The Milkman Delivers

By George Anastasia
For Bigtrial.net

It was a primer on police narcotics field work, a street-level view of the war on drugs.

And it was given by an unassuming former milkman who worked the dairy beat in South Philadelphia for 11 years before going to the Police Academy.

For nearly five hours today Michael Spicer, one of six Philadelphia Police Department narcotics officers charged in a federal corruption case, testified in his own defense -- and by extension in defense of his five co-defendants.

Calm and confident, and at time self-effacing, Spicer, 49, walked the federal court jury through a series of incidents that are at the heart of the corruption indictment. Again and again, he denied the allegations, responding to questions from defense attorney Jack McMahon with short and clear answers.

"That's not true . . . That never happened . . . That's a lie," Spicer said, never raising his voice or showing any anger.

It was a steady mantra of denials sprinkled through hours of testimony that included quips, asides and a detailed account of his 12 years working narcotics, including five with the Narcotics Field Unit where prosecutors contend Spicer and his co-defendants became bandits with badges.

Contradicting the testimony of more than a dozen admitted drug dealers and one dirty cop, Spicer said cash and drugs seized during raids were always accounted for, never pocketed. He said police always wore bullet proof vests label POLICE during raids and always announced themselves, sometimes forcefully. And he said he never, ever saw any member of the squad hide his face behind a ski mask during a raid as several prosecution witnesses have contended.

Spicer will be back on the stand when the trial resumes before Judge Eduardo Robreno on Monday. The judge told the jury closing arguments are likely to begin Tuesday, a scenario that would set up jury deliberations sometime later next week, the sixth week of the controversial trial.

Dressed in a suit, white shirt and tie, and wearing black rimmed glasses, Spicer was on the stand from around 10:30 a.m. until court adjourned for the day at 4:30 p.m. It appears he will be the only defense witness who will testify. His appearance came after three days of testimony in which the defense called a parade of police officers and officials. Like Spicer, they have refuted most of the allegations presented by the prosecution witnesses.

Authorities allege that over a six-year period beginning in 2006, the members of the Narcotics Field Unit stole more than $500,000 in drugs, cash and other valuables, planted evidence, lied on arrest reports and falsified other documents to cover their tracks. Supervisors, the prosecution alleges, looked the other way because the unit had a high arrest rate.

Spicer and co-defendant Thomas Liciardello, the lead defendant, were named in most of the criminal acts cited in the indictment. Today McMahon questioned him about 13 of 17 "episodes" detailed in the criminal case. He is expected to testified about the remaining four when he gets back on the stand Monday and then faced a grueling cross-examination by the prosecution which has to be concerned about a defense presentation that has challenged the credibility and honesty of virtually ever government witness.

Whether Spicer will be able to maintain his cool will be one of the things to watch next week. Several defense witnesses have verbally clashed with prosecutors, setting up a potential "who do you trust" dilemma for jurors.

Spicer could emerge as the defense's star witness. Constantly using his hands as he spoke, he was conversational in tone, looking directly at the jury as he offered details and explanations, sometimes with drama, at other times with humor.

Asked how the drug unit approached a location in what he called a "knock and announce" procedure, Spicer banged three times on the witness stand with his open palm, then shouted into the microphone, "POLICE! SEARCH WARRANT!"

On other occasions, he said, the squad would "breach" a locked door using a small, hand-held battering ram. He then described how he had unknowingly used the ram on what turned out to be a hollow wooden door.  His momentum, he said, carried him halfway through the door, leaving him stuck in the shattered wooden structure.

He had the jurors smiling and laughing when he joked about the age of the mother of one of the drug dealers nabbed in a raid and again when he said he and other officers played basketball with another target between phone calls the then cooperating dealer made to set up buys in which his suppliers would be arrested.

The dealer, himself a basketball coach, "wasn't very good," Spicer said.

He also recounted how another targeted dealer "begged" not to be jailed and agreed to cooperate. Not because he wanted to help police, Spicer said, but because the dealer had tickets to a Phillies World Series game that weekend and didn't want to miss it.

Drug buys were part of the field unit strategy, he said, but most could not be made without the use of an informant. Dealers, he said, were cautious about whom they sold to. You couldn't, he said to the jury with a smile, walk up to a street corner dealer and say, "Excuse me sir, I'm a cocaine purchaser. Could you sell me two of your finest bags?"

He also offered a glossary of terms, explaining that "fronting" meant a dealer bought drugs on consignment and paid after selling his product and going back for a new supply. He said "knock and talk" was a technique sometimes used in which an arresting officer would go to a family member of a target, a mother, father, wife, and explain what was going on in an attempt to get them to help convince the  target to cooperate.

It wasn't always successfully, he said, seguing into a story about a hearing impaired South Philadelphia drug dealer who "shut off his hearing aid" when his sister began to berate and harangue him as police searched his home.

Asked about the often upside down state of a room or an apartment after a police search, Spicer said there was a method to the madness, but that more often than not the room or apartment was a mess when police finished looking.

"Sometimes it was better," he said of the houses and apartments that, even before the police arrived, could be dirty, smelly and in chaos. "Most times it was worse," he added.  But searches were a crucial part of any investigation. Armed with warrants police went in looking for drugs and cash. Over his 12 years in narcotics, he said, he had found drugs in plastic bags stuffed under the cream cheese in cream cheese containers, in tampon boxes, in baby shoes and rolled up and stuffed in the crotch area of thermal underwear.

Spicer's testimony was viewed as an effective presentation of the position of all six defendants in the case. Until the jury comes back with a verdict, there is no way to be certain if that strategy worked.

But as one trial observer quipped at the end of today's session, "If you can't trust your milkman, who can you trust?"

George Anastasia can be reached at George@bigtrial.net.