WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.&& [PART 2]
Involvement of Politicians, Judges, Lawyers, & Police in the Drug Business
NOTES: I made a few corrections to spellings but left the original document mainly untouched. All dates are in YYMMDD format. These files are only a portion of the entire WORMSCAN.&& file. I had to break it up due to length. There are hundreds of pages in these files.
This is a continuation of the file named WORMSCAN.&&.
WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.&& [PART 1]
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Page One
Tuesday, April 16, 1996
By Jeff Gammage
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The damage shows in the eyes of jurors who cast a wary eye on police testimony.
It shows in the way the top police command has tightened control over some field units, slowing the move toward a decentralized, community police force.
And it shows in the anger of street officers and detectives, who say they have been unjustly tarred by the villainous actions of a few.
"Those guys, what they did was unconscionable -- unconscionable," said Homicide Detective Joseph Fischer, a 25-year veteran.
"Those guys" are five corrupt 39th District officers who have admitted robbing suspects, planting drugs and lying about it in court. Yesterday, in a daylong series of sentencing hearings before a dour federal judge, several were given lengthy sentences.
The unhappy results of their actions have been far-reaching: About 110 drug-conviction cases have been or are being overturned by the District Attorney's Office. Some of those people have sued, demanding millions of dollars in damages.
Yesterday, people inside and outside the Police Department said that was only part of the cost of corruption, and that there were other, hidden costs, some of which will take years to remedy.
Maybe the most serious penalty is the one that honest police officers are paying every day, on the street and in the courtroom -- the loss of public confidence.
"The lawyers are having a field day on cops in court," complained one high-ranking police official. "Every time a cop goes into court, they think he's lying. . . . With O.J., officers were accused of lying. Now here you have these guys admit they lied."
Federal and city investigators are looking into a pattern of police abuse, primarily against poor African American and Latino residents. Police have been charged with framing people, lying to obtain search warrants, stealing money, false arrest, and beating and threatening citizens.
It's not just that a few Philadelphia officers have been convicted of corruption, several criminal justice authorities said. It's that the Mollen Commission uncovered very similar wrongdoing in New York. And that a police scandal has erupted in New Orleans. And that, on the other side of the country, a racist police officer named Mark Fuhrman lied on the witness stand in the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
Those events have hurt police in the larger public view.
The five corrupt 39th District officers have hurt them locally. Fischer says he has felt that sting in court. "These guys have damaged our credibility," he said. "Anybody who says otherwise is kidding themselves."
Fischer said that a few years back, police testimony was invariably accepted as truthful. But now he says he has noticed the way some jurors eye him on the witness stand.
"It's almost like if you say something out of the ordinary, there's this automatic feeling of disbelief," he said. "You have a good case, and then you sit there and wonder why the jury didn't believe you."
Some police commanders say they have noticed that headquarters has tightened its grip on various field units, fearful that too much freedom may breed corruption. Some see the department taking an uneasy, uncertain step away from community policing, toward a more centralized decision-making process. And they worry that process may accelerate if more officers are indicted. "If it's just this, we'll be OK," said one supervisor. "But how much more of this is to come, and how bad is it going to get? Is this the end, the middle or the beginning? That's the real issue, and only the people doing the investigation really know."
Those people aren't telling.
But U.S. District Judge Robert Gawthrop 3d sent his own message to corrupt officers yesterday, pounding former Officer Jack Baird, who has been described as a ringleader, with a 13-year prison term -- four years more than called for under federal guidelines.
"The primary purpose of today's sentence," the judge said, "is to deter other police officers from committing those crimes in the first place."
Police Commissioner Richard Neal said he fully supported that. "One corrupt cop is one corrupt cop too many," he said yesterday.
There's no question that police credibility has suffered, he said. But people need to realize, he said, that the actions of a few corrupt officers are not representative of the entire force.
"You have so many honest police officers who come to work each day, and all they want to do is serve," Neal said. "We know the vast majority of our police officers are honest. They need to hold their heads up and be proud of this organization."
Neal was not the only officer upset about Baird and the others. At the Police Administration Building yesterday, some officers were nearly gleeful when they heard about some of the lengthy sentences. "That's great. That's great," said one former Highway Patrol officer. Another said he hoped Baird would be raped in prison.
But they and others acknowledged that putting five corrupt officers in jail does not solve the Police Department's problem.
"There are many people in Philadelphia now, not only in the African American community but throughout the city, who believe there has been significant corruption in the department," said David Rudovsky, a veteran civil-rights lawyer. "My sense is, across the city, there is distrust now of police testimony and credibility."
Regaining that trust is no small task, he said. It will require significant changes in police training, supervision and accountability, he said. Rudovsky said he expects that under the best circumstances, it could take years for the department to regain its standing.
Fischer, who spends his days chasing people wanted for murder, thinks that time frame is about right. And he holds Baird and the others directly responsible.
"Those guys, what they did, it's a disgrace," he said. "What they did is going to be here for a long, long time."
------------------------------
Date: Wed Apr 24, 1996 2:52 am CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Re: Philly Cop News
Posted: Ronnie Dadone
http://www2.phillynews.com/daily_news/96/Apr/15/local/KOPS15.htm
Local > [Philadelphia Online]
THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
Monday, April 15, 1996
Leniency sought for dirty cops
by Jim Smith
Daily News Staff Writer
Federal prosecutors are recommending leniency for five former 39th District police officers who are to be sentenced today for conspiring to rob and violate the civil rights of dozens of suspected drug dealers.
While acknowledging that the defendants' crimes have had "a devastating effect upon local law enforcement," prosecutors say the five deserve to be rewarded for squealing on each other and, in some cases, on other corrupt cops.
"In practical terms, the incentive to cooperate will be crushed. . . by . . . imposition of a sentence which does not adequately reward meaningful cooperation," the prosecutors wrote in a memorandum to U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop III. "The government urges the court to send the message, to all police officers under scrutiny, that while their corruption warrants substantial punishment, their cooperation will be meaningfully recognized at sentencing," the prosecutors added. The memorandum was signed by assistant U.S. attorneys Joel D. Goldstein and William B. Carr Jr. and their boss, U.S. Attorney Michael R. Stiles, the area's top federal lawman.
The prosecutors say the corrupt cops stole more than $100,000 from suspected drug dealers and routinely made false statements to get search warrants or to justify illegal searches and arrests. The leader of the crooked cops, John Baird, turned informant and told authorities how he had falsified probable cause and sometimes added drugs to what was seized.
Baird's "candor" and "prodigious recall" enabled local prosecutors to reverse convictions in tainted cases, the prosecutors noted.
Baird, they say, gave "firsthand evidence of the practice of systemically manufacturing legal justification to investigate, detain, enter premises, search and arrest."
The prosecutors disputed news accounts that suggested some of the defendants had admitted framing innocent people.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, two ex-cops, Stephen Brown, 49, and James Ryan, 40, face eight to 10 years, according to calculations by the prosecutors and by the U.S. Probation Office.
James Ryan is now the government's star witness in ongoing police corruption probes targeting members of the Highway Patrol. Two highway cops were indicted recently along with two 25th District officers for allegedly stealing about $30,000 at a North Philadelphia cockfight.
While James Ryan contributed no new information to the investigation of corrupt 39th District cops, he provided "valuable information" about Highway Patrol, the prosecutors said.
"Indeed, there are other substantial matters which have already resulted from James Ryan's cooperation which we are not yet in a position to disclose," the prosecutors added.
Baird, 41, the admitted leader of the pack, one who at times pointed a gun at suspects' heads to force them to tell where money and drugs were hidden, faces sentencing guidelines of seven to nine years, primarily because he squealed more and negotiated a better plea bargain.
Ex-Sgt. Thomas DeGovanni, 45, is facing 6-1/2 to 8 years. Thomas Ryan, 39, the first to cooperate and the least involved in the scheme, faces only 2 to 2-1/2 years because he was not part of the February 1988 to April 1991 conspiracy with the four other 39th District crooks.
The prosecutors are asking the judge to go below the minimum sentences for all five defendants.
But the judge also has the option of going higher and imposing stiffer prison terms.
This option is based on matters not taken into account by the sentencing guidelines, including "the magnitude of harm" caused by the ex-cops' conduct and how they "significantly disrupted" the local criminal-justice system.
So far, 116 drug convictions have been overturned, and more are under review by the district attorney's office.
U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III doubled the maximum guideline sentence earlier this year for a sixth 39th District thief-with-a-badge, Louis Maier, 38.
Bartle sentenced Maier to five years in prison when Maier's guidelines called for 24 to 30 months.
Maier, a second-generation cop and nephew of a city judge, is appealing the sentence.
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------------------------------
Date: Wed Apr 24, 1996 9:42 pm CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Philly Cops
Posted: Ronnie Dadone
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Apr/17/city/PHA17.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
City & Region
Wednesday, April 17, 1996
Ex-officer's trial focuses on graft in another agency
One PHA officer has pleaded guilty to robbing suspects. The case is likened to the 39th District's.
By Mark Fazlollah
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Officers Ricardo Leon and Edward Malveiro used their badges to rob, planted drugs on suspects and perjured themselves on the witness stand, authorities said.
But Leon and Malveiro were not from the 39th District. They weren't even from the Philadelphia Police Department. The two Philadelphia Housing Authority police officers were fired after an internal investigation concluded that they had robbed and framed suspects. Malveiro pleaded guilty last year to robbery, perjury, theft and other charges. Leon is on trial in Common Pleas Court.
William Drummond, deputy chief of the PHA police, testified yesterday that suspicions focused on the two when a North Philadelphia woman, Theresa Brown, complained in August 1992 that two PHA officers had stolen $400 from her.
Drummond said in an interview later that the charges against Leon and Malveiro sketched a pattern of misconduct similar to that in the 39th District, where crooked officers robbed and framed suspects and falsified police reports.
"It was the same thing," Drummond said.
Leon's trial started Monday, the same day a federal judge sentenced five former 39th District officers to prison terms ranging from 10 months to 13 years.
Drummond testified yesterday that on the day Brown lodged her complaint, she identified Leon from a photograph as one of the officers who had robbed her.
The next day, Aug. 27, 1992, Brown returned to the PHA headquarters and said she had seen one of the officers who had robbed her. She had spotted him in a car at Sixth and Norris Streets. Police determined that it was registered to Leon, who lives in the 300 block of East Sheldon Street.
The two officers were charged with planting drugs on three other people. Idella Johnson testified yesterday that Leon planted "16 bundles" -- about 350 vials -- of crack cocaine on her while arresting her Oct. 21, 1992.
Johnson, who was arrested near her home at Damien and Somerset Streets, said she had only about 30 vials of crack that she was taking to a party.
After the arrest, Johnson pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine and was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison. After the misconduct charges against Malveiro and Leon came to light, her sentence was reduced to 11 months.
Drummond said it was hard to build a case against Leon and Malveiro because the witnesses were drug dealers with long rap sheets. He said the two officers targeted dealers because they were "the most vulnerable" and were unlikely to complain to police -- the same pattern found in the 39th District.
Malveiro, of the 6300 block of Sylvester Street, is scheduled to testify against Leon today.
Leon was fired from the PHA police force in 1992, after the allegations against him first surfaced. An arbitrator reinstated him in September 1993 and ordered PHA to give him $19,028 in back pay. He was fired again a year ago after he was formally charged with robbery and other offenses.
Leon's attorney, Jeremy Gonzalez Ibrahim, said the arbitrator's action indicated that the case against his client was flawed. "Ricardo Leon got his job back, and the investigation by PHA was flawed from the start and fraught with corrupt witnesses," he said.
==============
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Apr/17/opinion/COPS17.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Opinion
Wednesday, April 17, 1996
Throwing the book A federal judge made no mistake in showing no mercy to the 39th District's bad cops.
"Tell us the truth!" Officer John Baird shouted at Temple University student Arthur Colbert.
Then Baird and Officer John Ryan began whacking Mr. Colbert with their long-handled black flashlights.
"You stupid n --! Stop bulls -- ing us, you pea-brained . . . !"
Baird pulled his gun. Ryan stood alongside Mr. Colbert with a long two-by-four, then pushed it into Mr. Colbert's head. After terrorizing Mr. Colbert for denying (truthfully) that he was a drug dealer, Baird squatted in front of the student. "We're going to give you a few seconds," Baird said. Then he pointed a gun at Mr. Colbert's head and began the countdown. "If you don't tell us what we want to know, I'm going to blow your head away," threatened Baird, according to the account given by Mr. Colbert to Inquirer reporters.
It was Feb. 24, 1991.
Just imagine that Arthur Colbert, who had no police record and had committed no crime, was your son. How would you feel about what these officers in blue did?
And how would you feel if prosecutors had made a deal to go easy on the two officers -- who faced a slew of serious charges -- in exchange for ratting on other crooked pals?
Would you feel outraged?
Well, U.S. District Judge Robert Gawthrop 3d just made your day.
He properly sent a strong message to all police officers tempted to cross the line into a life of crime that they will get big time behind bars.
And even if that does make it more difficult for federal prosecutors to make fast cases against other crooked cops, this federal judge may scare a few cops straight.
He made it clear to Baird that police officers should not expect to bargain for short jail time after they've "squashed the Bill of Rights in the mud."
He gave Baird the maximum 13 years without parole and gave six years to Ryan, who could have gotten 10, though he felt he deserved about four in light of his cooperation with prosecutors. Former Sgt. Thomas DeGovanni, who was involved in covering up several crimes, including the Colbert case, got seven years. Ex-Officer Steven Brown got the maximum 10 years for his crimes. Retired Officer Thomas Ryan, who was the first in the 39th District to begin talking to prosecutors, did get off mildly, with 10 months in prison. Crimes committed by the five officers from the 39th caused 116 tainted convictions to be thrown out. These cases triggered lawsuits it's costing the city millions to settle. The case of the blond, swashbuckling, rights-smashing Baird is not over just because he is in jail.
The city still needs to commission the special panel it has promised the citizens of Philadelphia. The panel will look into comprehensive changes in a police department that handed Baird 15 commendations over the same years he was racking up 23 formal citizen complaints.
------------------------------
Date: Wed Apr 24, 1996 11:35 pm CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Philly Cops News
Posted: dadoner@chesco.com Thu Apr 18 07:14:38 1996
From: Ronnie Dadone
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Apr/18/front_page/WILL18.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Page One
Thursday, April 18, 1996
Police Sting Undercut by Ex-Chief Williams' moves in '88 focus of probe
By Mark Fazlollah
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
1996 The Philadelphia Inquirer
A sting aimed at four Philadelphia police officers suspected of pocketing money from a drug raid was scotched when then-Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams transferred the officers the day before they were to be lured into a motel room and tempted with a pile of cash.
Now, eight years later, city and federal investigators are looking into both the alleged theft of drug money and the sudden transfers, which puzzled and infuriated investigators trying to ferret out evidence of police misconduct.
The 1988 sting, planned by the Police Department's elite anti-corruption team, the Ethics Accountability Division (EAD), was called off after Williams moved the four officers from the Major Crimes Unit to street patrols in districts around the city. None of the four was ever charged with misconduct.
Williams, now chief of police in Los Angeles, said through a spokeswoman that he would have no comment. Williams served 28 years on the Philadelphia force.
Two former EAD officials, both of whom asked not to be named, said Williams had been briefed in advance on the planned sting and was told that one of the four officers had been surreptitiously recorded talking about stolen drug money. The former officials said Williams gave no indication that he was about to shift the officers to new assignments.
A former assistant Philadelphia district attorney who worked on the case said the transfers stunned investigators.
"You never have a situation where everybody gets transferred," said the former official, who asked not to be identified. "That just blew the possibility of having video surveillance. I still remember we were all pretty disappointed."
Philadelphia police officials said the incident is being examined by the joint city-federal task force that has been probing police corruption for the last five years. They would not elaborate. Asked about the case yesterday, Police Commissioner Richard Neal, Williams' successor, said: "I can't respond to why Willie Williams transferred somebody." In an earlier interview, Neal said he could not comment because the matter was under investigation.
The four officers targeted for the 1988 sting came under suspicion because of information supplied by Officer John "Jack" Baird, who would later become a key figure in the 39th District scandal. Baird pleaded guilty last year to beating, framing and robbing civilians and was sentenced Monday to 13 years in federal prison.
Confidential EAD documents released by the city in civil lawsuits over police misconduct show that long before he was implicated in the city-federal probe, Baird was an informant and occasional undercover operative for EAD.
In one 1988 case, Baird helped convict a drug dealer who had tried to bribe him and an undercover EAD officer. Baird was publicly praised by an assistant district attorney for his role in the case.
Fred Westerman, a retired EAD sergeant now living in Florida, said in a recent interview that Baird approached the anti-corruption unit in April 1988 with potentially incriminating information about several members of the Major Crimes Unit. Westerman said he was skeptical of Baird at first. Though Baird had not yet been charged with corruption, he was facing dismissal from the force for vandalizing the cars of his ex-wife and several of her relatives. But, Westerman said, Baird appeared to have good information. Baird told EAD investigators that police had taken up to $50,000 from the North Philadelphia home of Gregory Tutt on March 22, 1988. They turned in only $7,220, police records show. Tutt, a one-time boxer who police say was involved in the Junior Black Mafia, was later slain by rival drug dealers.
With Baird's help, EAD began gathering information on Officer Leslie Gunter, who participated in the raid on Tutt's home in the 1500 block of West Cayuga Street.
Outfitted with a tiny, hidden, Swiss-made Narga tape recorder, Baird secretly recorded a conversation with Gunter on May 12, 1988. Baird talked about raiding the home of another drug suspect -- and complained about not getting any of the money stolen from Tutt's house.
Baird told Gunter that he did not intend to let that happen again, according to a transcript of the conversation included in an EAD case report.
"We don't want no surprises like Cayuga Street," Baird said. "We want to whack the . . . money up in the house, and then we're out of there . . . So, like, the lieutenant's not going to grab all the money and disappear."
Later in the conversation, Gunter said that "if there is any whack, you'll be calling the whack."
In a recent interview, Gunter, now a University of Pennsylvania security officer, rejected Baird's allegations that officers stole money found in Tutt's house.
"I don't know what Baird is talking about," said Gunter, who said he received numerous commendations while on the Philadelphia force. "Whatever Baird says has to be taken with a grain of salt. Anything he says is tainted."
When told that Baird's tape recorder had picked him up talking about how to "whack" money, Gunter said he had no recollection of the conversation. He said that if he had made comments about money, they were misinterpreted by EAD investigators.
Gunter said police officials never confronted him with evidence of misconduct. "If that were true, it seems like the Police Department would say something to me," he said. "I don't recall" Baird "saying anything like that."
In a written summary of the Baird-Gunter conversation included in the EAD case report, Joseph Murphy, then a corporal in the anti-corruption unit, wrote that "the officers discussed stealing money from these locations and splitting it up."
Westerman, the former sergeant, said the tape recording "showed some form of intent," but that investigators would need more evidence.
So a trap was laid.
The four officers were to be lured to a motel room on Oct. 13, 1988. EAD officials planned to leak them a phony tip that they would find drug money there. A stack of cash would be left in plain sight. A concealed camera would capture everything. On Oct. 12, Commissioner Williams issued an order, transmitted to police districts by teletype at 4:42 p.m., saying that 11 officers had been transferred to new assignments, effective immediately. Among them were Gunter and the three other officers (one has since retired; the two others are still on the force).
Gunter said that he, too, was baffled by his sudden transfer from the Major Crimes Unit. He said he thought it was "something a little strange."
Inquirer staff writers Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. and Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.
====================
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Apr/18/front_page/COPS18.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Page One
Thursday, April 18, 1996
City seeks to seal police ethics files
Lawyers for victims say the documents could establish a pattern of corruption. Snippets have been made public.
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The 39 pages, bare-bones excerpts from files that city officials want to keep secret, describe 658 city police-corruption investigations dating back 12 years.
"Police officer is a drug dealer and frequents drug locations," reads the description of one open case from this year.
"Police officers are selling heroin," says another file. And from the 1995 case files: "Police officer perjuring himself during a deposition. . . . Police officer taking bribes from a speakeasy."
These summaries catalogue the case files of the PoliceDepartment's most secretive anti-corruption unit, the Ethics Accountability Division. The files have become the latest battleground between lawyers for the city and those representing victims of police corruption.
Lawyers for the victims want the entire contents of the files opened in order to prove the city has done little to stifle police misconduct and has therefore knowingly allowed "a pattern and practice" of corruption.
Lawyers for the city yesterday filed a motion asking that the files be sealed, citing the need to protect sources, shield innocent officers and preserve the integrity of ongoing investigations. Yet in trying to keep the files secret, the department supplied spare synopses that afford a rare glimpse into its most closely guarded anti-corruption activities.
The EAD summaries show that:
[ * ] There are more than 161 active investigations into alleged corruption.
[ * ] More than a third of all the EAD investigations since the unit was founded in 1984 -- 236 cases -- have involved alleged police involvement with drugs.
[ * ] The drug investigations centered on police allegedly selling narcotics, using drugs, stealing from pushers or simply associating with known dealers.
Police Commissioner Richard Neal said the list represents every EAD investigation of a police officer, regardless of the quality of the evidence or its source.
"What you have there is a list of allegations," he said. "People do call in, and we conduct investigations regarding that information. In many instances that information that is provided may not be substantiated."
One veteran civil rights lawyer said the files could be a municipal nightmare.
"These could be the police Watergate files: What did they know, and when did they know it?" said the lawyer, who asked not to be identified. One of the most startling disclosures in the city's motion divulges that John "Jack" Baird, who was sentenced this week to 13 years in prison on federal corruption charges, was at one time working both sides of the legal fence.
He wore a wire for EAD in 1988 when he volunteered to help nail the dirty officer. Yet, while working for EAD, he was also beating up and framing citizens from the 39th District.
The EAD documents do not make clear whether EAD officials knew of Baird's 39th District illegal activities at the time he was cooperating with them, or whether they were working with Baird because they knew he had an inside line to police corruption. Legal sources say disclosure of the EAD information -- a rare occurrence -- would be a windfall for the plaintiffs in 13 federal civil rights suits growing from the 39th District scandal. They say the files might disclose more information about the officers being sued, that they could demonstrate how city and police officials responded -- or failed to respond -- to reports of corruption among the city's 6,000-member police force. City officials say they have already given lawyers involved in the suits the EAD files for the officers involved in those cases as well as 85,000 other documents.
"The massive disclosure of all EAD files on misconduct cases would paralyze the anti-corruption efforts of the police department at a time when the eradication of police corruption is of paramount public importance," said the motion filed yesterday in U.S. District Court by Jeffrey M. Scott, the deputy city solicitor in charge of the Civil Rights Division.
Alan L. Yatvin, who is acting as the liaison for the group of lawyers representing individuals wrongly arrested or imprisoned because of the actions of a group of 39th District officers, declined to comment on the city move for a protection order. It was an earlier motion by Yatvin and the plaintiffs' attorneys to compel release of the EAD files that triggered the city's motion. The motion contends Yatvin and the other plaintiffs' attorneys cannot be trusted with such confidential information and, as an example, includes part of an EAD file on Baird that the city says the plaintiffs leaked to Inquirer reporter Mark Fazlollah.
The Baird file starts with his telephone call to the EAD on April 8, 1988, to discuss police corruption and ends Oct. 14, 1988, after the probe of four officers fingered by Baird collapsed when they were suddenly transferred to different police districts. The document says Baird also wore a hidden tape recorder on several occasions while he was stalking allegedly corrupt police for the EAD.
One source familiar with the file said Baird apparently knew he was the subject of a criminal investigation and decided to try to avoid prosecution by making himself invaluable to EAD by
naming other corrupt officers.
Baird, 41, and four others indicted with him in February 1995 on federal conspiracy and criminal civil rights charges, were sentenced to prison Monday in a federal corruption probe that has so far resulted in the prosecution of 10 current and former officers. Unlike the police Internal Affairs Division, which investigates public complaints against police officers and makes its findings available to the public, the EAD has always operated secretly.
EAD findings are not available to rank-and-file police or to the public, and the unit reports directly to a deputy police commissioner who reports directly to Neal. "These files contain all sorts of information," said Jeffrey M. Lindy, a lawyer who represents a 39th District officer who has been named in some documents involving the corruption scandal but who Lindy says is not a target of the probe.
"These files can contain interview notes from when you were hired, psychological writeups, somebody's marital problems -- all sorts of things that are inherently very personal and have nothing to do with the job," Lindy said.
Inquirer staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.
========================
http://www2.phillynews.com/daily_news/96/Apr/18/local/LEAK18.htm
Local
[Philadelphia Online]
THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
Thursday, April 18, 1996
City fights disclosure of cop files
by Jim Smith
Daily News Staff Writer
City lawyers say the Police Department's own anti-corruption efforts would be "paralyzed" by public disclosure and press leaks of confidential investigative files covering more than a decade. And that's why they oppose a request by private attorneys for all files from the department's Ethics Accountability Division back to 1984.
The request goes beyond files pertaining to the former 39th District officers who pleaded guilty to robbing and violating the civil rights of dozens of suspected drug dealers.
Although the private lawyers' civil rights complaints involve only misconduct in the 39th District, they contend they need the complete files to pursue a claim that the city fails to adequately investigate police wrongdoing.
The private attorneys represent more than 14 individuals who are suing the city and several former 39th District officers for alleged civil rights violations.
City lawyers say reporters are getting information from secret Ethics Accountability Division files that the city had voluntarily disclosed to private attorneys.
The city lawyers also noted that targets of investigations would be "unfairly stigmatized" since the many files were closed without charges being filed, and contain "unproven allegations."
If the court requires production of all files, the city says it needs a "protective order" to prevent the private attorneys, their clients and anyone else from leaking their contents to the media.
Deputy City Solicitor Jeffrey M. Scott and Assistant City Solicitor Marcia Berman said the secret files contained the names of informants and police officers who have told of police corruption, and of methods such as electronic surveillance and "sting" operations that have been used by investigators to gather evidence against corrupt cops.
Public disclosure of such sensitive information "would paralyze the anti-corruption efforts of the Police Department at a time when the eradication of police corruption is of paramount public importance," city lawyers told U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell in a memorandum.
In a sworn statement filed with the court, Capt. Albert Harris, the commander of the Ethics Accountability Division, wrote, "The protection of confidential information and police officers who report corruption is of the highest concern."
Nine Ethics Accountability Division investigations have been opened this year and are still active, and there are many cases still open from earlier years, the city lawyers noted.
The city lawyers provided thumbnail descriptions of hundreds of the investigative files.
The more recent allegations include taking money to protect drug corners, visiting drug houses, selling heroin, moonlighting as security guards, living out of state, working for a bookmaker, disclosing computer information, taking money from gypsies, lying during a deposition, and driving prostitutes in a "call-girl" operation.
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------------------------------
Date: Thu Apr 25, 1996 7:49 pm CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Re: Philly Cops News
Posted: Ronnie Dadone
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Apr/19/front_page/COPS19.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Page One
Friday, April 19, 1996
Williams denies being told of sting
The ex-police chief had transferred four officers, foiling a 1988 probe.
By Mark Fazlollah
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams yesterday denied any knowledge of a 1988 anti-corruption sting that collapsed when he transferred the four targeted officers 24 hours before the trap was to be sprung.
Williams, now chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, said that if he had known a sting was planned, he never would have authorized the transfers of four members of the police Major Crimes Unit on Oct. 12, 1988. The transfers effectively killed the investigation.
"I have no knowledge whatsoever of ever being informed by the then first deputy of the Philadelphia Police Department or other senior police officials of a pending sting or other actions on or about 10-13-88. If I had been so informed of such a plan, no movement of the targeted personnel would have been made," Williams said in a statement.
"I find the Philadelphia Inquirer's innuendos, including the headline of 4-18-96, an example of reckless journalism," the statement said.
The Inquirer reported yesterday that the department planned to lure the officers into a motel room to tempt them into stealing a pile of cash that had been placed there.
The sting, planned by the department's Ethics Accountability Division, was called off after Williams moved all four to street patrols in districts around the city.
None of the four was ever charged with misconduct.
The FBI-police task force began investigating the transfers last year after two corrupt 39th District officers -- Steven Brown and John Baird -- provided them with details of the 1988 case.
Two former EAD officials said Williams was informed in advance of the planned sting and did not tell EAD before the four officers were transferred.
Ranking police officials say it would be highly unusual for a commissioner not to be informed about a planned sting, especially an operation in which an officer wore a wire to ensnare another officer, as was the case in this EAD investigation.
The deputy commissioner to whom Williams' statement referred was Robert F. Armstrong, who died in February 1994 of a brain tumor. Armstrong served as the department's first deputy from 1986 to 1989. In the 1988 investigation, EAD tape-recorded conversations between Baird and Officer Leslie Gunter, then with the Major Crimes Unit. Baird, who this week was sentenced to 13 years in prison on federal corruption charges, had volunteered to help EAD ferret out crooked officers in 1988. Sources say Baird volunteered his services in order to prevent the department from firing him after he had vandalized his wife's property.
During his work with EAD, Baird told investigators that Gunter was involved in a raid in which money was stolen from a suspected drug dealer.
In an interview last month, Gunter denied that he was involved in wrongdoing. He said EAD's 1988 investigation was "tainted" because information came from Baird, an acknowledged perjurer and thief. In his statement, Williams said he was "open and eager to participate in any discussion about this issue should the appropriate authorities in Philadelphia ever decide to request my assistance."
For the last month, The Inquirer has repeatedly requested interviews with Williams about the 1988 case and sent him a copy of EAD's detailed summary of its investigation. Through a spokeswoman, Williams has declined to discuss the case.
Williams' spokesman said that no further statements would be issued about the 1988 investigation, and that Williams would not agree to an interview.
Williams' boss, Los Angeles Police Commission President Deirde Hill, said in a statement yesterday that it "would be premature and inappropriate for the board to comment at this time" because of the current investigation.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Neal also has said he could not comment because of the investigation.
Fraternal Order of Police president Richard Costello, meanwhile, called for federal investigators to ferret out why Williams transferred the officers.
Costello said he believed the transfers were "a case of clear-cut obstruction." He said the focus of the investigation should shift from street-level cops to the leadership of the department.
"Corruption doesn't start at the street level," Costello said. "Let's follow the corruption probe at the top."
The union president also questioned why both the U.S. Attorney's Office and the District Attorney's Office apparently had ignored the case for years, though prosecutors had worked closely with the 1988 investigation until it collapsed.
"When a corruption investigation reaches to a political appointment," Costello said, "it disappears. . . . Here's a case where something happened in 1988 and nothing was done." U.S. Attorney Michael R. Stiles could not be reached for comment yesterday.
District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham's spokesman said she would not comment on any case that was under investigation.
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http://www2.phillynews.com/daily_news/96/Apr/19/local/KOPP19.htm
Local [Philadelphia Online]
THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
Friday, April 19, 1996
Cop's lies cited
by Jim Smith, Daily News Staff Writer
Lying on the witness stand seven years ago by a now-convicted 39th District police officer in a federal drug case "does not cast doubt on the guilt" of the nine defendants in that case, prosecutors contend.
At least one defense attorney, however, insists the admitted perjury by the former cop, John Baird, "casts doubt on the government's entire case."
Defense attorney Sidney Kine said yesterday he would seek a new trial for his client, Derrick Howell, who is serving a long prison sentence.
In a letter dated March 29 to U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop III, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Eicher disclosed Baird's perjury so the judge could consider it in sentencing Baird on corruption charges.
Baird is one of several former 39th District officers who admitted robbing suspected drug dealers over a three-year period.
The prosecutors also notified the nine defendants who were convicted of federal drug conspiracy charges in 1989 that Baird has admitted lying during their trial.
In the drug case, Baird falsely claimed he had probable cause to raid and arrest a drug dealer inside a house on Sterner Street near 27th.
In his letter to the judge, Eicher wrote, "Baird's testimony did not directly relate to any of the defendants on trial."
Rather, it was simply presented to corroborate the testimony of other witnesses that drugs were being sold out of 2715 W. Sterner St.
And, in order to win a new trial, Howell and his eight codefendants would have to prove that the government knowingly used perjured testimony -- something the government didn't know until recently, Eicher noted.
This week Baird was jailed for 13 years -- four more than required by sentencing guidelines. The judge cited the disruption that Baird's conduct caused in city courts, where more than 100 drug convictions have been overturned so far.
====================
http://www2.phillynews.com/sunearly/city/COPS21.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
City & Region
Sunday, April 21, 1996
Flawed reviews give top ratings to rogues
The weak job-evaluation system in the Philadelphia Police Department feeds corruption, experts say. It allows bad officers to go unchecked.
By Mark Fazlollah
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
From 1990 to 1995, the Philadelphia Police Department fired 82 officers it found had committed robbery, rape, extortion, drug trafficking and other offenses. One was convicted of murder. But almost until the moment it fired them, the department gave those officers top performance ratings -- including the murderer.
Gene Lomazoff, a sergeant in the 35th Police District in Olney, was convicted of pulling over motorists for traffic infractions, then shaking them down for cash between November 1990 and June 1993. He was sentenced last year to seven years in prison. Throughout the period when he was abusing his badge, Lomazoff got glowing job evaluations from his superiors.
In 1990, Lt. Joseph Kelly of the 17th District received a perfect rating. That same year, he and his wife ran a high-priced prostitution ring in Center City. Both later pleaded guilty. Officer Terri Joell Harper, also of the 17th District, was a model officer, to judge from her performance ratings. In 1992, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of a Northern Liberties man whom she had been robbing.
Of the 82 officers fired during the five years ending Jan. 1, 1995, 79 consistently received top ratings until the time they were dismissed, city records show.
Experts on police conduct blame a flawed system that places little emphasis on honest appraisals and gives supervisors little training or motivation to do the job right. It is a system, they say, that lets rogue cops operate unchecked, often for many years.
"It is a very detrimental system," said Thomas Seamon, a former Philadelphia deputy police commissioner who is head of the University of Pennsylvania security force. "Certainly there needs to be a more viable system."
Job evaluations are done at varying intervals, usually at least once a year. Officers are reviewed by their immediate superiors and given a rating of satisfactory or unsatisfactory. There are no other choices. The scores are often accompanied by glowing written tributes.
The evaluations are supposed to be confidential. The city has released some in response to civil lawsuits alleging police misconduct. Additional information was obtained through city personnel records. The material could prove costly to taxpayers because it may aid plaintiffs' lawyers in their efforts to show that the department does not police itself.
John Baird, the former 39th District officer at the center of the latest corruption scandal, got perfect job ratings for 14 years -- a period during which he robbed suspects, planted drugs and gave perjured testimony at criminal trials.
In Baird's annual evaluation in 1988, his boss wrote that he had "demonstrated dedication, integrity, as well as a willingness to perform his duties without any supervision necessary." The Police Department did not respond to requests for comment on the evaluation system. The City Solicitor's Office said officials would not discuss the issue because it was part of civil-rights lawsuits against the city.
Superficial job reviews for police are a problem in many cities. There is even a name for it -- "the halo effect."
Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation, a nonprofit research group in Washington, said supervisors routinely give their subordinates "halos" -- flawless performance ratings. Sometimes, Williams said, the halos stay in place up to the moment an officer is fired or jailed for misconduct.
Milton Mollen, a former New York State Supreme Court judge who headed a task force on police corruption in New York City, said an ineffective rating system is a sign of weak supervision. His task force cited that as the major cause of police corruption in New York.
"Ratings, of course, are part of effective supervision," said Mollen, whose task force held hearings on corruption and recommended sweeping changes, many of which were implemented over the last two years.
Seamon, the former deputy commissioner, said the lack of an effective rating system and police corruption "are all interlocked." Seamon said the Philadelphia department's current evaluation system has not functioned properly since it was begun about 15 years ago.
Seamon, who left the force last year after 26 years, estimated that 98 percent of the city's 6,000 officers receive sterling ratings. He said most supervisors simply were unwilling to give an officer an unsatisfactory rating.
Most of the ratings are done by sergeants, the direct supervisors for the line officers. Seamon said the department gives sergeants little training in how to do ratings, or in their importance. "A lot of sergeants can't separate themselves from being one of the boys," said Seamon.
Before the current system was implemented, the department had a more sophisticated program with five possible ratings. If officers received ratings of "superior" or "exceptional," it helped them win promotions. Today, laudatory evaluations are so common they have little meaning.
Seamon said the previous system was diluted during contract negotiations between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police.
FOP spokesman Dale Wilcox said the union would not comment on performance ratings because the issue was part of its current contract talks with the city -- and was thus covered by a secrecy agreement between the two sides.
At times, the rating system has weakened the city's position in lawsuits.
Officer Rodney Hunt had perfect performance ratings until he was charged with first-degree murder in the off-duty slaying of Sean Wilson in a West Philadelphia bar in November 1990. Hunt was acquitted of the charge. Wilson's mother filed a civil suit against the city and got a $900,000 settlement.
Attorney Teri B. Himebaugh, who represented Wilson's family, said the lack of an effective rating system made her case stronger, because it bolstered her contention that the department had allowed a "pattern and practice" of misconduct to persist. Such a claim is key to prevailing under federal civil-rights laws. "In civil-rights suits, that's what we call deliberate indifference and reckless disregard" of civil rights, Himebaugh said. Civil liability isn't the only problem. The lack of rigorous job evaluations also makes it harder to get rid of bad cops.
When officers are fired, the FOP routinely asks arbitrators to reinstate them -- and almost always cites the perfect performance ratings they received before they were discharged.
An arbitrator ordered Hunt restored to the force and granted him $100,000 in back pay. He now works in the Second District. Baird, the former 39th District officer, was trying to get back on the force until the day in 1994 when the FBI secretly recorded him paying an informant to lie for him at an arbitration proceeding. Other cities have begun to develop more rigorous rating systems to screen problem officers.
Los Angeles attorney Merrick Bobb, who was counsel to two commissions that investigated abuse among Los Angeles police and sheriff's officers, said a pass-fail system like Philadelphia's is inherently weak.
Bobb said the Los Angeles police union initially resisted changes in that city's rating system but agreed to accept a more sophisticated one in exchange for pay raises.
William Geller, associate director of the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, said cities must stop blaming corruption on "a few bad apples."
"We have to see these as not solely individual officers' problems, but as systemic problems," he said. "Bad systems cause people to perform in ways we wouldn't want."
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When the top officials in government ignore the Constitution, implement a two-tier system of justice and do not celebrate law and order, then the lawbreaking permeates throughout ALL of society. You’ve described the consequences of this.