Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jun 2002
Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2002 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1326
Author: Diana Marrero
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

ARRESTED OFFICER HAD REPUTATION IN HIS AGENCY

Long before Officer Robert Kukowinski was arrested last week on charges of 
stealing drugs from dealers he should have locked up, he had developed a 
reputation among his fellow officers.

A midnight-shift patrol officer with 12 years on the Opa-Locka police 
force, Kukowinski was known for keeping a special eye on the city's worst 
drug area, the Triangle.

City residents began to complain to his department: Kukowinski was frisking 
known drug dealers and residents, taking their drugs and money. On Jan. 17, 
four officers, a lieutenant and the police chief went to the FBI with the 
damaging information.

Now federal agents say Kukowinski not only stole drugs from dealers but his 
own department's property room, frisked dealers for their money and drugs 
but didn't arrest them, smoked crack, and shared a home with a prostitute.

Chief Ronald Wilson, who recently took over the department long mired in 
turmoil and turnover, said he had always had reservations about Kukowinski.

The 39-year-old officer, who now lives in Weston, has worked for a number 
of police departments throughout the state -- Surfside, North Miami Beach 
and Punta Gorda.

"His track record from going from one place to another ... should have 
raised eyebrows to some degree," he said.

Other signs also could have pointed to larger problems.

Four years ago, his fourth wife, Karin Kelly, faxed a letter to the Police 
Department, saying: "I don't know what to do anymore."

Kelly, who was going through divorce proceedings and had filed an 
injunction against Kukowinski alleging domestic violence, told a detective 
in a letter that Kukowinski was an admitted drug user.

"He has admitted to me repeated drug use [which would show in a drug test] 
even though he is a police officer who states that he wants to keep his job 
and that my actions are making him lose his job," she wrote, adding he told 
her he was about to lose his job.

Neither she nor Kukowinski could be reached for comment. Wilson said he did 
not know whether Kukowinski had taken any drug tests recently. Law 
enforcement sources said the department had not administered drug tests in 
two years.

It was Kukowinski's personal problems that led to his downfall, Wilson said.

The most serious reprimands in his police file begin in 1997. In August of 
that year, he was reprimanded for going to a scene where people were 
supposed to have been selling drugs and reporting that no one was there. 
Another call came into the department later complaining about the dealers.

When confronted by then-Chief Craig Collins, Kukowinski said he never 
checked the back of the building. By the time he and a supervisor went to 
the area again, the dealers were gone, according to his personnel file.

During his divorce proceedings, he failed to report to work one day, saying 
he did not know he was supposed to work. On another day he excused himself 
for what he said was a family emergency. An officer who checked up on him 
later that day learned of the emergency: His wife changed the locks on him 
and he was angry. Kukowinski was suspended without pay for 15 days for that 
incident.

In 1996 he was reprimanded for not carefully patrolling the Triangle area.

But he also was commended while on the force for the drug busts he took 
part in. A supervisor called his efforts during a narcotics sweep which led 
to an arrest and took in 180 packets of cocaine as well as other drugs "a 
job well done."

Kukowinski's partner, Cpl. William Booker, arrested last week after 
Kukowinski began cooperating with the feds to build a case against Booker, 
often was commended in many of the same cases. But the seven-year veteran 
and former military man also was plagued with troubles.

The two now are accused of dealing drugs and guns, ransacking a drug 
dealer's apartment and taking an assault rifle.

In 1995, Miami police arrested Booker for striking a girlfriend during a 
fight. Booker, of Broward County, was never prosecuted in that case. Two 
years later, he was reprimanded for a burglary at city hall when he was 
supposed to be patrolling the building.

Out on bond, the two are now suspended with pay -- Kukowinski makes $41,995 
a year, Booker $44,075 -- pending internal disciplinary procedures.

The men's attorneys said their disciplinary records are fairly clean for 
officers who have served as long as they have.

"If that's the worst you can get out of hundreds of pages, then that's 
pretty good," said Kukowinski's attorney John Howes, who dismissed Kelly's 
claims because they were made during their divorce.

The latest round of arrests of fallen police officers in Miami-Dade drew 
different reactions.

To Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, president of the Miami chapter of the American 
Civil Liberties Union, the arrests were more reason for a civilian review 
panel in the county that would allow citizens to cut through the "blue wall 
of silence" that protected these officers.

To PBA President John Rivera, the arrests marked the problems that have 
fallen on the department.

"That department needs to be disbanded," said Rivera, who suggested that 
department should become part of the county's force.

But to Wilson, the city's sixth chief in seven years, the arrests signal 
the beginning of a long overdue housecleaning: "I need this place cleaned 
up. I don't care how long it takes."
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