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    We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies

    NY Daily News

    John Marzulli, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

    Former Detective Stephen Anderson, seen here in 2009, is testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. …

    A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.

    The bombshell testimony from Stephen Anderson is the first public account of the twisted culture behind the false arrests in the Brooklyn South and Queens narc squads, which led to the arrests of eight cops and a massive shakeup.

    Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as "flaking," on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop Henry Tavarez, whose buy-and-bust activity had been low.

    "Tavarez was ... was worried about getting sent back [to patrol] and, you know, the supervisors getting on his case," he recounted at the corruption trial of Brooklyn South narcotics Detective Jason Arbeeny.

    "I had decided to give him [Tavarez] the drugs to help him out so that he could say he had a buy," Anderson testified last week in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

    He made clear he wasn't about to pass off the two legit arrests he had made in the bar to Tavarez.

    "As a detective, you still have a number to reach while you are in the narcotics division," he said.

    NYPD officials did not respond to a request for comment.

    Anderson worked in the Queens and Brooklyn South narcotics squads and was called to the stand at Arbeeny's bench trial to show the illegal conduct wasn't limited to a single squad.

    "Did you observe with some frequency this ... practice which is taking someone who was seemingly not guilty of a crime and laying the drugs on them?" Justice Gustin Reichbach asked Anderson.

    "Yes, multiple times," he replied.

    The judge pressed Anderson on whether he ever gave a thought to the damage he was inflicting on the innocent.

    "It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators," he said.

    "It's almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it, they're going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway; nothing is going to happen to them anyway."

    The city paid $300,000 to settle a false arrest suit by Jose Colon and his brother Maximo, who were falsely arrested by Anderson and Tavarez. A surveillance tape inside the bar showed they had been framed.

    A federal judge presiding over the suit said the NYPD's plagued by "widespread falsification" by arresting officers.

    jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

     
     
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    807 comments

    • Kevin  •  7 mths ago
      This is really sad. Small towns are even worse. They get bored and just taunt people into making mistakes so they can bust them or beat them. I once had a four wheeler stolen from me by a cop in Bailey, CO. but I could never prove it.
      • HEWIE V 7 mths ago
        it is true..i was temporally transfer to portage Indiana and went to pick a co worker up at a apartment complex and i was ticketed because i was going 10mph on a 5 mph zone...couldn't fight it(i was going to win for sure,he didn't had a radar gun),but the officer knew i was going back to California in 2 days...crazy!
      • Pope Fred 7 mths ago
        Maybe he broke his PIG neck on your 4 wheeler. Gives a new meaning to cops on a free ride.
      • LP 7 mths ago
        LOL i got pulled over at 16 with my permit in a town of about 500 for doing 15 in a 5. Do you know how hard it is to actually go 5 mph?
    • TOM  •  7 mths ago
      The same thing happened to me and my son and wife in douglasvlle ,ga. Some years ago and cost my son a year in prison and my wife 6 months because one of the douglasville narcotics officers planted evidence in our home after they were unable to fine anything .they plead guilty just to get it over but i staunchly refused to plead guilty to something i did not do and after reporting to court calendar call every month for two years they finally dropped the trumped up charges against me.but in the meantime i had lost my job and my home due to this arrest. And had packed up all my belongings and stored them at my moms house and prepared to serve the ten years in prison that the douglasville prosecutor had planned for me.now douglasville had so many cases at calendar call maybe many unjust like mine that it was impossible to get into the court room there were hundreds of cases that were drawn out for years and years hanging over mine and others in douglasville,ga.but i refused to plead guilty to something i did not do
      • Barie 7 mths ago
        I really believe because I live in Georgia and it not uncommon also in Civil cases. All kinds of judicial failures, corruption and incompetent attorneys with no way to deal with it in that state.
    • Paul  •  7 mths ago
      Sounds like DEC, LAMBERT of north cape may New Jersey, when he sells steriods on the side as dirty as they come
    • Bill  •  7 mths ago
      Micheal, NEW YORK has, you MUST be white and not even a 99%! THIS goes on EVERYWHERE! Get this in your head now, THEY are HUMAN, THEY have EGO'S, THEY are just as FLAWED as the one's they persecute! In other word's COP'S everywhere WILL LIE, and WHY is that such a radicule concept. THIS DOES HAPPEN EVERYWHERE. Only a fool would think of this as an abberation!
      • Barie 7 mths ago
        You are the fool, many honest and stright citizens doesn't believe our government is capable of this kind of action, deceptions and out right framing.
      • Bill 7 mths ago
        Ahem, Gulf of tonken, uhmmm, Weapon's of Mass destruction, FOX news is "fair and impartial"... anymore? So, I guess that means a "fool" would recognise a FOOL. Right?
    • Rex Tom  •  Fremont, United States  •  6 mths ago
      Stalin and Mao made arrest quotas: the New Totalitarian America
    • GeorgeS  •  7 mths ago
      "Cult like" mentalities the system uses techniques to fabricate charges, surreal realities in the interrogation room. It is a great room for "tall tales to get a conviction. Don't confess to something you didn't do you will see how tall their tales get. This is true with drugs, guns, porn and other issues to make a "hasty decision" to close the case. "Cult Like" mentalities in the Jurisprudence in all countries and Nations.
    • TK  •  7 mths ago
      there are a lot more corrupt cops out there then u think.......
      • Anthony 7 mths ago
        I think you are right, the NYPD must be rife with corruption.
      • Anonymous 7 mths ago
        And the shame of it all is there are a great number of cops who do work hard at doing good and are branded bec of animals like this.
      • choudhuryA 7 mths ago
        WAY TOO MANY
    • GeorgeS  •  7 mths ago
      Like the banks and wall street- the courts get clogged up with misinformation and it gets costly.
    • Freedom for All  •  7 mths ago
      Why in the world do cops have quotas for things like drug busts? Hey, forget quotas and just do your job normally and catch actual law breakers! This is ridiculous behavior on the part of NYPD.
      • Rafterman 7 mths ago
        It's revenue for the state in hard times...
      • Jzee831 7 mths ago
        This is normal practice for "law enforcement" nationwide (judges, lawyers, prosecutors,etc). Drug related arrests, traffic tickets, standing on roadway violations, tail light working now but not when the "officer" looked at it, didn't stop at stop sign & u no u did or the stop wasn't a legal stop, dad suppoting child but not by court order (the states get kickbacks for collecting child support; #$%$ the child being supported), illegal arrest and seventy-two hold but never charged, murder (and plant gun on dead body) anything dirty these quasi-militants can think of they do, we pay them to do it (their salaries are taxpayer dollars) and there's, suppossedly, nothing we can do about it.
      • A Yahoo! User 7 mths ago
        They are serving and protecting us, and we give them Bloathed Pay, Bloathed Benefits, Bloathed Pensions AFTER A PART TIME CAREER, WORKING ONLY 20 YRS, IN A LIFETIME OF 80 IS PART TIME LIFE. If they get a little hurt while planting their quota drugs on you, they get bloathed disability. And we call this state extortion and abuse of the citizenry freedom. What happened to logic in America,
    • jonymor  •  7 mths ago
      The sad thing about the flaking charges against the New York police officers is that most of the country will mistakenly think "oh that can only happen in New York." Wake up, it's happening all over the U.S. and it's one of the minor crimes committed by the police officers that are sworn to serve and protect us.
    • Norunn  •  7 mths ago
      Why do the NYPD fight crime? Because they hate competition!
    • IfYouSeeKay  •  7 mths ago
      Life imprisonment for any cop doing this. A drug conviction can ruin a person's entire life.
    • xx  •  7 mths ago
      I live on Long Island and half the guys I grew up with are either NYPD or FDNY. The stories they tell are straight out of a movie. One time I'm with one of the crazier guys going to a Yankee game and we see police activity. He walks up flashes his badge and introduces me as Officer Smith. He askes two people to give ME their statements and he walked away. He thought it was funny. Two minutes later he walked my way and said, let's go. I turned away from these people in distress wearing my Yankee shirt and we walked into a bar. We didn't talk about it (ever)...it was just a normal insensitive interaction he has on a daily basis with those he is there to protect. You can't believe the things they do and the culture within not to stick your neck out and report abuse. He said, the reason no one speak out is self preservation. God forbid he ever got in real trouble for something he did or did not do his fellow officers would back him 100%. The blue wall of silence. You never know when your time will come.
    • Jeff  •  7 mths ago
      I'm willing to bet that this goes on in most police department in large cities.
    • John  •  7 mths ago
      The only difference between a Cop and Gangbanger is the uniform.
    • sage s  •  7 mths ago
      The NYPD is a gang, just like any other gang. The only thing that differentiates the NYPD is that they can shoot you dead and claim that you were a threat. Think they won't?
    • e  •  7 mths ago
      And they wonder why the public hates them and would love the chance to stomp their #$%$ They can not be trusted!
    • noflyzone  •  7 mths ago
      what's the quota for raping drunk civilians? for pepper spraying demonstrators? for illegal frisks? for spying on a college religious group? NYPD uber alles!
    • Dave  •  7 mths ago
      THESES WORMS should go to jail ! its pretty sad when you cant even trust in or be safe from YOUR police.
    • bigmamamuley  •  7 mths ago
      Planting drugs, and guns on innocent people, and fabricating charges are an integral part of the police departments practices. This is practiced by every police department, especially those that are located in large cities, where there are large populations of minority people. This case is just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of innocent people, that have been, or are incarcerated, because of corrupt testimony by police officers around this nation, is shocking, and disgraceful, and should be investigated by the justice department. Any law enforcement personnel, convicted of involvement in these cases, should lose their pensions, pay a enormous fine, and be imprisoned for 25 years to life. Maybe now, when someone claim that they have been framed, and are innocent, someone will listen, and they may be believed.