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"I don't like this book because it don't got know pictures" Chief Rhorerer

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

Corruption probe targets Miami undercover cops

An officer who faced prison implicates his boss, as the FBI probes alleged drug-dealing and corruption by undercover cops.

BY JAY WEAVER


When FBI agents questioned Miami undercover cop Roberto Asanza on May 25, 2010, they found a dozen bags of cocaine and marijuana stashed in a CD box in the cab of his truck.

Asanza, an ex-Marine, admitted he kept the drugs after seizing them from a dealer he and his boss had busted at a window-tinting shop in Allapattah weeks earlier.

Rather than arrest Asanza for not turning in and reporting the evidence, the agents flipped him. He agreed to wear a wire to help them go after a much bigger fish — the boss, Miami Police Sgt. Raul Iglesias — in a rare instance of cop turning on fellow cop.

The recorded meeting that same day between a half-hearted Asanza and his veteran supervisor produced nothing of real value. A year later, the feds finally popped Asanza on felony drug-trafficking charges.

Flash forward to last week: Facing trial, Asanza, 32, pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to a much-less serious misdemeanor charge of possessing small amounts of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. The Coral Park High graduate, who had served six years on the force, has to resign, turn over all police certifications and faces up to one year in prison.

But he is expected to serve limited time because he has again agreed to cooperate with the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in the investigation of 39-year-old Iglesias, according to his plea agreement.

The sergeant, an 18-year Miami police veteran who ran the Central District’s Crime Suppression Unit targeting drug-trafficking, was suspended with pay in 2010. Iglesias, like Asanza, is suspected of confiscating drugs and money from street dealers, and using some of those illegal proceeds to pay off confidential informants. They also are suspected of selling the drugs.

Iglesias’ attorney William Matthewman called the allegations “ludicrous,” pointing out that the sergeant and his undercover unit worked part of the time on a joint task force with FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agents.

“In fact, his day-to-day partner in this undercover investigation was an FBI agent who rode in the same car with him,” Matthewman said. “It would make no sense to allege that Raul Iglesias committed any wrongdoing while he was partnered with the FBI agent.”

He added: “He has done absolutely nothing wrong and welcomes any fair investigation because it will exonerate him.”

Details of the FBI’s investigation into Iglesias, who also is the target of a Miami Police Internal Affairs probe, surfaced in the parallel federal case against Asanza.

After Asanza’s arrest in early June of last year, the officer was at first defiant toward the FBI and seemingly loyal to his former boss, Iglesias, court documents show.

“You guys are only arresting me because you couldn’t do your job right and get enough on Sarge,” according to a summary of Asanza’s statement to the FBI on June 2, 2011. “You tried to flip me, and I wouldn’t. That’s the only reason you’re arresting me.”

The one-time undercover cop recently changed his tune, however, because if convicted at trial later this month he would have faced up to 20 years in prison. He cut his plea deal on Wednesday. His attorney, Brandine Powell, declined to comment.

Just days before that decision, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ricardo Del Toro issued a not-so-subtle warning to Asanza and his lawyer about his plans for trial: “The government intends to introduce evidence of various allegations of police corruption against Sgt. Raul Iglesias to provide a context for the FBI’s initiation of the investigation of this case, including an anonymous letter to Miami Police Department’s Internal Affairs,” he said in a court document.


The anonymous letter cited by Del Toro was written by other undercover Miami police officers who worked in Iglesias’ unit and complained about him, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Miami police officials declined to comment about the internal investigation, which is still open.

The first public hint of scandal in Iglesias’ Crime Suppression Unit, an undercover squad that targets drug dealers and other violent criminals, surfaced when Asanza was arrested in June 2011 — a full year after he had been stopped by FBI agents.

According to a criminal complaint and affidavit, Asanza and another police officer identified only as “R.I.” had recruited a confidential informant to work with the squad in January 2010. R.I is Raul Iglesias.

The confidential informant tipped off R.I. and Asanza about a dealer who sold drugs at the window-tinting shop at 3233 NW Seventh Ave. in Allapattah.

On May 5, 2010, R.I., Asanza and other undercover officers arrested a man identified as “L.R.” at the tint shop and confiscated cocaine and marijuana along with cash. Court records show his name is Luis Roman.

Almost three weeks later, FBI agents questioned Asanza. On May 25, 2010, Asanza let them search his truck, where agents found 10 bags of cocaine and two bags of marijuana. Asanza admitted to the agents that the drugs were taken from the tint shop dealer.

Separately, Asanza also admitted he had two bags of heroin seized from another suspect whom he had stopped but not arrested.

In October 2010, Asanza admitted to FBI agents that both he and R.I. “took custody of the drugs and money” from the tint-shop dealer, according to the affidavit. Asanza also admitted that on the day of the dealer’s arrest, he “paid” the informant with one or two bags of cocaine seized from the suspect. Asanza said the payoff went down in his truck, with him in the driver’s seat, R.I. in the passenger seat and the informant in the back seat.

“Asanza admitted that he knew it was wrong to give drugs to the CI, but that he was trying to build a rapport with the CI,” FBI special agent Ivonne Alduende wrote in the affidavit.

In a sworn statement last year, the informant told Miami police investigators that after the arrest of the tint-shop dealer, both Asanza and R.I. gave him the two bags of cocaine and $80 cash.

As part of his cooperation deal with the feds, Asanza is expected to testify about Iglesias’ alleged involvement in that illegal payoff to the informant.



FBI arrests ex-cop in connection with human trafficking case

A former Reading police officer was arrested Thursday, February 2, 2012 by the FBI on charges he helped set up a child sex trafficking ring that was operated by Paul Sewell and Michael Johnson.

Ronald R. Miko, 37, a nine-year veteran of the force, was charged with obstruction of a criminal investigation.

According to the indictment, Miko, who at the time was a police officer in the City of Reading, utilized a room in a house at which convicted federal defendants Paul Sewell and Michael Johnson operated a child sex slave business that trafficked females who were under the age of 18.

The indictment alleges that between May 2, 2011 and June 7, 2011, Miko wired money to Johnson’s federal prison account to prevent the communication of information to criminal investigators regarding Miko’s involvement in that business.

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, a three-year term of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.


Home Bergen Auxiliary cop turned informant arrested again for prescription fraud

Auxiliary cop turned informant arrested again for prescription fraud

Sunday, 05 February 2012 00:06 Jerry DeMarco

EXCLUSIVE: The fall has been long and hard for former Palisades Park auxiliary officer Laurie Calvert, who went from wearing a wire to help prosecutors bring down a ring of rogue cops to being arrested once more for prescripton fraud -- this time by allegedly claiming the medications were for her dead father.





Laurie S. Calvert

(MUGSHOT courtesy Bogota PD)Investigating a string of burglaries involving Asian immigrants who kept large sums of cash around their homes because they distrusted American banks, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office turned to Calvert in 1995.



Calvert, who handled parking enforcement, traffic control and special details, recorded conversations not only with the targeted officers but also with their spouses and friends. She also secretly had a duplicate key made for a radio car so it could be bugged.



Federal authorities eventually took over the case, which led to convictions or guilty pleas from five crooked cops.



Calvert was eventually denied reappointment in 1997 when a new administration took over. This ended a 19-year career with the department, the last two of which she spent insisting that she was being harassed.



Borough officials said she never supported with evidence and ignored their advice to take her case to the county prosecutor.



Calvert, who ended up suing the borough, later called herself a “rat” in interviews. The episode sent her into a deep depression, she said.



Calvert was first arrested in 2001 after police said she posed as a doctor to obtain prescription medications for pain and anxiety in Fairview, Fort Lee, Hackensack, Palisades Park, and Teaneck.



A year later, police charged her with using an illegal handgun in an aggravated assaul -- following another incident involving falsely obtained meds. A judge later put her on probation for two years.



Bogota Detective Geoffrey Cole said he discovered this week that Calvert was filling prescriptions for the highly addictive painkiller Oxycodone, for Fentanyl pain-killing patches and for Alprazaolam, which is the generic equivalent of Xanax and is used to treat depression, by using her late father's prescriptions the past seven months.



"She had some of the prescriptions with her when she was arrested," Bogota Police Chief John C. Burke told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.



"We're still calculating how many she had altogether," the chief said late Friday.



Calvert remained held on $15,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail early Sunday, pending a Municipal Court date. She is charged with obtaining a controlled dangerous substance by fraud.




CONECT proposes actions toward change in East Haven


A diverse coalition of Connecticut clergy representing over 27 multi-faith congregations in New Haven and Fairfield Counties stood together at St. Rose of Lima Church Feb. 1 to call on state and local officials to act immediately to reform the East Haven Police Department.

CONECT — Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut — is the multi-faith, multiethnic, multi-neighborhood non-profit organization of member congregations and religious organizations that come together as one voice for social and economic justice and the common good.

Bridgeport has the largest representation of member congregations in the state.

CONECT's platform is summarized below:

• The State's Attorney should review all arrests by the indicted East Haven Police officers since 2008. Convictions based on arrests founded on racial prejudice and misconduct by the East Haven Police Department should not be allowed to stand.

• The State's Attorney has an obligation to seek to invalidate all convictions resulting from police breaking the law. Someone other than State Attorney Michael Dearington, who failed to thoroughly investigate allegations of police misconduct in response to an inquiry by the East Haven Board of Police Commissioners in June 2010, should conduct the review.

• The East Haven Police Department should immediately implement PERF and DOJ recommendations.

• The East Haven Police Board of Commissioners, Acting Police Chief John Mannion, and Mayor Joseph Maturo should act immediately to implement the recommendations made by the Police Executive Research Forum in March 2011 and the United States Department of Justice in December 2011.

• New policies regarding racial profiling, the use of force, early intervention systems, and a credible disciplinary process for officers should be adopted. Moreover, the department must ensure compliance with the Penn Act's requirements to submit racial profiling arrest data to the state.

• Although dishonesty in police reports was unveiled as early as February 2009, no action was taken by state oversight bodies to prevent further misconduct. The Police Officer Standards and Training Council— the state body that oversees the certification of all officers in the state of Connecticut — should investigate whether any officers in the East Haven Police Department should be decertified, and whether the East Haven Police Department should have held those officers accountable.

• To the extent POST lacks a mechanism to investigate and decertify officers who have engaged in misconduct, it should immediately take steps to develop a mechanism, including a provision for civilian complaints. If necessary, POST should seek additional statutory authority from the legislature.

Hacking Keeps Boston Police Website Offline for Second Day

By NewsTips - email
February 5th, 2012

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Police Department’s website remains offline for the second day in a row after members of the hacking collective Anonymous defaced it.

People trying to access the website were redirected to the department’s Facebook page Saturday, a day after the hackers posted rapper KRS-One “Sound of Da Police” music video that criticizes police brutality.

A message posted on the website Friday said, “Anonymous hacks Boston Police website in retaliation for police brutality at OWS.” That’s apparently a reference to Occupy Wall Street.

A police spokeswoman on Saturday declined to say why the website has not been restored and refused to discuss measures authorities were taking to bolster the site.

Anonymous is a collection of Internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included Visa and MasterCard, the Church of Scientology and law enforcement agencies.