By George Anastasia
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Two Camden police officers assigned to protect some of the city’s most drug-infested neighborhoods instead used their badges to break the law, according to a nine-count federal indictment unsealed Thursday.
Officers Antonio Figueroa, 34, and Robert Bayard, 32, were charged with stealing drugs and money from narcotics dealers, planting evidence, conducting illegal searches, falsifying police reports, and lying under oath.
The two, arrested Thursday morning, pleaded not guilty at preliminary hearings in U.S. District Court in Camden. Each is being held without bail pending detention hearings set for Tuesday.
Their arrests capped a two-year investigation into a group of rogue cops who were part of a Special Operations unit in the city’s 371-member Police Department, authorities said.
Three officers previously charged, including a retired police sergeant, have pleaded guilty. Authorities would not comment on whether they were cooperating.
“Public corruption in any guise is intolerable,” Paul J. Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said at a news conference to announce the indictment and arrests. Police corruption, he added, “is the worst kind of public corruption.”
The charges follow similar investigations in Philadelphia, where two officers from the 25th District were caught in a sting last week after allegedly conspiring to rob a drug dealer of $3,000 in cash and 20 pounds of marijuana.
Camden Police Chief J. Scott Thomson, who federal and county authorities said initiated the investigation into his own department, said the conduct of the five officers charged in Camden “does not define” the entire force.
Thomson referred to the disgraced officers as a “cancer” and said their arrests sent a “loud and clear message” that corruption would not be tolerated.
Authorities allege that between May 2007 and October 2009, Figueroa; Bayard; Kevin Parry, 30; Jason Stetser, 32; and Dan Morris, 47, systematically ripped off street-level drug dealers.
The indictment charged that they conducted illegal searches, took drugs and money, and created false police reports.
Authorities said the officers sometimes kept the cash and alleged they used the drugs as leverage on the streets.
Sometimes, they would plant drugs to enhance charges against a suspect as a means of pressuring the person to cooperate in an investigation. Other times, authorities allege, they traded drugs for information from hookers.
Stetser - known as “Fat Face” or “Tattoo” on the street - Parry, and Morris have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Each faces up to 10 years in prison.
Morris, a sergeant who supervised the others, retired in January. The others were suspended without pay in November.
Figueroa, known as “Baby Fat Face,” joined the department in 2003. Bayard became a police officer in 2006.
At the news conference Thursday, Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said his office had dismissed 210 drug cases in which the suspected officers were involved. Defendants serving jail terms were released, he said. Others awaiting trial had the charges dropped, he added.
The prosecutor said that while he believed most of the charges had been justified - in all but a handful of cases, the defendants pleaded guilty, he said - the illegal actions of the officers tainted cases in which they were involved.
The city and county have been named in several resulting civil suits.
While the investigation was built around the broad allegation of police corruption, specific charges in the nine-count indictment are that Figueroa and Bayard used their authority to deprive individuals of their civil rights.
Illegal searches, unlawful detention, and using unreasonable force are among the allegations.
At the news conference, New Jersey Attorney General Paula T. Dow said the state has “zero tolerance” for police corruption, which, she said, undermines public confidence in law enforcement.
Her comments echoed those of officials in Philadelphia, where local, state, and federal authorities are conducting investigations.
The 25th District probe has resulted in the arrests of Officers Sean Alivera and Christopher Luciano, allegedly caught in a sting after state investigators received a tip about a North Philadelphia drug dealer who had “boys in blue who could assist him.”
Alivera, 31, and Luciano, 23, are being held on $1 million bail each. They allegedly stole cash from a drug dealer who actually was an undercover officer.
Authorities suspect that the two officers, and at least two others assigned to the 25th District, routinely worked with a local drug dealer who set up competitors for phony arrests.
The competitors’ cash and drugs were stolen. The drugs then were resold by the local dealer with part of the profit going to the officers.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, in an interview last week, said the investigation was continuing.
“It could get worse before it gets better,” he said.
Contact staff writer George Anastasia at 856-779-3846 or ganastasia@phillynews.com.
Inquirer staff writer Troy Graham contributed to this article, which also contains information from the Associated Press.
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