DETECTIVE CHARGED AFTER FBI STING

A veteran Milwaukee police detective suspected of pocketing money recovered
in drug cases was caught stealing cash planted by FBI agents, according to
federal charges detailed Friday.

And $2,000 that the detective said he shared with fellow officers was still
missing late Friday, adding mystery to the ongoing investigation into
misconduct in the Police Department's vice control unit.

Four members of the unit have thus far been suspended with pay, and one of
them, Edwin Bonilla, has been charged with stealing government property.

Bonilla, 42, made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Aaron
Goodstein in federal court with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Sitting behind him in court, his wife grimaced and cried for a few moments,
as Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic summarized the case against her
husband, a 16-year police veteran.

According to the complaint:

Bonilla and three other vice squad members were dispatched Thursday
afternoon to a suite of rooms in the Baymont Inn, 5442 N. Lovers Lane Road,
where FBI agents had planted a brown bag with $23,000 in cash.

Observed via video camera, Bonilla discovered the cash and placed something
in the fanny pack draped over his shoulder. He then called a lieutenant to
the scene and turned over the bag of money to the superior officer.

When authorities counted the rolls of money Bonilla turned in, the bills
totaled $17,000.

The detective later admitted to FBI agents that he took some of the money,
and directed authorities to an eyeglasses case on his desk back at the
unit's headquarters in the Police Administration Building. Agents found
$4,000 in the glasses case.

One high-level police source described an intense scene in the vice control
unit's fourth-floor office, as the FBI agents searched Bonilla's desk.

"You had FBI officials and department internal affairs people basically
stationed at every desk as well as at every exit and entrance to that
floor," the source said.

Another commander said some vice officers were "told to 'go out on the
street,' that 'this is not your concern' " when the FBI showed up at the
vice squad division.

A number of supervisors and other department veterans said they were
stunned by the allegations against men they considered productive, honest
police detectives.

Bonilla, according to the criminal complaint, told authorities that he gave
$1,000 from the FBI's stash to each of two detectives who had joined him in
the search of hotel rooms 206 and 208.

As of late Friday afternoon, authorities had recovered the $17,000 left in
the bag and the $4,000 found on Bonilla's desk.

Another $2,000 - the money Bonilla claimed he shared with the other two
detectives - remains missing.

"We have an ongoing investigation, and that's part of it," said Jeffrey
Berkin, an assistant special agent with the FBI.

While all four detectives involved in the hotel room search have been
suspended by Police Chief Arthur Jones, Bonilla is the only one of them to
be charged, and the only one to have been arrested.

Two other detectives, the ones that Bonilla identified as recipients of
$2,000, were questioned by FBI agents and released. U.S. Attorney Thomas P.
Schneider said authorities had no other evidence except for Bonilla's
statement that the other detectives kept any of the money used as part of
the sting operation.

Schneider and Jones repeated several times that the investigation into
police misconduct was continuing.

"Obviously, this is not a good day for the Milwaukee Police Department,"
Jones said. "I'm saddened that this occurred.

"It was my most sincere hope that the full $23,000 would be inventoried."

Bonilla joined the Milwaukee Police Department in November 1983 and has
worked in the vice control unit since January 1992.

Over his career, he has had two citizen complaints filed against him, one
in 1986 and one in 1989, according to the Milwaukee Fire and Police
Commission records. No disciplinary action resulted from either complaint.

Of the two detectives Bonilla implicated in the theft, one has been on the
force since July 24, 1978, while the other has been with the department
since Aug. 24, 1987. They have been assigned to the vice control unit since
1988 and 1993, respectively.

The older of the two detectives, 49, was suspended for 60 days without pay
for violating department rules in 1980.

The younger detective, 37, received the police chief's superior achievement
award in January 1991.

His possible involvement seemed to strike the most resonant chord among his
colleagues in law enforcement.

The detective is part of a family of police officers described as the "salt
of the earth" by one law enforcement official.

Jones said allegations of misconduct within the vice squad came to him in
February. He would not elaborate about the details of the tip or how it was
presented to him.

By March, Jones was convinced the allegations had enough validity to
warrant further investigation with the help of the FBI.

The complaint against Bonilla says a fellow officer told an FBI agent that
he had seen Bonilla act suspiciously during three separate drug case
investigations.

In the first instance, the complaint says, Bonilla appeared to fiddle with
his fanny pack as evidence was being seized, which the officer considered
odd. In another instance, Bonilla reported finding four $100 bills in the
wallet of a drug suspect who claimed that he had had 10 $100 bills.

Finally, the officer saw Bonilla take money from a search scene and put it
in his back pocket, the complaint says.

When confronted, Bonilla suggested the officers say there was a miscount of
the money, and when the other officer refused, Bonilla said he was joking.

Ultimately, the investigation into Bonilla's actions led to the sting
operation executed Thursday afternoon.

Jones and Schneider repeated several times that Bonilla's arrest was an
isolated case, and did not indicate widespread corruption in the Milwaukee
Police Department.

Biskupic presented the outline of the case against Bonilla and said the
evidence would be put before a grand jury in the next weeks. Goodstein set
a hearing date of Sept. 25.

After the court appearance, Bonilla was released on a $50,000 surety bond
that he will secure with his home.

Meanwhile, authorities were reviewing the impact the allegations of
wrongdoing could have on previous cases handled by Bonilla and the other
detectives.

District Attorney E. Michael McCann said that he met with another
prosecutor in his office Friday morning to discuss what to do about the
pending criminal cases.

"As far as cases that are pending right now, we will individually assess
them to see how much there is a credibility issue here," McCann said.

The district attorney said his office would assess the pending cases to
determine what corroborating evidence exists for the charges beyond the
officers' involvement, such as whether there were confessions from suspects.

As far as closed cases that involved the officers, McCann said: "We will
probably rely on defense attorneys to challenge any cases in the past. I
assume we may get challenges from defense attorneys."

Journal Sentinel reporter Jessica McBride contributed to this report.