NEW DEPUTY POLICE INSPECTOR IS DEMOTED

A deputy police inspector who just weeks ago was promoted for
successfully bringing down crime in his Brooklyn precinct was demoted
yesterday amid a federal investigation into accusations he was
involved in drug-related misconduct, officials said.

The Police Department, F.B.I. and federal prosecutors declined to
release details about the accusations against the deputy inspector,
Dennis Sindone, but officials said the severe action taken against
him suggested that Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik viewed the
accusations as credible.

The investigation marked the first time in recent memory that such a
high-ranking officer came under scrutiny in a drug-related corruption
inquiry.

On Monday, Mr. Kerik reassigned the deputy inspector, the son of a
retired police detective, to desk duty. The official was ordered to
hand in his gun and badge, and was transferred from his post as the
commander of the 60th Precinct in Coney Island to an administrative
job in the Property Clerk Division.

Late yesterday, Mr. Kerik ordered that the deputy inspector be
demoted to captain, a move that will cut his pay by several thousand
dollars, said Thomas Antenen, a police spokesman.

Mr. Antenen would not discuss the case, but several officials who
spoke on the condition of anonymity said the information that
prompted the investigation came from a narcotics trafficker who began
cooperating with the F.B.I. in an effort to seek more lenient
treatment in his own case. One official said the accusations, which
concern Captain Sindone's actions from six years ago, had in some
measure been corroborated.

Of the drug informer, one senior law enforcement official said, "If
we thought he was just somebody going after him because they were
just trying to smear his name, we wouldn't take the actions we have."

Spokesmen for the F.B.I. and Mary Jo White, the United States
attorney in Manhattan, would not comment on the case.

The transfer of the well-regarded commander, whose 18-year career in
the Police Department included work in a Bronx Narcotics Homicide
Task Force and the Bronx Special Victims Squad, stunned fellow
officials.

Last night, Philip Karasyk, a lawyer for Captain Sindone, said, "He
is confident in his ultimate vindication and he looks forward to
resuming his duties as a deputy inspector in the Police Department as
soon as possible."

The demotion came less than three weeks after Mr. Kerik elevated the
commander to the rank of deputy inspector from captain, a rank he had
held for less than a year, officials said. Mr. Kerik promoted him for
his work winning dramatic declines in reported crime in the 60th
Precinct, where he has served as the commander since late last year,
officials said. The crime decreases, the largest in any precinct in
the city this year, had eluded his predecessor.

Before taking command of the 60th Precinct, he served as the No. 2
official in the 46th Precinct in the Bronx, officials said.