charged with trying to stop Jersey City cops from arresting 2 men
The Jersey Journal - www.NJ.com - by Charles Hack - October 22, 2011
Hudson County Sheriff's Officer Maritza Casales was charged with obstruction of a governmental function, authorities said. An off-duty Hudson County sheriff's officer was charged with obstructing with the law after trying stop a Jersey City police officer from arresting a man outside a bar Saturday morning, police reports said. Sheriff's Officer Maritza C. Casales, 44, of Kennedy Boulevard in Bayonne, was issued with a summons for obstruction of a government function, police said. Casales, who had almost seven years on the force, was suspended without pay today, pending further investigation following the arrest said, Michael Makarski, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. Two men involved in the incident, Victor M. Matos, Jr., 28, of West Side Avenue and Felix Antonio Torres, 35, of Jordan Avenue were both charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing a government function and resisting arrest, reports said. The Jersey City Police Department gave this account of the incident: Police were called to Summit Avenue and Charles Street at 2:29 a.m. on the report of a large, unruly crowd outside the Laguna Lounge. The first two cops to arrive saw Matos yelling loudly, flailing his arms and pushing people, and when someone yelled "Cops!" Matos yelled "F--- the cops! F--- those cops! I don't give a f---!" One officer tried to place Matos under arrest and Matos shouted "F--- you!" at the cop. As Matos struggled against being handcuffed by one officer, the other cop tried to keep the hostile crowd -- which was shouting obscenities at the police officers -- from jumping into the fracas. When Torres tried to interfere with the arrest, the second cop struggled with him and a voice came out of the crowd -- "I'm on the job." The two cops, struggling to restrain Torres and Matos, believed it was an off-duty officer that would assist them, but then Casales said "You can't do that!" and got between one of the officers and Torres, allowing Torres to escape momentarily, police said. Torres and Matos were finally subdued and arrested when other Jersey City cops arrived, and that's when Casales "melted away" in the crowd that began to disperse. The sheriff's officer later showed up at the North District to check on the status of the two men who were charged, but the arresting officers recognized her and she was issued a summons, police said. Police say she admitted to them that she is a law enforcement officer and had tried to interfere with the arrests. One of police officer was taken to Christ Hospital after suffering a pain in the lower back.
The Jersey Journal - www.NJ.com - by Charles Hack - October 22, 2011
Hudson County Sheriff's Officer Maritza Casales was charged with obstruction of a governmental function, authorities said. An off-duty Hudson County sheriff's officer was charged with obstructing with the law after trying stop a Jersey City police officer from arresting a man outside a bar Saturday morning, police reports said. Sheriff's Officer Maritza C. Casales, 44, of Kennedy Boulevard in Bayonne, was issued with a summons for obstruction of a government function, police said. Casales, who had almost seven years on the force, was suspended without pay today, pending further investigation following the arrest said, Michael Makarski, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. Two men involved in the incident, Victor M. Matos, Jr., 28, of West Side Avenue and Felix Antonio Torres, 35, of Jordan Avenue were both charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing a government function and resisting arrest, reports said. The Jersey City Police Department gave this account of the incident: Police were called to Summit Avenue and Charles Street at 2:29 a.m. on the report of a large, unruly crowd outside the Laguna Lounge. The first two cops to arrive saw Matos yelling loudly, flailing his arms and pushing people, and when someone yelled "Cops!" Matos yelled "F--- the cops! F--- those cops! I don't give a f---!" One officer tried to place Matos under arrest and Matos shouted "F--- you!" at the cop. As Matos struggled against being handcuffed by one officer, the other cop tried to keep the hostile crowd -- which was shouting obscenities at the police officers -- from jumping into the fracas. When Torres tried to interfere with the arrest, the second cop struggled with him and a voice came out of the crowd -- "I'm on the job." The two cops, struggling to restrain Torres and Matos, believed it was an off-duty officer that would assist them, but then Casales said "You can't do that!" and got between one of the officers and Torres, allowing Torres to escape momentarily, police said. Torres and Matos were finally subdued and arrested when other Jersey City cops arrived, and that's when Casales "melted away" in the crowd that began to disperse. The sheriff's officer later showed up at the North District to check on the status of the two men who were charged, but the arresting officers recognized her and she was issued a summons, police said. Police say she admitted to them that she is a law enforcement officer and had tried to interfere with the arrests. One of police officer was taken to Christ Hospital after suffering a pain in the lower back.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Cop Charged in Armed Robbery of 17-year-old
Irvington cop charged in armed robbery of 17-year-old girl in Raritan
The Somerset Messenger-Gazette by Warren Cooper - October 20, 2011
RARITAN, NJ — Two more arrests have been made in connection with the armed robbery and assault of a 17-year-old girl here on Sunday, Oct. 16. One of those arrested is an Irvington policeman. Police officer Herne LaCoste, 40, of Plainfield, and Markessa Coleman, 18, of Irvington were arrested following the investigation of the robbery that occurred in the parking lot of Ortho McNeil Pharmaceuticals on Route 202/206, according to the Somerset Prosecutor's Office. Shanikah Daniels, 18, of East Orange had previously been arrested in the case. The Prosecutor's Office gave the following account. At about 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 16, borough police received a report that Daniels had robbed at gun point a 17-year-old girl while she was seated inside a gray SUV with a damaged bumper. Daniels then forced the girl out of the SUV and, along with Coleman, physically assaulted the girl while LaCoste watched. LaCoste then drove the two women from the scene in the SUV. They took with them the girl's possessions, a cell phone, a bus ticket and a metro card. After the girl was treated at Somerset Medical Center for minor injuries, investigation by borough police and detectives from the Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit led them to Daniel’s apartment building in East Orange. The gray SUV was found nearby. After obtaining search warrants, detectives located Daniels, LaCoste and the victim’s property in the apartment and a .38 caliber hand gun inside the SUV. Detectives found Coleman on Tuesday, Oct. 18. She was charged with aggravated assault and released. LaCoste was arrested the same day and charged with official misconduct, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose. He was brought to the county jail with bail set at $20,000. As of today, Oct. 20, LaCoste had made bail arrangements and had been released. Daniels remains in jail, charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, possession of a handgun without a permit and possession of a firearm with the intent to use it against another person. Reach Warren Cooper at wcooper@njnpublishing.com or 908-948-1261.
The Somerset Messenger-Gazette by Warren Cooper - October 20, 2011
RARITAN, NJ — Two more arrests have been made in connection with the armed robbery and assault of a 17-year-old girl here on Sunday, Oct. 16. One of those arrested is an Irvington policeman. Police officer Herne LaCoste, 40, of Plainfield, and Markessa Coleman, 18, of Irvington were arrested following the investigation of the robbery that occurred in the parking lot of Ortho McNeil Pharmaceuticals on Route 202/206, according to the Somerset Prosecutor's Office. Shanikah Daniels, 18, of East Orange had previously been arrested in the case. The Prosecutor's Office gave the following account. At about 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 16, borough police received a report that Daniels had robbed at gun point a 17-year-old girl while she was seated inside a gray SUV with a damaged bumper. Daniels then forced the girl out of the SUV and, along with Coleman, physically assaulted the girl while LaCoste watched. LaCoste then drove the two women from the scene in the SUV. They took with them the girl's possessions, a cell phone, a bus ticket and a metro card. After the girl was treated at Somerset Medical Center for minor injuries, investigation by borough police and detectives from the Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit led them to Daniel’s apartment building in East Orange. The gray SUV was found nearby. After obtaining search warrants, detectives located Daniels, LaCoste and the victim’s property in the apartment and a .38 caliber hand gun inside the SUV. Detectives found Coleman on Tuesday, Oct. 18. She was charged with aggravated assault and released. LaCoste was arrested the same day and charged with official misconduct, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose. He was brought to the county jail with bail set at $20,000. As of today, Oct. 20, LaCoste had made bail arrangements and had been released. Daniels remains in jail, charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, possession of a handgun without a permit and possession of a firearm with the intent to use it against another person. Reach Warren Cooper at wcooper@njnpublishing.com or 908-948-1261.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Drunk Cop Kills Young Man With His Car
Drunken, off-duty officer kills young man with his car, cops say
The New York Daily News by Bob Kappstatter, Kerry Wills and Kerry Burke - September 15, 2011
A drunken, off-duty rookie cop was arrested early Wednesday after he killed a young man with his car in the Bronx, cops said. Police said Officer Luis Arnao, 25, slammed into Tyre Chisholm, 22, with his 2011 Honda Accord as Chisholm was crossing White Plains Road in Wakefield at E. 241st St. "He got hit hard," said Devine Douglas, 45, a livery driver. "He flew up in the air. His shoes flew off with his socks still in them." Douglas said the driver "was definitely speeding. He kept going, but turned around and came back."
The New York Daily News by Bob Kappstatter, Kerry Wills and Kerry Burke - September 15, 2011
A drunken, off-duty rookie cop was arrested early Wednesday after he killed a young man with his car in the Bronx, cops said. Police said Officer Luis Arnao, 25, slammed into Tyre Chisholm, 22, with his 2011 Honda Accord as Chisholm was crossing White Plains Road in Wakefield at E. 241st St. "He got hit hard," said Devine Douglas, 45, a livery driver. "He flew up in the air. His shoes flew off with his socks still in them." Douglas said the driver "was definitely speeding. He kept going, but turned around and came back."
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Top Cop Disciplined in Occupy Wall Street Pepper Spray
Occupy Wall St. pepper-spray cop Anthony Bologna loses 10 vacation days for violating NYPD rules
The New York Daily News by Rocco Parascandola, Kerry Burke and Helen Kennedy - October 19, 2011
Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna was caught on camera pepper-spraying female protesters. NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna was disciplined Tuesday for pepper-spraying two female protesters in the notorious YouTube video seen around the world. The NYPD found that Bologna violated departmental guidelines and docked him 10 vacation days, or the equivalent amount of pay, police sources said. The 29-year veteran makes $154,300 a year. Protesters had demanded Bologna be arrested for spraying two penned-in women in the face and then quickly striding away during a Sept. 24 protest near Union Square. Bologna's actions appeared unprovoked, and other cops at the scene were recorded expressing amazement at what he did. Video of that moment - which was viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube and played over and over on TV - helped turn Occupy Wall Street into a global phenomenon. News of the punishment broke as protesters were marching on Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s office to demand a crackdown on police brutality. They broke into cheers, then chants of "Fire Bologna! Fire Bologna!" "It's a great step," said Vocal New York community organizer Alfredo Carrasquillo. Bologna was disciplined one day after prominent defense lawyer Ron Kuby brought one of the victims, 24-year-old Albany teacher's aide Kaylee Dedrick, to meet with Vance's investigators. Kuby didn't think much of Bologna's punishment. "Frankly, I don't want him to lose any vacation days at all. That means he spends more time on the job with an even bigger attitude," Kuby said. "I think he needs a very long rest someplace quiet and stress-free." Bologna's union reps said he was "disappointed." "His actions prevented further injury and escalation of tumultuous conduct," said Roy Richter of the NYPD Captains Endowment Association. Occupy Wall Street began its second month with forays uptown, including a gathering at Lincoln Center to support the Granny Peace Brigade. Tuesday night, a group of 200 laid siege to a glitzy Huffington Post party in SoHo, believing Gov. Cuomo was inside, and chanting that he was "protecting the 1%." Feminist writer Naomi Wolf, a guest, and a male companion were later arrested after she encouraged protesters to demonstrate on the sidewalk in front of the Skylight Soho club. As she was being led away in handcuffs, she told police, "It's our First Amendment right. The sidewalk is a public place." Shortly after midnight, actor Alec Baldwin showed up at Zuccotti Park. "You slept here for two days?" he asked Nina Montgomery, 18. "I slept like a baby," she answered. "I woke up with cameras in my face. Maybe you're used to that, but I'm not." Baldwin stuck around for an hour holding court at a press table and talking politics with protesters. "One thing I would like to see is all student loans forgiven," he told one group. "I'd love to see what the effect would be on the economy if we pardoned all these loans." With Lore Croghan and Kerry Wills
The New York Daily News by Rocco Parascandola, Kerry Burke and Helen Kennedy - October 19, 2011
Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna was caught on camera pepper-spraying female protesters. NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna was disciplined Tuesday for pepper-spraying two female protesters in the notorious YouTube video seen around the world. The NYPD found that Bologna violated departmental guidelines and docked him 10 vacation days, or the equivalent amount of pay, police sources said. The 29-year veteran makes $154,300 a year. Protesters had demanded Bologna be arrested for spraying two penned-in women in the face and then quickly striding away during a Sept. 24 protest near Union Square. Bologna's actions appeared unprovoked, and other cops at the scene were recorded expressing amazement at what he did. Video of that moment - which was viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube and played over and over on TV - helped turn Occupy Wall Street into a global phenomenon. News of the punishment broke as protesters were marching on Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s office to demand a crackdown on police brutality. They broke into cheers, then chants of "Fire Bologna! Fire Bologna!" "It's a great step," said Vocal New York community organizer Alfredo Carrasquillo. Bologna was disciplined one day after prominent defense lawyer Ron Kuby brought one of the victims, 24-year-old Albany teacher's aide Kaylee Dedrick, to meet with Vance's investigators. Kuby didn't think much of Bologna's punishment. "Frankly, I don't want him to lose any vacation days at all. That means he spends more time on the job with an even bigger attitude," Kuby said. "I think he needs a very long rest someplace quiet and stress-free." Bologna's union reps said he was "disappointed." "His actions prevented further injury and escalation of tumultuous conduct," said Roy Richter of the NYPD Captains Endowment Association. Occupy Wall Street began its second month with forays uptown, including a gathering at Lincoln Center to support the Granny Peace Brigade. Tuesday night, a group of 200 laid siege to a glitzy Huffington Post party in SoHo, believing Gov. Cuomo was inside, and chanting that he was "protecting the 1%." Feminist writer Naomi Wolf, a guest, and a male companion were later arrested after she encouraged protesters to demonstrate on the sidewalk in front of the Skylight Soho club. As she was being led away in handcuffs, she told police, "It's our First Amendment right. The sidewalk is a public place." Shortly after midnight, actor Alec Baldwin showed up at Zuccotti Park. "You slept here for two days?" he asked Nina Montgomery, 18. "I slept like a baby," she answered. "I woke up with cameras in my face. Maybe you're used to that, but I'm not." Baldwin stuck around for an hour holding court at a press table and talking politics with protesters. "One thing I would like to see is all student loans forgiven," he told one group. "I'd love to see what the effect would be on the economy if we pardoned all these loans." With Lore Croghan and Kerry Wills
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Feds Charge Cop in False Arrest and Civil Rights Violations
NYPD cop Michael Daragjati taped making racial slurs about black man; accused of false arrest
The New York Daily News by John Marzulli - October 18, 2011
The New York Daily News by John Marzulli - October 18, 2011
A racial epithet-spewing NYPD cop was ordered held without bail Monday on charges of fabricating criminal charges against a black man on Staten Island. "I fried another n-----," Officer Michael Daragjati crowed last April, according to a transcript of a phone conversation intercepted by the feds. "Another n----- fried, no big deal." Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Paul Tuchman called Daragjati, who is white, "a blatant racist." Besides violating the civil rights of the unnamed man, Daragjati also is charged with orchestrating the violent beatdown and extortion of another victim he suspected of stealing a snowplow from his off-duty contracting business. The racially motivated false arrest came one one month after the FBI was investigating the snowplow scheme and monitoring the cop's private calls, according to the complaint unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court. Daragjati, 32, was assigned to a plainclothes anti-crime patrol when he stopped the man on Targee St. and roughly frisked him, the complaint states. The man complained about his treatment and asked for the cop's name and badge number, but was allowed to walk away because he was carrying no contraband. But after he shouted insults back at the officer, Daragjati crossed the street and cuffed him, the feds said. Daragjati swore out a criminal complaint falsely asserting the man had pushed and kicked him and "flailed" his arms to prevent being arrested. Several other officers had witnessed the arrest, in which the man offered no resistance. The victim later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on the advice of his lawyer. There is no explanation why Daragjati stopped the man, who had been walking on the street with his hands in his pockets at 9:30 p.m. Last year, there were a record 601,055 stops by cops, sparking criticism that black and Hispanic men were being harassed without a legal basis. The feds intercepted numerous calls in which Daragjati was overheard using the N-word to discuss not only the false arrest but also in bizarre jokes and talking about the weather. Daragjati has been sued twice before for falsely arresting blacks - the city settled one case for $12,500 and the other is pending. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association lawyer Michael Martinez minimized the extortion scheme and insisted Daragjati was just trying to get back his stolen snowplow. "At worst we have vigilante justice," Martinez said. "By a police officer," Magistrate Joan Azrack noted before ordering Daragjati remanded. In a statement, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly praised U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch and her staff "for bringing this case forward promptly and professionally." Kelly also gave kudos to NYPD Internal Affairs Chief Charles Campisi and his detectives, "who initiated this investigation and in doing so helped pave the way for prosecuting it." jmarzulli@nydailynews.com
Monday, October 17, 2011
Ex-Cop Sentenced to 12 Years
Ex-cop sentenced to 12 years in SOS probe
WLS-TV by Paul Meincke - September 8, 2011
WLS-TV by Paul Meincke - September 8, 2011
CHICAGO - Jerome Finnigan, who led a gang of corrupt Chicago cops, was sentenced Thursday for plotting to kill another Chicago police officer. Finnigan apologized and expressed remorse. He has also given prosecutors information they didn't previously have. In a five-minute address to the judge at the sentencing hearing, Finnigan acknowledged that he brought shame on himself and his family, and that stress and greed turned him the wrong way. Judge Blanche Mannin agreed that Finnigan had done good things, but called his bad acts "unfathomable" and sentenced him to 12 years. Finnigan was once a highly-decorated officer who solved crimes and saved lives. But at some point, the Chicago police officer went rogue. He became the ringleader of a group of cops who shook down alleged drug dealers, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, and lied in bogus reports. Some of those shakedowns - one of which was caught on a Southwest Side bar surveillance camera - were extraordinarily bold. "Innocent people -- not just drug dealers, not just bad guys -- but innocent people were hurt and hurt deeply by this," Prof. Craig Futterman, University of Chicago, said. After his arrest, Finnigan was further charged with trying to set up a hit on a fellow police officer that Finnigan thought might testify against him. Most of the other cops involved in the shakedowns have already been sentenced. On Thursday, it was Finnigan's turn. Standing before the judge, Finnigan said, "I did become a corrupt police officer. That was not my intention." At the same time, he said he was proud of he did before he went down the wrong path. He said, "I did more work in one year than some guys do in 30 years." "My bosses knew what I was doing out there. It was not an exception. It was the rule. You did what you had to," he said, to go after the gangs and make the streets safe. At the dawn of this investigation, there were predictions that corruption charges would climb the food chain, but prosecutors say the investigation is over. "We conducted a thorough investigation and there is not enough evidence to try anyone else," said Brian Netols, assistant U.S. attorney, said. I don't think the fundamental problem has been changed," Craig Futterman, said. Futterman has monitored civil rights issues in the police department over the years. He thinks there are still big holes in police supervision. "SOS guys-- 50, 60 complaints of official misconduct. Never challenged, never flagged, never counseled. That's how it happens," Futterman said. The Special Operations Section that Finnigan and his corrupt colleagues were part of was abolished four years ago. The department says it has instituted new steps to insure proper supervisory oversight. Finnigan has already served four years in what his attorney regards as quite punitive isolation in the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Victim describes intimidation by ex-cop
On an August night six years ago, Jose Fematt and his then 4-year-old sister were in their pajamas watching TV. Mom was at work. Jose heard noises on the lawn. Within minutes, the front door was kicked in. A half dozen or more cops entered screaming with guns drawn. "He just told me - throw myself on the ground and put my hands behind my back," said Jose. Now 19, Jose remembers being terrified that night by the cops who tightly cuffed him, drove him around in a squad, demanding that he tell them about his upstairs neighbor. He says he could tell them nothing because he knew nothing. The officers ransacked the house, then left, with a warning - say nothing. "Because if I did, something really bad was going to happen to me and to my family," he said. The cops in question that night were part of a crew that had Finnigan as its ring leader. Their modus operandi: shakedown alleged drug dealers from whom they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. Jose Fematt never said anything about that night six years ago until earlier this year when he filed a civil rights suit. "A 13-year-old boy should be viewing a police officer as a hero and as someone he can look up to as a role model, and this is the exact opposite message," said Torri Hamilton, Fematt attorney. Jose says he knows the action of those cops six years ago is the exception, but he still doesn't trust cops. "In my head, not able to trust them again, to feel protected, feel safe around them," said Jose.
Victim describes intimidation by ex-cop
On an August night six years ago, Jose Fematt and his then 4-year-old sister were in their pajamas watching TV. Mom was at work. Jose heard noises on the lawn. Within minutes, the front door was kicked in. A half dozen or more cops entered screaming with guns drawn. "He just told me - throw myself on the ground and put my hands behind my back," said Jose. Now 19, Jose remembers being terrified that night by the cops who tightly cuffed him, drove him around in a squad, demanding that he tell them about his upstairs neighbor. He says he could tell them nothing because he knew nothing. The officers ransacked the house, then left, with a warning - say nothing. "Because if I did, something really bad was going to happen to me and to my family," he said. The cops in question that night were part of a crew that had Finnigan as its ring leader. Their modus operandi: shakedown alleged drug dealers from whom they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. Jose Fematt never said anything about that night six years ago until earlier this year when he filed a civil rights suit. "A 13-year-old boy should be viewing a police officer as a hero and as someone he can look up to as a role model, and this is the exact opposite message," said Torri Hamilton, Fematt attorney. Jose says he knows the action of those cops six years ago is the exception, but he still doesn't trust cops. "In my head, not able to trust them again, to feel protected, feel safe around them," said Jose.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Cop used NYPD database to search for information on man he pepper-sprayed in traffic fight: feds
The New York Daily News by John Marzulli - October 5, 2011
A Brooklyn cop was arrested by the feds Wednesday for using a computer database to dig up information on a man he pepper-sprayed while on duty, authorities said. Admir Kacamakovic of the 62d Precinct in Bensonhurst, was also charged with violating the civil rights of the man he pepper-sprayed outside his cousin's bar in July 2008. "No one f---- with my cousin's place," Kacamakovic said to the victim, according to the complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court. The cousin was under investigation for drug trafficking, authorities said. Kacamakovic also pepper-sprayed a second person during the incident which apparently started over a car blocking traffic outside the bar. The cop handcuffed one man and threatened to arrest him, but ultimately ordered him to leave the area without busting him, the complaint states. The illegal search on the computer was part of a sting operation in which two undercover federal agents passed a Virginia driver's license to Kacamakovic's cousin claiming they could supply bogus credentials. Kacamakovic is charged with using an NYPD computer to access a federal database to search for the name on the driver's license. "The officer allegedly turned his back on his oath to protect and serve, instead used his badge and his authority against a citizen and our system of justice," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.
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New York City Police Department Officer Arrested on Federal Civil Rights Charges and Unauthorized Use of a Computer to Obtain Information from a Law Enforcement Database - U.S. Attorney’s Office - October 05, 2011
THE FBI - Eastern District of New York - (718) 254-7000
A criminal complaint was unsealed this morning in Brooklyn federal court charging New York City Police Department Officer Admir Kacamakovic, a seven-year veteran of the NYPD assigned to the 62nd Precinct in Brooklyn, with violating the civil rights of a patron of a bar owned by the officer’s cousin. Kacamakovic is also charged in the complaint with having improperly accessed a Federal Bureau of Investigation database in an attempt to obtain information regarding the victim of that assault and to obtain other information at the behest of his cousin, who was subsequently federally prosecuted for narcotics trafficking. Kacamakovic was arrested earlier today and will make his initial appearance this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. The case was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office; and Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. As alleged in the complaint, on July 5, 2008, Kacamakovic, while on duty and in uniform, assaulted with pepper spray, handcuffed and unlawfully detained a man who was involved in a parking dispute in front of a bar owned by Kacamakovic’s cousin. Using an expletive, Kacamakovic told the man that “no one f***s with my cousin’s place.” Kacamakovic also pepper-sprayed a second person during the incident. Thereafter, on two separate occasions, Kacamakovic, in violation of NYPD directives, accessed the NYPD’s computer system to obtain information from a federal database about the assault victim, who had filed both a complaint against Kacamakovic with the Civilian Complaint Review Board and a civil action in New York state court. As further alleged in the complaint, Kacamakovic also accessed the federal database on behalf of his cousin in a separate matter. Between 2008 and 2009, Kacamakovic’s cousin was the subject of an FBI investigation for, among other crimes, narcotics trafficking. Two federal agents operating in an undercover capacity posed as individuals who could provide the cousin with actual Virginia state driver’s licenses that could be used by illegal aliens and other criminal associates of the cousin. At the cousin’s request, the undercover agents obtained a Virginia driver’s license containing a photograph and name that had been supplied by the cousin. Upon receiving the driver’s license from the agents, the cousin stated that he would “let his cousin run through it.” As charged in the complaint, computer and telephone records reveal that about one month later, Kacamakovic used the NYPD’s computer system to access the federal database to search the name contained in the driver’s license supplied to Kacamakovic’s cousin by the undercover agents. “This officer allegedly turned his back on his oath to protect and to serve, and instead used his badge and his authority against a citizen and our system of justice. This prosecution demonstrates that the arbitrary and unjustified use of force and the abuse of trust by police officers who are sworn to uphold the law will not be tolerated,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. Ms. Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI and NYPD, the agencies responsible for leading the government’s investigation. FBI Assistant Director in Charge Fedarcyk stated, “The public trusts the police not only to enforce the law, but to obey it. This is a responsibility that should be taken seriously. As alleged in the complaint, this officer repeatedly used his position to intimidate others, including beat downs and violence, as well as accessing sensitive information that could have jeopardized undercover investigations, all for personal gain. The FBI will continue to investigate those in public positions who engage in corrupt activities.” NYPD Commissioner Kelly stated, “I want to commend the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau for its important work in uncovering police misconduct and in bringing to justice those who dishonor themselves and the department.” The complaint charges Kacamakovic with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts. If convicted of all counts, he faces a maximum sentence of 17 years’ imprisonment. The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael Warren. The Defendant: ADMIR KACAMAKOVIC - Age: 31 - The charges in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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New York City Police Department Officer Arrested on Federal Civil Rights Charges and Unauthorized Use of a Computer to Obtain Information from a Law Enforcement Database - U.S. Attorney’s Office - October 05, 2011
THE FBI - Eastern District of New York - (718) 254-7000
A criminal complaint was unsealed this morning in Brooklyn federal court charging New York City Police Department Officer Admir Kacamakovic, a seven-year veteran of the NYPD assigned to the 62nd Precinct in Brooklyn, with violating the civil rights of a patron of a bar owned by the officer’s cousin. Kacamakovic is also charged in the complaint with having improperly accessed a Federal Bureau of Investigation database in an attempt to obtain information regarding the victim of that assault and to obtain other information at the behest of his cousin, who was subsequently federally prosecuted for narcotics trafficking. Kacamakovic was arrested earlier today and will make his initial appearance this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. The case was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office; and Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. As alleged in the complaint, on July 5, 2008, Kacamakovic, while on duty and in uniform, assaulted with pepper spray, handcuffed and unlawfully detained a man who was involved in a parking dispute in front of a bar owned by Kacamakovic’s cousin. Using an expletive, Kacamakovic told the man that “no one f***s with my cousin’s place.” Kacamakovic also pepper-sprayed a second person during the incident. Thereafter, on two separate occasions, Kacamakovic, in violation of NYPD directives, accessed the NYPD’s computer system to obtain information from a federal database about the assault victim, who had filed both a complaint against Kacamakovic with the Civilian Complaint Review Board and a civil action in New York state court. As further alleged in the complaint, Kacamakovic also accessed the federal database on behalf of his cousin in a separate matter. Between 2008 and 2009, Kacamakovic’s cousin was the subject of an FBI investigation for, among other crimes, narcotics trafficking. Two federal agents operating in an undercover capacity posed as individuals who could provide the cousin with actual Virginia state driver’s licenses that could be used by illegal aliens and other criminal associates of the cousin. At the cousin’s request, the undercover agents obtained a Virginia driver’s license containing a photograph and name that had been supplied by the cousin. Upon receiving the driver’s license from the agents, the cousin stated that he would “let his cousin run through it.” As charged in the complaint, computer and telephone records reveal that about one month later, Kacamakovic used the NYPD’s computer system to access the federal database to search the name contained in the driver’s license supplied to Kacamakovic’s cousin by the undercover agents. “This officer allegedly turned his back on his oath to protect and to serve, and instead used his badge and his authority against a citizen and our system of justice. This prosecution demonstrates that the arbitrary and unjustified use of force and the abuse of trust by police officers who are sworn to uphold the law will not be tolerated,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. Ms. Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI and NYPD, the agencies responsible for leading the government’s investigation. FBI Assistant Director in Charge Fedarcyk stated, “The public trusts the police not only to enforce the law, but to obey it. This is a responsibility that should be taken seriously. As alleged in the complaint, this officer repeatedly used his position to intimidate others, including beat downs and violence, as well as accessing sensitive information that could have jeopardized undercover investigations, all for personal gain. The FBI will continue to investigate those in public positions who engage in corrupt activities.” NYPD Commissioner Kelly stated, “I want to commend the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau for its important work in uncovering police misconduct and in bringing to justice those who dishonor themselves and the department.” The complaint charges Kacamakovic with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts. If convicted of all counts, he faces a maximum sentence of 17 years’ imprisonment. The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael Warren. The Defendant: ADMIR KACAMAKOVIC - Age: 31 - The charges in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Serpico Enjoys The Quiet Life
Decades After Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence, Ex-Cop Frank Serpico Enjoys the Quiet Life
WNYC by Mirela Iverac - October 3, 2011
WNYC by Mirela Iverac - October 3, 2011
“Am I disappointed? Am I angry? I wouldn’t say I’m angry, but I have a right to be angry. And I have a right to be disappointed.”
At 75, Frank Serpico has come a long way from the days when he exposed rampant corruption in the New York Police Department in the 1960s, got shot in the face during a drug bust and subsequently was made famous by Al Pacino’s portrayal in Sidney Lumet’s 1973 classic biopic. “How many years is it now?” Serpico said, smiling, during a recent interview. “Forty years. I got a bullet in my head, and I’m still here.” After joining the NYPD in 1959, Serpico refused to become one more officer accepting bribe. Instead, he turned into the most famous cop who broke the blue wall of silence. In early 1970, after having little luck reporting corruption, Serpico went to The New York Times. The exposé forced Mayor John Lindsay to form the Knapp Commission, which documented endemic corruption in the police department and brought sweeping reforms. This October will mark the 40th anniversary of Serpico’s 1971 testimony before the Commission. Earlier that same year, Serpico was shot in the face. By then there was so much disdain for Serpico in the department that fears immediately arose that he had been shot by one of his fellow officers. It proved untrue; a heroin dealer fired the shot that nearly ended Serpico’s life during a narcotics raid in Brooklyn. Today, somewhere under a receding hair line, fragments of the bullet and memories from that day are still lodged.
Serene Life Upstate
Where he lives now, Serpico prefers to keep a secret. He will only say it is a one-room cabin he built himself, in upstate New York, about three hours north of New York City. No neighbors in sight. On a typical day, he usually gets up around 6:30 a.m., meditates by playing Japanese bamboo flute and makes his own meals using only organic food he buys in farmers markets (he wears a magnifying glass around his neck so he can check ingredients). He keeps in shape by cycling and swing dancing. He is writing a memoir, but doesn’t feel like there’s enough time to work on it. “I’m too busy living,” he said, with a mischievous smile. In Hudson, N.Y., where we meet for the interview, he is a familiar face, and many stop him to chat. Dan Seward, owner of John Doe records store on Park Place, has known Serpico for seven years, during which he has occasionally frequented the store. Before they met, he had already heard rumors, which generally seem to precede Serpico. “I knew some fables about him. Fables with the ladies,” Seward said. “Some of my lady friends were friends of his and had alternately wonderful things and discouraging things to say about Frank. But I guess that’s what makes him him, right?” Serpico, who had a reputation for being a ladies man, never married. He is currently dating a French schoolteacher. Putting Life Back Together This life, at least to an extent reclusive, is one he gradually settled into. He left the force in 1972. A year later, he left the country. “I thought I’d get out of this country as fast I can and put my life together,” Serpico said, reflecting on the time following the shooting incident. “I just traveled. I’ve been to Russia, East, Middle East.” Serpico took a brief respite from traveling when the movie based on his life was being made. He was called to the set and spent some time with Pacino, whom he liked. But soon, Serpico said, he ran into problems. “Lumet was directing, and I said cut,” he said. “And he said, ‘Pussycat, what are you doing? I’m trying to make a movie over here.’” He said the argument had ensued over a scene where, in the movie, Serpico’s fellow officer flushes down the toilet a man who was late with a payoff. In real life, Serpico says, that didn’t happen. A sharp exchange between two men developed, he recalled. “I grabbed my proverbials and said ‘Pussycat this,’” Serpico said. “And I walked out. And that was the last time that I saw him.” Serpico returned to traveling. He met a Dutch woman, and they settled on a farm with her two children. Years later she died of cancer and in 1981 Serpico returned to the US.
Anger Still Directed at the NYPD
Years, though, have not tamed his anger toward the NYPD. Serpico said he never claimed he was shot in a set-up organized by fellow officers. But that February night, he said, his partners did not back him as he tried to enter the Brooklyn heroin’s dealer apartment. Serpico said he confronted Patrick V. Murphy, Police Commissioner at the time when he was shot, at John Jay College of Criminal Justice a few years ago. “I’ve been carrying a bullet in my head for over 35 years, and you, Mr. Murphy, are the man I hold responsible,” Serpico said he told Murphy in front of an audience. But Serpico’s resentments extend far beyond the night he got shot. He says the Medal of Honor, which he received after the shooting, was not awarded in a proper ceremony; that he is never invited to lecture at the Police Academy or to any other NYPD organized events. At the same time, he points out, other police departments around the country welcome him.
“Conscience of the department”
Eugene O’Donnell, professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former cop, said he thinks Serpico’s resentment is justified, considering the role he played in the department’s history. “He absolutely was not properly credited for what he did,” O’Donnell said. “He took on a role of a reformer and really a conscience of the department and ended up doing some heavy lifting that should have been done at the top of the department. In the safe distance of 2011 he becomes more of a heroic figure with each passing year.” Serpico’s complaints turn into outright criticism of the department, which he still sees as embroiled in some of the same problems that existed in his era. “In my time no, not every policeman was corrupt,” he said. “But those that were corrupt were the ones that ran the show. And that’s the way it works today.” Experts disagree, giving the NYPD high marks when it comes to corruption. Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the department, said Serpico’s remarks show “ignorance born out of being away for 40 years.” “We have almost as many people involved in fighting corruption and prosecuting police officers internally … as we have assigned to counter terrorism, about a 1000 people,” Browne said. “Far, far different from when Frank Serpico was a police officer.” Even though he might sound bitter, Serpico said he has no regrets about the past and feels contented. Still, the idea that he hasn’t been treated fairly seems to result in emotions that continuously percolate just beneath the surface. “Am I disappointed? Am I angry?” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m angry, but I have a right to be angry. And I have a right to be disappointed.”
Serene Life Upstate
Where he lives now, Serpico prefers to keep a secret. He will only say it is a one-room cabin he built himself, in upstate New York, about three hours north of New York City. No neighbors in sight. On a typical day, he usually gets up around 6:30 a.m., meditates by playing Japanese bamboo flute and makes his own meals using only organic food he buys in farmers markets (he wears a magnifying glass around his neck so he can check ingredients). He keeps in shape by cycling and swing dancing. He is writing a memoir, but doesn’t feel like there’s enough time to work on it. “I’m too busy living,” he said, with a mischievous smile. In Hudson, N.Y., where we meet for the interview, he is a familiar face, and many stop him to chat. Dan Seward, owner of John Doe records store on Park Place, has known Serpico for seven years, during which he has occasionally frequented the store. Before they met, he had already heard rumors, which generally seem to precede Serpico. “I knew some fables about him. Fables with the ladies,” Seward said. “Some of my lady friends were friends of his and had alternately wonderful things and discouraging things to say about Frank. But I guess that’s what makes him him, right?” Serpico, who had a reputation for being a ladies man, never married. He is currently dating a French schoolteacher. Putting Life Back Together This life, at least to an extent reclusive, is one he gradually settled into. He left the force in 1972. A year later, he left the country. “I thought I’d get out of this country as fast I can and put my life together,” Serpico said, reflecting on the time following the shooting incident. “I just traveled. I’ve been to Russia, East, Middle East.” Serpico took a brief respite from traveling when the movie based on his life was being made. He was called to the set and spent some time with Pacino, whom he liked. But soon, Serpico said, he ran into problems. “Lumet was directing, and I said cut,” he said. “And he said, ‘Pussycat, what are you doing? I’m trying to make a movie over here.’” He said the argument had ensued over a scene where, in the movie, Serpico’s fellow officer flushes down the toilet a man who was late with a payoff. In real life, Serpico says, that didn’t happen. A sharp exchange between two men developed, he recalled. “I grabbed my proverbials and said ‘Pussycat this,’” Serpico said. “And I walked out. And that was the last time that I saw him.” Serpico returned to traveling. He met a Dutch woman, and they settled on a farm with her two children. Years later she died of cancer and in 1981 Serpico returned to the US.
Anger Still Directed at the NYPD
Years, though, have not tamed his anger toward the NYPD. Serpico said he never claimed he was shot in a set-up organized by fellow officers. But that February night, he said, his partners did not back him as he tried to enter the Brooklyn heroin’s dealer apartment. Serpico said he confronted Patrick V. Murphy, Police Commissioner at the time when he was shot, at John Jay College of Criminal Justice a few years ago. “I’ve been carrying a bullet in my head for over 35 years, and you, Mr. Murphy, are the man I hold responsible,” Serpico said he told Murphy in front of an audience. But Serpico’s resentments extend far beyond the night he got shot. He says the Medal of Honor, which he received after the shooting, was not awarded in a proper ceremony; that he is never invited to lecture at the Police Academy or to any other NYPD organized events. At the same time, he points out, other police departments around the country welcome him.
“Conscience of the department”
Eugene O’Donnell, professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former cop, said he thinks Serpico’s resentment is justified, considering the role he played in the department’s history. “He absolutely was not properly credited for what he did,” O’Donnell said. “He took on a role of a reformer and really a conscience of the department and ended up doing some heavy lifting that should have been done at the top of the department. In the safe distance of 2011 he becomes more of a heroic figure with each passing year.” Serpico’s complaints turn into outright criticism of the department, which he still sees as embroiled in some of the same problems that existed in his era. “In my time no, not every policeman was corrupt,” he said. “But those that were corrupt were the ones that ran the show. And that’s the way it works today.” Experts disagree, giving the NYPD high marks when it comes to corruption. Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the department, said Serpico’s remarks show “ignorance born out of being away for 40 years.” “We have almost as many people involved in fighting corruption and prosecuting police officers internally … as we have assigned to counter terrorism, about a 1000 people,” Browne said. “Far, far different from when Frank Serpico was a police officer.” Even though he might sound bitter, Serpico said he has no regrets about the past and feels contented. Still, the idea that he hasn’t been treated fairly seems to result in emotions that continuously percolate just beneath the surface. “Am I disappointed? Am I angry?” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m angry, but I have a right to be angry. And I have a right to be disappointed.”
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