Corrupt Philly cops won't face charges

[redheadbaker]

DISGUSTING. Unbelievable. Sickening.

There are a thousand more adjectives to describe yesterday's astounding news that no criminal charges will be brought against the cops who terrorized 22 Philly bodega owners.

But you need to understand this:

The shop owners were all legal immigrants. None had criminal records. Nor had they ever met - they hailed from four corners of the city and spoke different languages. Yet the stories they told Daily News reporters Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman were identical.

A Philadelphia plainclothes narcotics squad had barreled into the immigrants' bodegas, guns drawn. They had cut the wires on the stores' video surveillance systems, robbed thousands of dollars from the cash drawers, stolen food and merchandise and then trashed the shops on their way out the door.

One bodega owner even had footage of the cops cutting the video wires.

You'd think that would have been enough to get the cops busted. Or, at the very least, fired.

But this is Philadelphia, where, a disgusted veteran officer tells me, "The only way a cop can lose his job in this city is if he shoots another cop during roll call."

Instead, the offending officers, who've been on desk duty since Laker and Ruderman wrote about them in 2009, will likely get back their jobs, their guns and the chilling entitlement that allowed them to turn the bodega owners' American dream into an American outrage.

Also, because this is Philly, they'll probably be awarded lost overtime, too, because we have no shame in this town.

Not a stinking shred.

Nor do we have the will or the decency to dig deep into the corruption that is rotting the police department from within. Sources tell the Daily News that none of the bodega owners was ever called by a grand jury to tell their stories.

You know who else were ignored by federal investigators and the District Attorney's Office? The three women who claimed that one of the rogue cops - a menacing dirtbag named Tom Tolstoy - sexually assaulted them during drug raids. One of the women couldn't get anyone in the Police Department's Special Victims Unit to listen to her story until her attorney interceded.

Like the bodega owners, the women had no criminal records and were never charged as a result of the raids. They had never met each other, yet shared with Laker and Ruderman hellish stories of encounters with Tolstoy.

All three said they had been fondled. Two reported the assaults immediately to police. The third was digitally penetrated and walked to a hospital for treatment.

When the ER staff notified police of the incident, the department immediately removed Tolstoy from street duty - even though the woman had been unable to provide his name to investigators.

Because Tolstoy won't be criminally charged, we now must use the word "alleged" to describe the violations suffered by these poor women.

I'll say this: If even one of the women had been a cop's sister and lived in middle-class comfort in, say, police-friendly Roxborough, you can bet Tolstoy would be behind bars by now.

Who am I kidding? He'd never have made it to prison. His victim's brothers in blue would've meted out justice on their own.

Instead, Tolstoy has launched a second career with enthusiasm. His LinkedIn account identifies him as the CEO of something called the Public Safety Charter High School, which "is on its way to being an innovative charter school that serves high school students who wish to pursue a career in the public safety sector."

Grotesque.

The only thing honorable about this case is the courage, honesty and doggedness with which Laker and Ruderman pursued it, resulting in a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for their extraordinary series, "Tainted Justice."

It is disheartening that their work will not result in criminal charges. The immigrants' stories and those of the women deserved to be told not only in this paper but in court, before a jury.

Laker and Ruderman have done them justice.

This city, damn it, has done them wrong.


Read more at www.philly.com/philly/news/20140424_DISGUSTING__Unbelievable__Sickening_.html#Y1kmfhWzA3PMTyDt.99

[Velar Fricative]

JFC

[IIOY]

This is Philly, so I'm not surprised. I have no doubt these cops were well-served by their union.

[wawa]

Apr 25, 2014 6:25:07 GMT -5 IIOY said:

This is Philly, so I'm not surprised. I have no doubt these cops were well-served by their union.

My mama has a terrible opinion of cops in general and I have to remind her that not everywhere is like Philly.

[penguingrrl]

How does this happen? Seriously, how?

[Velar Fricative]

Everything about this is awful but this part makes me feel RAGE. 

When the ER staff notified police of the incident, the department immediately removed Tolstoy from street duty - even though the woman had been unable to provide his name to investigators.

[erbear]

I love Philly, I do, but the police force and the unions are wrecking the city. This is foul.

[anonymous]

One of these cops is Spicer, right? He's totally dirty. I don't want to get into details but he steals money (and probably drugs, weapons, or anything else he wants, but I only know that he steals money for a fact)-tens and tens of thousands of dollars. He's probably got a shit ton of money in bank accounts that he stole from people. Worse than the criminal they are "fighting"

[Cicero]

Is this something the feds could get involved with? It seems that they must have violated some federal criminal statute and given who the victims are I find it hard to believe they haven't run afoul of the Civil Rights Act.

[redheadbaker]

Apr 25, 2014 8:32:15 GMT -5 anonymous said:

One of these cops is Spicer, right? He's totally dirty. I don't want to get into details but he steals money (and probably drugs, weapons, or anything else he wants, but I only know that he steals money for a fact)-tens and tens of thousands of dollars. He's probably got a shit ton of money in bank accounts that he stole from people. Worse than the criminal they are "fighting"

Another article on the Philly.com site says the officers are Jeffrey Cujdik, Richard Cujdik, Thomas Tolstoy and Robert McDonnell, all from the Narcotics division.

[redheadbaker]

Apr 25, 2014 7:33:50 GMT -5 wawa said:

Apr 25, 2014 6:25:07 GMT -5 IIOY said:

This is Philly, so I'm not surprised. I have no doubt these cops were well-served by their union.

My mama has a terrible opinion of cops in general and I have to remind her that not everywhere is like Philly.

Not all Philly cops are corrupt!

I'm glad my dad is retiring soon, though.

[anonymous]

Apr 25, 2014 12:38:20 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Apr 25, 2014 8:32:15 GMT -5 anonymous said:

One of these cops is Spicer, right? He's totally dirty. I don't want to get into details but he steals money (and probably drugs, weapons, or anything else he wants, but I only know that he steals money for a fact)-tens and tens of thousands of dollars. He's probably got a shit ton of money in bank accounts that he stole from people. Worse than the criminal they are "fighting"

Another article on the Philly.com site says the officers are Jeffrey Cujdik, Richard Cujdik, Thomas Tolstoy and Robert McDonnell, all from the Narcotics division.

Pretty sure Spicer was part of that group or part of another group or maybe he was dropped out of the group at some point.  Shady up in there

[picksthemusic]

Where is Batman when you need him?

[redheadbaker]

Apr 25, 2014 12:45:43 GMT -5 anonymous said:

Apr 25, 2014 12:38:20 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Another article on the Philly.com site says the officers are Jeffrey Cujdik, Richard Cujdik, Thomas Tolstoy and Robert McDonnell, all from the Narcotics division.

Pretty sure Spicer was part of that group or part of another group or maybe he was dropped out of the group at some point.  Shady up in there

The photo with the article where I got those names shows another officer not mentioned in the article, Joseph Bologna.

Apparently, he's been promoted. Don't know if that happened before or after all this came out.

[IIOY]

I'm trying to figure out why the DA decided they couldn't proceed with the case. I'm wondering if the investigation itself was potentially corrupted.

[anonymous]

New article about a different set if cops. mobile.philly.com/news/?wss=/philly/news&id=240929471.

[WOT?*]

From anonymous's link: Four of the officers - Perry Betts, Michael Spicer, Thomas Liciardello, and Brian Reynolds - had been moved from the Narcotics Field Unit in December 2012 and placed in lower-profile departmental jobs.

[WOT?*]

Apr 25, 2014 8:40:30 GMT -5 Cicero said:

Is this something the feds could get involved with? It seems that they must have violated some federal criminal statute and given who the victims are I find it hard to believe they haven't run afoul of the Civil Rights Act.

That would be under the purview of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (with charges by the US Attorney General). I wonder why they haven't done so.

But maybe they are. Also from the link above: Ramsey also said a narcotics officer, Jeffrey Walker, was in custody. Walker was arrested on federal corruption charges in May in a sting operation by FBI agents working with police investigators. They recorded Walker bragging about how easy it was to rob drug dealers.

[anonymous]

Apr 30, 2014 18:28:28 GMT -5 WOT?* said:

Apr 25, 2014 8:40:30 GMT -5 Cicero said:

Is this something the feds could get involved with? It seems that they must have violated some federal criminal statute and given who the victims are I find it hard to believe they haven't run afoul of the Civil Rights Act.

That would be under the purview of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (with charges by the US Attorney General). I wonder why they haven't done so.

But maybe they are. Also from the link above: Ramsey also said a narcotics officer, Jeffrey Walker, was in custody. Walker was arrested on federal corruption charges in May in a sting operation by FBI agents working with police investigators. They recorded Walker bragging about how easy it was to rob drug dealers.

I absolutely believe they are guilty. I hope they go down

[secretlyevil]

City of brotherly love say what now?