BY
JAY WEAVER
JWEAVER@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Vital
Frederick, a young Miami cop convicted of pocketing bribes, was sentenced to
nearly seven years in prison on Thursday.
At
trial in October, Frederick never disputed the undercover evidence revealing he
accepted dirty money from two fellow police officers working with the FBI in a
pair of sting operations.
But
Frederick, 27, testified his colleagues threatened that unless he took the cash
they would expose his “secret” — that he was gay and had a 10-year relationship
with a boyfriend from high school.
Frederick's
surprise defense did not convince a Miami federal jury, which found him guilty
on four charges of extortion and three of stealing identification records for
tax-refund scams.
U.S.
District Judge K. Michael Moore found that Frederick perjured himself on the
witness stand before sentencing him to 81 months.
Frederick’s
case, defended by lawyer Stuart Adelstein, was prosecuted by assistant U.S.
attorneys Robin Waugh and Michael Davis.
Frederick
is one of a dozen Miami cops who were convicted, fired or resigned over the
past year as a result of the crackdown on protection rackets and ID scams run
out of the North District station in Liberty City.
The
two officers who flipped on Frederick, Nathaniel Dauphin and Malinsky Bazile,
have been convicted as well. Dauphin, who pleaded guilty, got a probationary
sentence with no jail time; Bazile, found guilty at trial, is awaiting sentence
in February.
