Otherguy Overby
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http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-3/11526848574680.xml&coll=1
I really would like to know how these people have a "right" to go home to their families tonight?
Probers say 6 cops tipped drug suspects about raids
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY AND RUDY LARINI
Star-Ledger Staff
Authorities were already deep into their investigation of a Passaic County drug case when they realized something was terribly wrong.
The bad guys knew they were coming.
In phone calls intercepted by a county narcotics task force, the suspects spoke of raids that hadn't yet happened. They knew about impending arrests.
To the investigators, the suspects' inside knowledge could mean only one thing: Someone with a badge was feeding them information.
Yesterday, nearly two years after suspicions were first raised, authorities announced that six police officers from Passaic County had been indicted on charges they protected the suspects, with whom they had become friends.
The six were identified as Pompton Lakes officers Dennis DePrima, 30, Robert J. Palianto, 29, and Michael Megna, 34; West Milford officer Paul Kleiber, 26; West Paterson officer Richard Beagin, 26; and Passaic County sheriff's officer Gerry Ward, 46, who is now retired and living in North Carolina.
The indictment, handed up yesterday by a special grand jury impaneled in May, charges them with official misconduct, conspiracy to commit official misconduct and witness tampering. DePrima, Palianto and Megna also were charged with conspiracy to possess narcotics.
Five of the officers were arrested over the past two years, and all have been suspended. Megna was arrested yesterday. If convicted of the most serious charge -- official misconduct -- they face up to 10 years in prison.
Passaic County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jay McCann said there is no evidence the officers were involved in trafficking the narcotics.
"It wasn't really a drug distribution for profit," he said. "It was more of a social relationship between the officers and the targets. These officers were sort of drawn into the lifestyle, basically."
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The initial targets of the drug investigation, twin brothers Charles and Robert Post, lived an "extravagant" lifestyle -- complete with a Ferrari and boats -- to which the officers were drawn, according to the indictment.
"They partied with the officers," McCann said. "Then it cascaded from there."
Charles Post, a Pompton Lakes resident, and Robert Post, who lives in West Paterson, are listed as unindicted co-conspirators in the case. The men, both 35, were arrested in 2004. The drug counts against them have yet to be resolved, prosecutors said.
Lawyers for the officers said they did not want to discuss details of the charges, but they criticized the length of the investigation and said their clients were eager to present their side of the case in court.
"I don't think there's a whole lot of dispute about what happened, but the prosecutor is trying to characterize innocent acts as a conspiracy," said Pat Caserta, who represents Ward. "It's been a long, tortuous wait to get this case moving, but I guarantee you that Gerry Ward wants to get this case moving so he can get his side into the light of day."
Miles Feinstein, who represents Palianto, denied any wrongdoing by his client.
"He absolutely maintains his innocence, and we're completely confident that he's going to be vindicated," Feinstein said. "He loves his job and has been a good police officer."
Dennis McAlevy, the lawyer for DePrima, said he could not comment on the case because he had not seen the indictment.
McCann said the indictment names four unindicted co-conspirators identified only by their initials. There also are four separate indictments charging seven people with drug offenses, he said. The drugs involved in the case are OxyContin, a powerful narcotic painkiller, and Ambien, a sleeping pill.
The investigation began in August 2004, when the county narcotics task force intercepted telephone conversations of drug suspects warning each other of imminent raids and arrests, McCann said.
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"There were communications intercepted on the wiretaps among the targets of the narcotics investigation that made it clear that it had been compromised," he said. "There was an intercept in which one person was making arrangements to get narcotics out of his house."
McCann said it took so long to seek an indictment because the probe involved a complicated analysis of telephone records and intercepted calls.
"What we did is we basically recreated the pattern of telephone calls between the parties," he said.
Police Chief Al Ekkers of Pompton Lakes, where three of the officers worked, said he finds the charges "disappointing."
"If they are convicted, I would be very disappointed," he said, "but I stand by them as their chief."
Bill Maer a spokesman for Passaic County, said Ward was with the county almost 23 years when he retired in January 2005. He said Ward was a county corrections officer who was on loan to a gang task force in the prosecutor's office at the time of his arrest.
"It's always sad when a member of law enforcement is involved in an incident of this nature," Maer said.
Calls to the West Paterson and West Milford police departments were not returned.
Staff writer Mark Mueller contributed to this report.
I really would like to know how these people have a "right" to go home to their families tonight?
Stay tuned.
