Pubdate: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2000 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4066 Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/ Authors: Todd Lighty, Matt O'Connor 2 COPS PARTNERS IN CRIME, U.S. SAYS Officers Face Charges They Ran Drug Ring A veteran Chicago police officer was charged Friday with working arm-in- arm with his allegedly corrupt partner to protect a Miami-to-Chicago drug operation. Officer John F. Galligan was arrested as he reported for work at 7:15 a.m. at police headquarters, nearly two years after his longtime partner, Joseph Miedzianowski, was charged with leading a double life as a drug-busting police officer and a drug kingpin. Partners for nearly 20 years, the two are now scheduled to go to trial together in U.S. District Court on narcotics, extortion and weapons charges. The federal indictment unsealed Friday also contains new charges against Miedzianowski, including one alleging that he and Galligan fabricated a tip from an informant, enabling them to obtain a search warrant to raid a drug courier's West Side apartment, where they stole more than two pounds of cocaine that they later sold for a profit. The two also allegedly helped an accused killer hide from law- enforcement authorities in 1995, according to the charges. The indictment, the fifth version in the two-year investigation, portrays Miedzianowski as the most important player in the drug conspiracy. He is alleged to have run the drug ring, tipping off other dealers to the identities of informants and undercover Chicago police officers and revealing the undercover police vehicles they used. The new charges allege that Galligan helped Miedzianowski protect the drug ring and shake down rival drug dealers. Miedzianowski and Galligan worked together in the elite drug-fighting gang crimes unit, disbanded earlier this year by Supt. Terry Hillard in part because of the ongoing federal investigation. While Miedzianowski has remained in custody since his arrest in December 1998, Galligan was quickly released Friday on a $200,000 bond after he pleaded not guilty to the five-count indictment. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian Netols and John Lausch agreed to the release. Galligan, a 22-year police veteran, had no comment as he left the Dirksen Federal Building, but his lawyer, Joseph Roddy, defended Galligan as "a great police officer," citing more than 100 honorable mentions he had received. The charges against Galligan had long been anticipated. A series of government filings in the Miedzianowski case in recent months detailed allegations of wrongdoing by "Police Officer A" -- Galligan, according to sources. But Roddy questioned the strength of the evidence, since the indictment came 21 months after Miedzianowski was charged. "You would think if the evidence was so clear that he'd have been indicted long ago," Roddy said. Galligan, 50, married and the father of three, had returned to work Monday after several months on medical leave, battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Galligan had been stripped of his police powers in April 1999 and reassigned to desk duty at police headquarters as the federal investigation intensified. Miedzianowski's lawyer, Thomas Breen, declined to comment on the new indictment. In addition to the two police officers, 21 alleged gang members and drug dealers have been charged with participating in the drug conspiracy; 14 of them have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with authorities. A terse prepared statement released Friday by the Chicago Police Department didn't identify Galligan by name. "It is unfortunate that a Chicago police officer has chosen to tarnish the badge that so many carry with dignity and honor," it said. Galligan is a decorated Vietnam veteran who operated as a Marine reconnaissance scout, specializing in demolition and land mine warfare, according to his military records. His friends on the police force said Galligan was known as a "tunnel rat," a soldier who undertook the often risky assignment of entering underground tunnels to flush out the Viet Cong. Among the indictment's new charges were allegations that Miedzianowski and Galligan robbed other drug dealers, using information supplied by their alleged accomplices. The two officers allegedly made false accusations in order to obtain search warrants and then used the warrants to steal narcotics, firearms and money from drug dealers, the charges alleged. They shared their loot with the co-conspirators, according to the indictment. The indictment describes how one alleged theft of a drug courier played out in September 1995. Miedzianowski allegedly lied to obtain a search warrant by falsely claiming one of his informants had bought a small quantity of cocaine from the courier -- identified in earlier court records as Evelyn Miranda -- at her apartment. Armed with the search warrant, the two officers then allegedly stole one of the two kilograms of cocaine they seized from Miranda and charged her with possessing the other kilogram, according to the indictment. Miranda accused the officers of theft and tried to have charges dismissed, but a Criminal Court judge sided with the officers. She was convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison. After Miedzianowski was charged in late 1998, Miranda's lawyer, Barry Spector, successfully sought a new trial. The Cook County state's attorney's office, alerted by federal prosecutors to their investigation, dropped the charges against Miranda. Galligan was stripped of his police powers in 1999, after gang member Rico Passley, in pleading guilty to narcotics charges, told federal authorities that Galligan had once made a delivery of crack cocaine to him in Miedzianowski's absence. On the same day, Frederick Rock, a convicted drug dealer, told prosecutors that Miedzianowski and Galligan had falsely named him as a confidential informant to mislead a judge into issuing search warrants used in drug thefts. The indictment also accuses Galligan of helping Miedzianowski and others hide a suspected murderer from law enforcement in 1995. That suspect, Nelson Padilla, pleaded guilty to murder and drug-related charges in March. According to court records, Padilla told authorities of a successful theft of a heroin dealer in December 1998 that Padilla had arranged. Miedzianowski and Galligan allegedly took $10,000 from the dealer's home. Miedzianowski, in Galligan's presence, allegedly handed Padilla an envelope filled with his share--$2,500. "Police Officer A then hugged Padilla and told [him], 'I love it when you are in town,'" Padilla's plea agreement said. - --- MAP posted-by: John Chase