Defense tests accusers' credibility as drug cops face trial
Source: Associated Press
Defense tests accusers' credibility as drug cops face trial
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press | March 29, 2015 | Updated: March 29, 2015 9:49am '
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A sweeping police corruption case starting Monday in Philadelphia will largely rest on the credibility of about 20 drug suspects and one turncoat cop as it plays out following the wholesale dismissal of scores of cases developed by members of an elite narcotics unit now accused of pocketing cash and cocaine seized on the job.
The indictment says the six officers on trial deployed the same violent methods as those they locked up — beating people, breaking into their homes and even dangling one dealer over a high-rise balcony to get information — while seizing more than $500,000 in cash and many kilos of cocaine for themselves between 2006 and 2012. But a lawyer for one of the victims described in the indictment noted the dilemma prosecutors face as they pursue the case.
"I believe that (my client) had a large amount of money in his possession that vanished after the narcotics crew went through his apartment. I also believe that he obtained that money in a less than
The August 2014 indictment came as little surprise to shaggy-haired lead defendant Thomas Liciardello and the other undercover officers. By then, both city and federal prosecutors had stopped taking their cases, 162 convictions were being tossed out and about 100 civil rights lawsuits had been filed accusing police of brutality, theft, kidnapping and false arrests.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Defense-tests-accusers-credibility-as-drug-cops-6166203.php
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