'ONE BAD COP' TELLS JUDGE HE'S BIG-TIME DRUG DEALER

State Police Narc Faces 24 Years For Million-Dollar Ring

He was "one bad cop," the state's top law enforcement official said.

"A Judas and a turncoat -- a criminal who became a cop," said another lawman.

Dealt drugs. Laundered money. Intimidated witnesses who helped authorities.
Warned he could kill them.

And pampered himself with luxuries like a brand new Mercedes convertible.

Detective Sgt. Moises Hernandez, a decorated State Police narcotics
detective, admitted yesterday in an Elizabeth courtroom that he was a major
drug dealer who laundered money and threatened to kill witnesses in order
to save himself from prosecution.

A grim-faced Hernandez, with the help of Superior Court Judge Joseph
Donohue in Union County, outlined how he used dealers to sell cocaine and
marijuana in a million-dollar operation that began in 2002.

Hernandez, 39, laundered his cut of the drug proceeds, estimated in the
thousands of dollars, by having a trucking company owner in Elizabeth write
checks from drug sales to Hernandez's brother-in-law, Michael Soto. Soto
then turned over the cash to Hernandez, who kept some and returned the rest
to the trucking company owner.

The officer, who earned a $78,000 salary as a state trooper, was able to
bank thousands of dollars a month and bought himself a 2006 Mercedes SL
worth $98,000. To intimidate a cooperating witness, Hernandez said he could
kill people who cooperated with law enforcement.

And when one of his drug dealers was arrested in 2004, the officer called
the Union County Prosecutor's Office and lobbied for lesser charges and the
man's release.

Hernandez, who was known in the State Police as a fearless trooper, faces
24 years in state prison for money laundering, conspiracy to distribute
cocaine and marijuana, official misconduct, witness tampering and
racketeering conspiracy.

The illegal activities stretched back to at least 1998 in Union Township,
Elizabeth and other parts of the state, according to Union County
Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.

Romankow called the 19-year veteran a "Judas and a turncoat."

"It is sad to think that a law enforcement officer would sink to such a low
conduct ... " the prosecutor said. "He was a criminal who became a cop."

Romankow said Hernandez sold drugs to other dealers who cut the cocaine and
marijuana and readied it for sale on the streets.

At a news conference in Elizabeth, Attorney General Zulima Farber said she
is outraged at Hernandez's conduct.

"This was one bad cop," she said. "This is one of those days when my second
language fails me. I am trying to find the right words in English. For
officer Hernandez to abuse his oath is unspeakable. It is a total outrage."

Hernandez, who worked in narcotics since 1990, remained poised throughout
the 20-minute court proceeding, refusing to look at the law enforcement
contingent that filled one-half of the courtroom.

But after his conviction, as he was about to be led back to jail in his tan
prison overalls, a tearful Hernandez faced his former boss, Lt. Col. Frank
Rodgers. He started to sob and begged forgiveness.

"I asked him if he is religious, because he is asking the wrong person,"
Rodgers said. "Mr. Hernandez has dishonored himself, our office and our
badge. We will do everything in our power, every resource to identify
traitors."

Investigators believe Hernandez's wife, Tina Hernandez, 35, helped him in
the illicit operation.

She faces charges of money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Soto, her 23-year-old brother, faces a money laundering charge. Each face
up to 10 years in prison. Police believe Hernandez laundered at least
$75,000 between Jan. 27, 2003 and Sept. 15, 2003.

Hernandez attended college and became a state trooper in 1986. He has five
children and lived with his wife on Oakland Avenue in Union Township.

Someone who answered a telephone call to Hernandez's Union Township home
last night hung up when a reporter identified herself.

Union County narcotics detectives were tipped off to Hernandez by a
telephone wiretap. They overheard drug dealers talking to Hernandez about a
State Police vehicle that was tailing suspected heroin and cocaine supplier
Christian Thillet.

Investigators then realized that Hernandez, a state trooper, searched
through the state motor vehicle database on Feb. 22, 2005 for an unmarked
State Police vehicle involved in the surveillance.

He has been under suspension since February 2005.

The officer, who was commended two years ago for coming to the aid of a
fellow trooper under attack in Bergen County, will lose his pension and the
right to hold another public position, the nearly $59,000 from his bank
account and the luxury convertible.

It took nearly two weeks of negotiations for Assistant Union County
Prosecutors Julie Peterman and Jo-Ann Miller to convince him the evidence
against him was overwhelming.

Investigators had wiretaps, bank statements and testimony from witnesses
that put Hernandez in the midst of the drug scheme that involved at least
20 people.

"What this man did put at risk the lives of so many people," Farber said.
"The punishment he faces is hardly enough."

Judith Lucas covers the Union County Courthouse.