Pubdate: Sun, 10 Oct 2004
Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY)
Copyright: 2004 Watertown Daily Times
Contact:  http://www.wdt.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/792
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Related:  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n467/a04.html

COP IN CORRUPTION CASE GETS 2 YEARS

NEW YORK - A former narcotics detective who renovated his Long Island
home with $45,000 in stolen drug money was sentenced to two years in
prison Friday despite his lawyers pleas that he was drunk and
distraught over his wife's ill health during the theft.

Carlos Rodriguez was the first New York police officer sentenced in
New York 's worst police corruption scandal in a decade. At least nine
officers have been implicated in thefts of cocaine and drug money
linked to their work on a northern Manhattan anti-narcotics initiative.

Rodriguez, 39, pleaded guilty in April, saying that he and another
officer stole more than $100,000 in drug proceeds from a dealer and
split the cash. Rodriguez admitted he took $45,000 and paid a
contractor for improvements to his home on Long Island.

His attorney Susan Walsh, said in a letter to U.S. District Judge
Carol Amon that Rodriguez robbed a drug courier after a night of
social drinking with another detective, Thomas Rachko, in the summer
of 2000. The pair pulled over the courier on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan, identified themselves as police officers and took the money
from the trunk of his vehicle, Walsh said.

Walsh said Friday the veteran detective was upset about the health of
his wife, who has multiple sclerosis, when he robbed the courier.
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