As he walked out of a Miami federal courtroom, Nathaniel
Dauphin, a convicted cop who testified over the past two days against a fellow
officer, heard someone yell an insult: “Coward.’’
The heckler was one of a dozen family members there to
support defendant, Vital Frederick, who is standing trail on charges of
pocketing dirty money.
“One of those ass----s just called me a coward,” complained
Dauphin, an FBI cooperating witness, after spending Monday afternoon on the
witness stand.
By midday Tuesday, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore got
wind of what had happened and warned that he would “excuse anyone from the
court who harasses or intimidates this witness.”
“Everyone is on notice,” Moore declared, with the jury
absent.
Dauphin, who joined the Miami force in 1993, has become a
divisive figure since he agreed last year to help the FBI expose corruption in
the North District station in Liberty City.
Dauphin had led a group of officers suspected of providing
off-the-books protection for a sports-gambling racket that operated out of the
Player’s Choice Barber Shop, 6301 NW Sixth Ave. Dressed in their dark blue
uniforms, they stood out so much that one gambler told investigators he thought
the place was being run by the Miami Police Department, according to court
records. It was shut down in March of last year.
But long before pleading guilty to an extortion charge
alleging he received $5,000, Dauphin agreed to wear a wire for the FBI in a sting
operation targeting other suspected bad cops.
Among his targets: Frederick, 27, who joined the force in
2008.
Last year, Dauphin persuaded Frederick to provide protection
for a check-cashing store at the corner of Northwest 79th Street and Seventh
Avenue.
Dauphin, who recorded their conversations, told Frederick
that a courier would be carrying $40,000 or $50,000 in “stolen or fraudulent
checks,” according to an affidavit, written by FBI special agent Donald Morin.
Frederick agreed to protect him from possible robbers.
On four occasions while under FBI surveillance, Frederick
escorted the courier driving a black Camaro to and from the check-cashing
store. He was paid $200 each time, for a total of $800, in August and September
of last year, the affidavit said.
Before one exchange played in court, Dauphin said: “I got
that cash for you.” Frederick’s response: “All right, cool.”
Dauphin, who in June was sentenced to one year and two
months in prison but has not yet served any time, maintained his composure during
direct examination by prosecutor Robin Waugh.
But the government’s key witness grew irritated under
cross-examination by Frederick’s defense attorney, Stuart Adelstein. He accused
him of initiating almost all of his phone calls with Frederick at the direction
of the FBI, calling the undercover operation a “fake” crime because it was a
“sting.”
Then, Adelstein accused Dauphin of violating his oath as a
police officer and committing one crime after another when he provided
protection for the Liberty City sports-gambling ring.
He also accused Dauphin of only trying to save his neck when
he agreed to cooperate with the FBI and give up the names of other officers
involved in the sports-protection racket, including his girl friend, Carol
Vargas, who was relieved of duty this year.
“I was interested in cooperating with them for the sake of
my family,” Dauphin testified.
The FBI’s sting operation didn’t end with Dauphin. The FBI
quickly found a replacement, persuading another Miami cop accused of stealing
people’s identities from a police database to work undercover in a new sting
operation.
That replacement was Malinsky Bazile, 28. He also joined the
force in 2008 and had known Frederick from high school.
Wired up just like Dauphin, Bazile asked his friend, Frederick,
if he would be interested in supplying the names, dates of birth and Social
Security numbers of people for a tax-refund scam, according to an FBI affidavit
and other court records. Last October, Bazile paid his colleague $600 in cash
for turning over two lists with 52 IDs taken from a police database with
drivers’ licenses and other personal information.
Meanwhile, Bazile’s own trial started in Fort Lauderdale
federal court Tuesday. He’s charged with stealing 1,000 identities from the
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles database for tax-refund
fraud.
