VETERAN OFFICER SUSPENDED OVER DRUG CASE

A veteran New York City police officer who spent the last 15 years doing
internal investigations for the department was suspended yesterday after
narcotics officers found a woman with a small bag of heroin in his car,
the police said.

Lieut. Stephen Jordan, 57, who has been a police officer for 34 years, was
placed on a 30-day suspension but has not been charged with any crime, the
police said. Lieutenant Jordan has also been ordered to take a drug test,
Marilyn Mode, a department spok eswoman, said. If he fails, he will face
dismissal, she said.

The police said an undercover unit saw a woman get out of Lieutenant
Jordan's car around 2:30 A.M. yesterday and visit a bodega on Sutter
Avenue near Blake and Miller Avenues in East New York, Brooklyn, that was
being watched for possible drug sales. The police said the officers from
the unit pulled Lieutenant Jordan over shortly after the woman returned to
his car and he began to drive off.

Inside, they found Valerie Brown, 40, and a bag of heroin, said Deputy
Inspector Michael Collins, a department spokesman. He said the woman told
the officers that the drugs belonged to her.

Brown has been charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance,
the police said.

Lieutenant Jordan's relationship with the suspect is unclear, as is the
reason why he took her to a known drug location.

The police spokesman said that Lieutenant Jordan had a clean record with
the department.

Law enforcement investigators, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
the lieutenant said he had seen Brown on the street, then stopped and
picked her up when she requested a ride to the store.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company