WITNESS: ATTORNEY SAID COPS WOULD DROP CHARGES FOR $50,000

BOSTON (AP) - Boston cops will get your loved ones out of jail for $50,000.
That was the message attorney Joseph P. Murphy delivered to his client's
girlfriend on behalf of two Boston police detectives, the woman told jurors
at Murphy's federal trial in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

The offer allegedly came after the 1992 cocaine-trafficking arrest of Bruno
Machore and Saturnino Garcia in the city's Jamaica Plain section.

Olga Taveras, who is Machore's girlfriend and Garcia's sister, met with
Murphy -- who was representing Machore -- while the two men were being held
in jail, she testified.

"The policemen wanted a deal with my brother and Bruno," Taveras said
Murphy told her. "If they gave them $50,000, (police) were not going to
submit charges."

Murphy told Taveras that two of the Boston detectives working Machore's
case had offered to fail to show up at court hearings in exchange for
money, Taveras testified. She said she was told that after 90 days, the
men could be released without bail and later have the charges dropped if
the detectives failed to appear.

The two detectives in question, Walter F. Robinson Jr. and Kenneth Acerra,
already have admitted pocketing more than $200,000 from drug dealers and
other criminals. Each has agreed to serve three years in prison.

Now Murphy faces charges of extortion, conspiracy and attempted extortion
for acting as a go-between in the detectives' alleged offer to his client.
If convicted, he faces up to 60 years in prison.

Detective John Brazil, who worked with Robinson and Acerra and is
testifying under immunity, told jurors the senior detectives taught him to
make up details when trying to obtain search warrants. Brazil also said he
found $8,000 in cash during the May 29, 1992, raid of Machore's apartment
and turned it over to Robinson.

Prosecutors, however, presented evidence that the money never turned up in
the police department's Financial Evidence Office.

Defense attorney Peter Parker on Wednesday suggested Taveras, an illegal
immigrant from the Dominican Republic, may have slanted her testimony
against Murphy because prosecutors have agreed to recommend that the
Immigration and Naturalization Service allow her to stay in the United
States.

Taveras, who has lived in Boston for more than a decade and works as a
housekeeper and baby sitter, admitted she was previously denied legal
residence here.