This Is Why You Can't Trust Their Word

[ozzrokk]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ex-drug-officer-says-he-stole-cash-planted-drugs-many-times/ar-AAb0iDC

 

 

Over and over we find this to be the case yet many like to believe that if the po po says they did it then they automatically must have did it and are guilty....................

 

 

 

© Philadelphia Police Department Former Philadelphia Police Officer Jeffrey Walker.

PHILADELPHIA — A disgraced ex-police officer testifying against his drug squad colleagues acknowledged Tuesday that he stole drug money, planted evidence and lied on police paperwork too many times to count.

 

Jeffrey Walker told jurors that the Philadelphia Police Department drug squad targeted white "college-boy ... khaki-pants types" who were "easy to intimidate."

 

That matches the description of some of the drug dealers who have testified at the six-week police corruption trial that the squad stole as much as $110,000 at a time during violent, no-warrant raids.

Lead defendant Thomas Liciardello always got a cut of the stolen money, while the others split "jobs" that they worked, Walker said. The city's police brass often celebrated the squad's work with splashy news conferences to announce large seizures.

"They liked that, as far as the bosses and supervisors were concerned. It made them look good. It was nothing but a dog and pony show," Walker testified.

 

More than 160 drug convictions have been overturned since Walker pleaded guilty and the others were named in a 26-count indictment. Scores of civil-rights lawsuits are pending over the arrests. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has voiced his disgust with the squad's alleged crimes while continuing his effort to clean out and reform the 7,000-member department.

Walker, 46, said he first stole money as a uniformed patrolman when he chased a dealer into a house and spotted a large bag of cash on top of the refrigerator.

"I never saw that much money. I was a young kid," Walker told jurors. "I took some money, put it in my jacket pocket."

 

Defense lawyers have attacked his credibility and will no doubt point out on cross-examination Wednesday the times he admits acting alone, even before he joined the elite undercover drug unit. He also said he developed a drinking problem and became forgetful.

Walker had nearly 24 years in when he was arrested in an FBI sting last year. He was making $119,000 a year, and padding overtime for court appearances and undercover work. The illicit drug money provided yet more "gravy."

 

Walker and defendant Linwood Norman were known as "The Twin Towers," often assigned by Liciardello to rough people up.

In one of their more memorable assignments, Norman leaned drug suspect Michael Cascioli over a high-rise balcony to elicit the passcode for his Palm Pilot, according to Walker, who helped scare the suspect.

City police officials later held a news conference to announce that the 2007 search had yielded more than $1.5 million in marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms, and $440,000 in cash. Federal prosecutors now say the squad raided the apartment before they got a warrant.

 

In another episode, Walker admitted carrying a heavy safe full of drug money down 17 flights of stairs to avoid being seen on the elevator security camera. And he described another heist when he stuffed so much bundled cash into his police vest that he had to wear Liciardello's vest over his to cover the bulges.

 

Walker agreed to cooperate last year after being caught in an FBI sting stealing $15,000 from a suspect and planting drugs in his car. He has been in custody for nearly a year and hopes to avoid a life sentence through his testimony.

Liciardello, he said, warned squad members not to change their spending habits so dramatically that they attracted attention. The other ex-squad members on trial are Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts and John Speiser.

 

Walker said he once worked closely with Liciardello and Reynolds but was ostracized as he went through a divorce, weight loss surgery and other personal problems. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen late Tuesday introduced a series of threatening texts Liciardello sent Walker once he suspected Walker was talking to Internal Affairs.

 

"Your now a rat I hope you die," Walker wrote. "I will have you locked up by midnight. Goodbye loner."

"You will be in jail before me," Walker replied.

 

That didn't quite prove true. Walker went to prison in May. Liciardello was two months behind him.

Edited April 15, 2015 by ozzrokk

[t-pain]

still angers me that people get your and you're mixed up.

[Chauncy Gardner]

This is laugh out loud funny. Everybody's stereotype image of a bad cop. I am sure that a lot of people thought this image was only a fantasy that existed in the minds of "criminal drug dealers". Now we find out that the "criminals" image of the cops is indeed the correct one.

 

These cops are just as much a casualty of the Drug War as the people they harassed, stole from, and locked up. I hope the wool keeps being removed from the public's eye with even more exposes of our Sacred Police Force.

[+washtenaut]

Our society repeats the same mistake again and again.  We trust the supposed good guys to ALWAYS be good.  Consistently laws or rules are enacted that give far too little thought to ensuring the good guys aren't tempted into bad behavior. 

 

Instead of assuming that every person can be tempted, the public is shocked every time one of these types of things surfaces.  How about we learn something and change the rules so that good guys can't so easily go rogue, especially good guys carrying weapons?

 

This one is police but we see the same thing with judges, DA's, politicians, clergy, etc.  You know who you seldom hear shocking stories about?  People who are closely watched on the job, like bank tellers for instance.

[Wild Bill]

I spoke to a retired narc not too long ago and he brought this very subject up. He said, " You bust a drug house and everybody runs away. You look in the closet and find $100,000 in cash that can't be reported. What would you do?"

[Willy]

I spoke to a retired narc not too long ago and he brought this very subject up. He said, " You bust a drug house and everybody runs away. You look in the closet and find $100,000 in cash that can't be reported. What would you do?"

I'm not a cop/ or thief, or self serving, not sure what i would do , but i do know i wouldnt be in that situation..only a cop would think that way..

[GregS]

Ending prohibition will make this a thing of the past.

[phaquetoo]

I spoke to a retired narc not too long ago and he brought this very subject up. He said, " You bust a drug house and everybody runs away. You look in the closet and find $100,000 in cash that can't be reported. What would you do?"

Well wild bill, I hate to even think of myself as a pig!  but from past experiences I would turn it in!  I found an envelope with several hundred dollars one time and another time I found a purse with over a thousand!

 

The envelope was in a wall mart parking lot after black friday and im sure it was some ones christmas money, I locked the envelope in my trunk and went back into the store and got a hold of the manager, when the manager came He said he had a lady in the store still who lost several hundred bucks (I knew how much was in there) so I asked to see the lady and she told me how much she beleives she lost and that there was some writing on the envelope, the manager, myself and the lady walked out to my car and it had the amount she said and the writing on the envelope, I gave it back to her,

 

The purse I found I took home it had all of her credit cards, cash, i.d, etc, I called her and told her I found her purse,  I told her I hope you still look like your i.d lol and she said she didnt!?!  She brought her s.s card and another bill with her name on it, I gave it back,

 

Im pretty sure I made their christmas's on different yrs alot better and It sure made me feel great, and I most def could have used the cash myself, but Im not that kind of person!

 

so the cop should have wrote a report and turned it in is the bottom line!

 

Peace

[trichcycler]

Some ladies lost rent in her envelope in the parking lot is different that stash in a heroin dealers couch I think.  Good act though phaq. kudos. Karma sends you gifted women who love you unconditionally for your honesty and kindness towards their kin--(well, maybe not?)

this is why we must carefully choose people of high moral ground to serve us, and hold them to higher standards when their behavior goes awry.

[ozzrokk]

Exactly the question is What would you do? You turn it in and do the right thing. That is for the common man. As for the police officer? You turn it in and do the right thing.................... Not only the right thing but the thing that YOUR JOB AND POSITION REQUIRE YOU TO DO................... The thing that you are SWORN IN TO DO.................

 

Edited to add.............. I remember one of those stories from Jim before and same as before Good on you brother............

Edited April 16, 2015 by ozzrokk