By Ronald Smothers, New York Times
NEWARK, Oct. 1 - Two Newark police officers were indicted on Friday on charges of robbing drug dealers of money and drugs in what prosecutors said was a continuing investigation into police corruption in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city.
The investigation has already led to the dismissal of two drug cases in which suspects appeared to have been victims, the Essex County prosecutor, Paula Dow, said on Friday. She said many other cases may be in jeopardy.
The two indicted officers were among six named last week by a fellow officer as he pleaded guilty to conspiring with them over two years to enrich themselves at the expense of the suspects. A grand jury is continuing to consider evidence against the others.
As the investigation continued, the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, which represents indigent defendants, was examining cases of clients in which those officers had made the arrests or were listed as witnesses.
Announcing the indictments, New Jersey’s state attorney general, Peter C. Harvey, said: “It is no coincidence that the targets of these allegedly corrupt police officers were drug dealers and others previously encountered by Newark police. They were targeted for one reason - they would not complain to police because if they did they would not be believed. They were wrong.”
The officers indicted on Friday were Lawrence Furlow, 44, of Maplewood, and Darius Smith, 33, of Newark. Both were suspended from the force.
Mr. Furlow, who was arrested and was being held in $20,000 bail in Essex County Jail, was charged with three counts of conspiracy, official misconduct and theft and faces up to 25 years in prison. Mr. Smith, who was being sought by the police on a fugitive warrant, faces 30 years in prison on seven counts of conspiracy, official misconduct and theft.
Both officers, along with four others, were named last Thursday by Tyrone M. Dudley, a former officer in Newark’s West District. Mr. Dudley, 33, whom investigators have relocated for his protection, is cooperating with the attorney general’s office. He faces up to five years in prison.
Mr. Harvey said there was no indication that the thefts had been systemic in the 1,900-member police force or that department officials had been aware of what had been happening. He praised the department’s officers and internal affairs investigators, as well as citizens who had witnessed what he said was the rogue behavior, for their cooperation in bringing about the indictments.
In pleading guilty last week, Mr. Dudley described how he and other officers had identified the people they intended to rob. He said the officers lied in their applications to obtain search warrants at the targets’ homes and then falsified the reports they filed with the department to cover up their thefts.
Mr. Dudley testified that the activities took place from December 2002 to last March.
Mr. Harvey declined to provide details. But other investigators, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described one instance that they said was among the “more than a dozen” uncovered by their investigation.
In that occurrence, the investigators said, rogue officers went to a Newark apartment building where they knew a drug dealer was operating. They pulled aside a man the dealer knew, planted a bag of heroin on him and threatened to arrest him if he did not help them gain entry to the dealer’s apartment, the investigators said.
The man knocked on the door while officers hid nearby, they said, and when the door opened, the officers rushed in and seized money and drugs, which they did not report. The officers later claimed that they had had “probable cause” for entering the apartment because they had seen drugs in plain view when the dealer opened the door, according to the investigators.
On Friday, as a result of the investigation, the Newark police director, Anthony Ambrose, announced procedural changes intended to prevent future abuses. One of the major reforms requires that after an arrest by a patrol officer and the seizure of money or drugs, a superior officer is required to interview the suspect, verify the evidence seized and report any allegations of impropriety.
The other officers named by Mr. Dudley as being involved in the theft of money and drugs were Onofre Cabezas, Lawee Colbert, Mario DaSilva and Angel Vila. Another officer, Ismael Lespier, was later identified by Mr. Harvey’s office as a focus of the investigation. All were reassigned to administrative duties by Mr. Ambrose last week, pending the outcome of the investigation.
In the two cases that were dismissed by Essex County, Ms. Dow, the prosecutor, said, “We looked at the cases and tried to find corroboration for what the police reports they had written said, and when we couldn’t find it, we dismissed the case in the interest of justice.”
Mr. Furlow, dressed in a white and black sweatsuit, was arraigned in Essex County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. He stood handcuffed, his shaved head bowed low and his shoulders hunched forward, as Judge Donald J. Volkert Jr. set bail. Mr. Furlow’s lawyer had argued that his client was not a flight risk, although he had recently moved with his wife and children from his home in Newark to a brother’s home in Maplewood.
Judge Volkert disagreed, saying, “This defendant has moved out of his house, is living with his brother and as of today has no job.”
During the brief arraignment proceeding, Mark Eliades, the deputy state attorney general prosecuting the cases against the officers, referred to a 50-page statement that Mr. Furlow gave investigators during questioning two months ago and said it “detailed his actions in the case.”
Mr. Eliades stopped short of characterizing the statement as a confession, and a lawyer for Mr. Furlow, Kelly Daniels, said she would challenge the statement because her client had provided it without the benefit of legal counsel.