By Dave Schratwieser
CENTER CITY -
The fallout from the arrest of
narcotics officer Jeffrey Walker continued Friday at the Criminal Justice
Center when a judge threw out more than a dozen drug convictions tied to the
admittedly corrupt officer.
"We'll look at every case, we'll look at
it the same way, we'll look at the evidence, where appropriate, we'll dismiss,
where it isn't we will not," said Assistant DA Robin Godfrey.
"It will be a black eye on the police department
until they do something structurally different," said Public Defender
Bradley Bridge.
Eighty-five drug cases have now been tossed
out since Walker's arrest last May with more potentially to come. The 24 year
police veteran plead guilty to robbery and weapons charges in federal court
earlier this week. He was arrested in an FBI sting last May. On Monday, his
lawyer said Walker is cooperating with the FBI. He predicted other officers and
suspects will fall
These are dangerous people who engaged in
significant criminal activity for quite some time," said Thomas
Fitzpatrick, Walker's defense attorney.
"I want to get it rooted out now,"
Commissioner Charles Ramsey told Fox 29 on Friday following a police graduation
ceremony.
Commissioner ramsey has already
said a federal grand jury is investigating at least half a dozen former
narcotics officers. They have been removed from street duty. Ramsey's committed
to getting rid of corrupt cops.
"Anytime you can rid your ranks of a
corrupt officer, it's a good day," Ramsey added. "The honest men and
women who are working hard every day, they don't deserve to have guys like this
working along side them, they truly don't."
Bridge says there has to be significant change
at the department for corruption to end, especially in the area of narcotics
investigations and arrests.
"You can't have narcotics
officers being there for a continuing period of time where they are involved
with large amounts of money, large amounts of drugs and very little
oversight," he said.
