Alleged threat led to probe
By Shelley Murphy and Suzanne Smalley
The Boston Globe
BOSTON, Mass. — Boston police Officer Jose A. “Flaco” Ortiz showed up in uniform last August at the workplace of a man threatened by two drug dealers who blamed the man for a deal gone bad, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed in federal court yesterday.
But Ortiz, a 20-year veteran of the department who wore a badge and carried his department-issued gun, wasn’t there on police business, according to authorities.
The officer allegedly told the man that he was working for “Colombian people” who said they lost $265,000 in the deal, according to the affidavit, and he threatened to personally kill the man and his family if he didn’t pay them that money.
Ortiz was carrying a photo of the man and said he knew everything about him, according to an affidavit. He said he “lived near him and would be watching him.” He then handed him his Boston police business card, according to the affidavit, and said he could be reached by calling the number and asking for Flaco.
What Ortiz didn’t know was that the man had been secretly cooperating with law enforcement officials for several years. The man, identified in court papers only as “victim A,” immediately reported the alleged threat, prompting the Boston Police Anti-Corruption Unit and the FBI to launch an investigation that culminated in the officer’s arrest Wednesday and his appearance in US District court in Boston yesterday.
After Ortiz agreed to let the man repay the debt “little by little,” the FBI secretly videotaped Ortiz accepting $2,000 in cash from the man on three occasions in March and April while he was working police details around Boston, accord ing to the affidavit.
Each time, the officer was captured on videotape accepting a wad of cash “and tucking it into his police uniform,” the affidavit says.
Ortiz also agreed to let the man pay off some of the debt in cocaine, instead of cash, but said he didn’t want to personally handle the drugs, according to the affidavit.
“I have these guys who work with me. . . . I am going to leave my car. . . . You’ll put it in my car . . . and then when you leave there . . . he’ll pick up my car,” Ortiz told the man during an April 19, conversation, the affidavit says.
On Wednesday, the cooperating witness met Ortiz in a Revere parking lot, showed the uniformed officer a bag with four kilograms of cocaine and $4,000 in the trunk of his car, and handed the officer the keys, according to the affidavit.
With Boston police Commissioner Edward F. Davis watching from a hidden vantage point on the sidelines, an FBI SWAT team converged on Ortiz and arrested him on federal charges of attempted extortion and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
“It is a troubling thing to see an officer placed into handcuffs, but it’s a good thing for the Police Depart ment,” Davis said during a press conference yesterday outside the John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse.
He said the Boston police, the FBI, and the US attorney’s office had worked tirelessly over the past nine months on the case, which “takes a very dangerous individual off the street and makes the city a better and safer city.”
Ortiz, who joined the Boston Police Department in November 1986 and had been assigned to District 4 in the South End for more than a decade, was suspended pending a termination hearing next week.
Yesterday, Ortiz, 44, of Salem, wearing a black-hooded T-shirt and black pants, was led into the courtroom in shackles, as his wife, Monica, and teenage son sat in the spectator section, crying. Overcome by emotion, his son left before the brief hearing ended.
US Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Hillman ordered Ortiz held without bail, at least until a hearing Wednesday to determine whether he should remain jailed until the case is resolved.
“He is innocent,” Monica Ortiz told a Globe reporter after the hearing. Her husband could not have done what the government alleges, she said. “Jose is a great man. There are a lot of people supporting him.”
Rudolph F. Miller, a Jamaica Plain lawyer who represents Ortiz, said, “He’s a police officer, so he’s scrutinized more closely, but even for police officers, the presumption of innocence maintains. . . . These are nothing more than accusations.”
Assistant US Attorney John T. McNeil argued in court that, if released, Ortiz poses a danger to the community and to the key witness, in particular, and might flee. McNeil said Ortiz faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years and a maximum of 40 years if convicted of the charges.
Ortiz, a Dominican native who became a US citizen in 1982, has had a troubled history with the Police Department.
The FBI affidavit filed in court by Special Agent Scott A. Robbins says Ortiz has been suspended from his job at least six times over the past 13 years, the longest for 70 days, of which he actually served a 20-day suspension.
The affidavit also says “Victim A” was initially threatened last summer by two Dominican drug dealers, whom he knew only as Jason and Elvis. The dealers blamed the man for introducing them to an acquaintance who had allegedly ripped them off by fleeing with a large quantity of cocaine without paying for it.
After Ortiz showed up at the man’s workplace, he asserted that the stolen cocaine had been fronted to the Dominicans by Colombian suppliers, who were owed $265,000 for the drugs, according to the affidavit.
“Those people, like I told you . . . don’t joke about their money,” said Ortiz, according to the affidavit.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.