Defense To Rely On Top Cops To Refute Drug Dealers

By Ralph Cipriano

for Bigtrial.net

It took four weeks for the government to finally run out of drug dealers.

After sending a parade of 15 drug dealers to the witness stand, the government this morning rested its case against six former narcotics officers accused of going rogue by allegedly  beating and robbing the suspects they busted.

The defense then began its case by calling FBI Agent Dennis Drum to the witness stand.

Defense Attorney Jack McMahon took Drum through a list of 15 superior officers and fellow officers in the case who supposedly were eyewitnesses to the various "episodes" of alleged police misconduct in the indictment. 

Drum testified that a dozen of the cops were interviewed by the feds between three and seven months after the defendants in the case were indicted on July 30, 2014. Two of the cops were never interviewed; a third refused to talk.

The defense strategy seems to be to call as many of these officers to the witness stand as possible to refute the allegations made by the drug dealers who testified on behalf of the government. The list of possible witnesses include a chief inspector, an inspector, a captain, a couple of lieutenants, a sergeant, a corporal and some fellow officers.

If the boys in blue stick together, this case is going to come down to the FBI, Jeffrey Walker and a bunch of drug dealers vs. the Philadelphia Police Department.

Jack McMahon

The day in courtroom 15A began with a parade of FBI agents to the witness stand.

After Drum testified, the defense called FBI Agent Joe Ballesteri.

McMahon asked Ballesteri about allegations made by Victor Rosario, a former West Philadelphia marijuana dealer who testified on Thursday that the defendants had allegedly stolen a $5,700 Rolex watch from him, as well as a cache of jewelry allegedly purchased from Tiffany's.

McMahon asked Ballesteri if he visited Tiffany's and was able to find any evidence to substantiate Rosario's claims.

"I did not," Ballesteri testified.

Rosario also accused the defendants of stealing $8,700 that he had supposedly just received as a deposit on a construction job from a customer. On the witness stand, for the first time, Rosario named the alleged customer.

McMahon asked if Ballesteri if he was able to find any evidence to substantiate Rosario's claim about the $8,700 deposit.

"We attempted to verify it but we've been unsuccessful," the agent said.

He wasn't the last witness on the government payroll that was called to refute the claims of the prosecution's lineup of drug dealers.

John Simmons, a prison nurse, testified that when marijuana dealer Jason Kennedy came to jail, he did not have any visible wounds. Kennedy also signed a statement saying he had not been injured by the cops, Simmons testified.

On April 2nd, Kennedy testified that one of the defendants, former Officer Michael Spicer, had handcuffed the drug dealer and allegedly dangled him over a third-floor balcony rail. Kennedy told the jury that Spicer had allegedly punched him in the mouth, pushing a tooth through his lip. Kennedy testified that he also had a huge lump on the back of his head after he he was allegedly punched by Spicer and fell backwards on a hard tile floor.

But when Kennedy checked into prison on Feb. 25, 2010, Simmons testified, the nurse filled out a form that said the drug dealer didn't have any visible injuries. Kennedy also signed a form that said he did not have any police-related injuries.

Next, the defense called Chief Inspector Christopher Werner, who showed up in uniform and with a military-style buzz cut. Werner, a 26-year veteran of the police department, was the captain of the narcotics squad during some of the alleged episodes of misconduct.

Werner was asked about the case of Javier Blanco, a heroin dealer who claimed he was kidnapped by the defendants after they caught him with 234 grams of heroin, $6,900 in cash and an AK-47 assault rifle.

The defendants say that Blanco agreed to cooperate, and that their superior officers approved putting up Blanco at a hotel where he drank beer and shot pool with his alleged captors.

Werner testified that he was one of the superior officers who approved Blanco's stay at a city hotel. The district attorney's office was also consulted, Werner said.

Was Javier Blanco held against his will, McMahon asked the chief inspector.

"Absolutely not," Werner said.

While he was a captain, Werner testified, four of his officers were shot, including one close friend. Werner testified that he would never approve of any scenario that would place officers in jeopardy, such as holding a hostile drug dealer against his will.

"I just wouldn't do it," Werner testified.

Werner was also on the scene in November 2007 when the defendants, supposedly dressed in ski masks, lifted marijuana dealer Michael Cascioli off his feet and threatened to throw him off the balcony of his apartment on the 19th floor. Cascioli testified that the cops were all dressed in black the night they raided his apartment, and that the drug dealer thought the cops were mobsters out to rob him.

Werner was in the stairwell that day the cops raided Cascioli's apartment. The chief inspector testified that none of the defendants were wearing ski masks. The cops were also wearing protective vests that said police on them, Werner told the jury.

Werner recalled seeing former Officer Perry Betts holding Cascioli up against a wall. The chief inspector said he noticed that Cascioli was tense so he told the drug dealer he could relax, they were the police.

Was Betts using excessive force, Bettts's lawyer, Gregory Pagano, asked Werner.

"No," Werner said.

On cros-examination, the prosecutor asked Werner about whether drug dealer Blanco could have voluntarily walked away from the cops holding him at the hotel.

All Blanco had to do, Werner said, was tell the cops, "I don't want to cooperate any more."

The prosecutor asked Werner how the cops could justify letting a known heroin dealer like Blanco remain on the street. A guy who had been arrested with an AK-47 in his possession, a gun that according to an arrest report contained 30 live rounds.

"It was a misstep," Werner conceded. "He should have been arrested."

Defense lawyer Jack McMahon asked if Werner was aware that the information Blanco gave the cops resulted in four other busts of drug dealers. Werner, however, told the jury that he didn't know much about Blanco's work as an informant.

The case was a long time ago, Werner said.

The defense is expected to put on its case all of next week, Judge Eduardo Robreno told the jury at the end of the day. When the defense gets through, it will probably take two days for all the lawyers in the case to give their closing arguments, the judge said. Then, after the judge gives his instructions the case will go to the jury.

The prosecution had originally planned to call more drug dealers to testify as alleged victims. But one drug dealer was dropped from the case after he got arrested again for drugs; another was dumped after defense lawyers caught him allegedly perjuring himself in other court proceedings.

The loss of the two drug dealers from the government's case was the subject of a hearing, a couple of motions to dismiss, and a loud argument in court,

In contrast, a third drug dealer identified in the indictment as "J.L." was silently dropped from the witness list without any public discussion.

In the indictment, under "Episode #5," the government charged that former Officer Thomas Liciardello and other defendants allegedly broke into J.L.'s residence on Mercer Street on Feb. 7, 2008 and confiscated $24,600 in drug proceeds and an iPhone. 

According to the indictment, Licardello allegedly authored a bogus police report that said only $8,600 in cash had been seized from J.L.'s apartment; the bogus report also didn't mention the stolen iPhone, the government charged.

J.L. was originally on the witness list but was dropped without any fanfare. The prosecution concluded its case today by not calling J.L. Surely at some point, the jury will have to be told about that.

Now that the government has rested its case, there's a few mysteries left to ponder.

In their original investigation of the defendants, how could the feds have left so many uncovered bases? How could they have not interviewed all the defendants' fellow cops, especially their superior officers, if the superiors were alleged eyewitnesses to some of the episodes and a party to some of the arrests?

Jeffrey Walker

The case, of course, will boil down to whether the jury believes Jeffrey Walker and the government's
stable of drug dealers.

The obvious problems with that strategy is that Walker is a train wreck, as one defense lawyer put it, and that the drug dealers have obvious credibility problems and factual discrepancies in their stories. And apparently no evidence to corroborate their allegations.

Another flaw in the case is that the drug dealers basically all told the same story on the witness stand over and over again, down to using the same words used to describe the alleged police behavior in the case. The cops ransacked my house, the drug dealers usually said. Except for the one guy who apparently misread the script and said his place was "ram-shacked."

There's plenty of evidence so far for a jury to convict Jeffrey Walker. He's the guy who got caught on camera in an FBI sting operation carrying $15,000 and five pounds of marijuana out of a drug dealer's house. But there's no incriminating undercover audio or video evidence against the defendants. Or any paper trail to implicate them.

Walker's going to be a continuing credibility problem for the feds.

On the witness stand today, defense lawyers took several FBI agents involved in the case through  "rough notes" of some of their 45 different interviews with Walker. With that much material to work with, there's bound to be factual discrepancies for the defense to pick on.

Such as the time Walker told the feds that when he was on the job as a cop, "I tried to be as honest as I could."

When Walker got caught planting drugs on a suspect in the FBI sting, he originally told the feds that it was the first time he'd ever planted drugs on anyone. When he appeared in court, however, Walker admitted that he'd planted drugs on people so many times he'd lost count.

Walker also told the feds, "I never stole and gave drugs to anyone."

On cross-examination, the FBI agents told the prosecutor that the statements the defense lawyers singled out were made within two weeks after Walker's arrest. The government is going to have to argue that it took a while for Walker to get around to telling the truth.

The defense will say he's still lying in an attempt to talk his way out of a life sentence.

The case resumes at 9 a.m. Tuesday.