Pubdate: Tue, 14 Mar 2000
Source: Cherry Hill Courier-Post (NJ)
Copyright: 2000 Cherry Hill Courier-Post
Contact:  P.O. Box 5300, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034
Feedback: http://www.courierpostonline.com/about/edletter.html
Website: http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Author: Frank Kummer and Clint Riley

CAMDEN POLICE RECORDS SUBPOENAED

CAMDEN - The Camden County Prosecutor's Office has subpoenaed the personnel
records of all city police officers since 1997, signifying that a
corruption investigation of the department is under way.

Although Prosecutor Lee A. Solomon said he could not comment, city Police
Chief Robert Allenbach confirmed he was told of the subpoena.

Allenbach said he was not informed about the focus of the investigation,
but believes it grew, in part, from a recent drug trial in which several
convicted drug dealers said officers shook them down or alerted them to
raids. Indeed, several dealers said they were more afraid of being shaken
down than arrested when encountering some officers.

"I'm more than willing to cooperate," Allenbach said of any investigation.

Allegations of police corruption emerged during the federal drug
trafficking trial of Jose "JR" Rivera and Luis "Tun Tun" Figueroa, who were
convicted Feb. 29 of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Rivera and Figueroa,
said to be leaders in the city's largest drug syndicate in the 1990s, are
awaiting sentencing. Rivera was also convicted of money laundering.

At the time of the conviction, Solomon promised he would thoroughly
investigate allegations that corrupt police helped the syndicate flourish
for nearly a decade.

He refused to elaborate Monday when asked about the scope of the
investigation or its targets. In keeping with policy, Solomon would not
confirm an investigation exists.

A new county grand jury began meeting last week. The 23-member panel
typically would meet for four months.

News of the subpoena caught officers off guard.

"You just dropped a bomb on me," said Dan Morris, president of Fraternal
Order of Police Lodge 1, which represents Camden's rank-and-file officers.
"You're talking about 500 files, including retirees."

Camden now has 406 officers on its force, and about 50 officers have
retired since Jan. 1, 1997.

Timothy J.P. Quinlan, attorney for the FOP, said officers are worried that
highly personal information in the files could leak out.

"Maybe the loss of privacy is the price they pay for a few corrupt
officers," Quinlan said. "I just hope it turns out to be a very few guys."

"They have to do what they have to do to restore the integrity of the
department, but at the same time, we are concerned about the privacy of our
officers," said Lt. Lou Hannon, president of Camden Organization of Police
Superiors, which represents 83 superior officers.

The subpoena, issued to the city's department of personnel, was signed by
Joel Aronow, deputy section chief of the special prosecutions unit in the
prosecutor's office. Aronow specializes in reviewing allegations of police
corruption.

It remained unclear Monday which officers were targets.

Several of the 13 convicted drug dealers who testified for the government
at the recent trial named more than a dozen city police, county
investigators and even a federal drug enforcement agent as assisting them
or shaking down associates for cash and drugs during the 1990s.

A half-dozen officers were called late in the trial by the defense as
possible witnesses but Rivera's attorney, Marc Neff, never called them to
the stand.

At the time, Neff said his decision not to call city police officers he
subpoenaed had nothing to do with a box of documents prosecutors had turned
over to the defense. Several law enforcement sources identified the
documents as police department internal affairs records of the subpoenaed
officers, but Neff declined to say what the boxes contained.

During the trial, Saul Febo, who admitted overseeing the city's largest
drug market for a decade, testified he was sometimes warned of raids by
authorities. He said five city police officers - whom he identified by
partial or full names - either tipped him off or shook down his dealers for
money.

Admitted cocaine trafficker Kenneth Waller and other dealers testified that
numerous Camden police officers were regularly in the company of Rivera.

Rivera, 40, owned JR's Custom Auto Parts in East Camden. The dealers
testified that the auto parts store and Rivera's adjoining gym were regular
hangouts for the police.

"The ball is in our court," Solomon said the day Rivera was convicted. "If
any information (about corruption by law enforcement) is disclosed, it will
be dealt with."

Solomon has maintained that the police department has been clean under the
leadership of Allenbach, who took the post in December 1998 following the
abrupt retirement of former police Chief William Hill. After Hill retired,
the department was the focus of a scathing state report alleging widespread
mismanagement. The state Attorney General then appointed Solomon as
"monitor" of the department.

A Courier-Post investigation into police ties to drug traffickers in
December uncovered evidence that at least 10 city police officers had been
investigated or named in never-disclosed law enforcement records as
assisting in the illegal sale of drugs, guns and ammunition as long as a
decade ago.

At least six of those officers remain on the job, while four others have
been ousted, either for drug offenses or lesser administrative charges,
during the past 10 years.

For the six still on the force, no records have been made public about
whether they were the subject of any criminal or administrative charges or
convictions.

At one police substation, drug traffickers grew so cozy with some officers
throughout the 1990s that the entire Fifth Platoon was tainted with the
nickname "The Filthy Fifth."

A picture of Rivera hung in the main trophy case of police headquarters on
Haddon Avenue, confidential law enforcement sources told the newspaper.

Rivera even sponsored an intramural police basketball team made up mainly
of officers who once served in the Fifth Platoon in East Camden, two police
sources said. A picture of the championship basketball squad hung for at
least two years in a trophy case at police headquarters - not far from
another photo of Rivera and a group of officers in paint ball gear, the
sources said.

All the while, Rivera was being investigated by city police, as well as
state and federal authorities, for running a multimillion-dollar drug
operation.

Former city police Detective Pierre Robinson, who also served as police
bodyguard for Mayor Milton Milan, was a member of the Fifth Platoon. He was
suspended in March 1998, days after FBI agents found a banned IntraTEC-9
assault pistol in a safe at Rivera's business office during a raid.

Robinson pleaded guilty to selling Rivera the weapon and three 30-round
ammunition clips for $800 in June 1996. Robinson resigned from the
department in November 1998. He awaits sentencing in state Superior Court.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D