CHARGED POLICE OFFICIAL HAD RISEN SWIFTLY

The promising career of a senior police commander who built his
reputation as a savvy investigator of drug-related murders was
derailed yesterday when federal prosecutors charged that six years
ago he staged an arrest to steal money from a drug dealer.

The case against the commander, Dennis M. Sindone, makes him one of
the highest ranking police officials ever charged in a drug-related
corruption case. Mr. Sindone was a deputy inspector until the
accusations against him led to his demotion to captain last month.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday that he knew Captain Sindone
personally. And while he would not discuss the nature or extent of
the relationship, Mr. Giuliani said of the case: "I am very
disappointed and am hurt by it. I know that it can affect the way
people look at the entire department and I hope that it doesn't. I
hope people are able to see through that."

A man who was singular in the department for his rapid ascent through
the ranks, Captain Sindone, 39, the son of a retired police
detective, was visibly shaken at his arraignment yesterday in federal
court in Manhattan. He said nothing during the brief hearing before
Judge Michael B. Mukasey of United States District Court, as his wife
and father sat in the wood-paneled courtroom's gallery. Captain
Sindone's lawyer, James Culleton, entered a plea of not guilty on his
behalf, and the captain was released on $50,000 bond.

After the hearing, Mr. Culleton said his client had had "a brilliant
career in the Police Department" and "did absolutely nothing wrong."

"He categorically denies the charges in the indictment," he said.

The two-page indictment unsealed yesterday charged Captain Sindone
with a single count of conspiring to violate the civil rights of a
drug dealer whom he is accused of robbing in the summer of 1996. At
the time, he was a sergeant supervising six or seven investigators
and two undercover detectives in the Bronx Narcotics Drug Homicide
Task Force.

The indictment said the crime occurred near the Grand Concourse and
East Tremont Avenue in the 46th Precinct, where Captain Sindone began
his police career in 1983.

Although the charges provide few details, and prosecutors would not
discuss the case, a senior law enforcement official involved in the
case said that Captain Sindone, an officer who worked for him and a
third man, a drug dealer they knew, staged the arrest to steal about
$50,000 from another dealer. The second officer and the dealer the
two police officers knew are now cooperating with federal authorities
in the case. The money was largely divided between the two officers,
with the third man receiving a small share, the official said.

Mr. Culleton scoffed at the indictment, noting that his client had
made major drug cases and had access to millions of dollars in seized
cash when he worked on the drug homicide task force, and was never
accused of wrongdoing.

"What, was the Police Department sleeping?" Mr. Culleton said. "That
this happened in 1996 and he's moved up from sergeant to lieutenant
to captain to deputy inspector. He's well respected; he's well
thought of. He's an excellent, fine police officer."

Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik had apparently agreed with that
assessment: he promoted him to deputy inspector in April, just 13
months after he had been promoted to captain. It was an
extraordinarily swift ascent through the ranks that Mr. Kerik said
was propelled by Captain Sindone's achievement in overseeing a 40
percent reduction in crime in the 60th Precinct in Coney Island after
he took command.

But the official involved in the case said that investigators
suspected that the authorities were investigating whether the 1996
theft was the only time that he might have fallen to the temptation
of easy money on the streets where he and his unit were investigating
drug killings.

"You don't do this kind of thing once," the official said. "What's
the odds of it happening again? Good. That's why you continue the
investigation; you have to look and see."

Spokesmen for the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in Manhattan would
not discuss the case, but officials said the investigation was
continuing.

Marc Greenwald, an assistant United States attorney, said at the
arraignment that the evidence in the case included financial records,
as well as two tape recordings.

One law enforcement official who was briefed on the case said that
federal authorities have been poring over Captain Sindone's finances.
Court records show that he filed for personal bankruptcy in 1992,
settling the case in August 1993. A little more than two years later,
he bought a $226,000 home in Pomona, N.Y., property records show.