CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST DRUG SUSPECT ARRESTED BY PROBED COP

City prosecutors yesterday dropped charges against a suspected drug dealer
after a judge denied their request to continue the case pending the outcome
of an investigation into the arresting officer, Jeffrey Cujdik.

Cujdik is at the center of an FBI and local police probe that arose after
Cujdik's longtime informant, Ventura Martinez, said in a Feb. 9 Daily News
article that Cujdik had instructed him to lie about some drug buys so that
officers could obtain search warrants to enter homes of suspected dealers.

Cujdik obtained a search warrant for the Kensington home of [name redacted]
in December 2007, after asserting that he and fellow narcotics Officer
Robert McDonnell observed Martinez purchase marijuana from [name redacted],
court records show.

[name redacted], 34, was charged with a slew of serious charges, including
drug dealing, gun possession, robbery and aggravated assault on an officer.
Officer Thomas Tolstoy alleged that [name redacted] attacked him and tried
to grab his police weapon after [name redacted] "dove" through a glass
porch window. [name redacted] was taken to the hospital, where he received
stitches in his leg, police said.

[name redacted] case was slated for trial yesterday, but Assistant District
Attorney Mark Levenberg said he asked for a continuance "to await the
outcome of the ongoing investigation" into Cujdik and the narcotics
officers who worked closely with him.

[name redacted] attorney, Perry deMarco Sr., argued against a postponement,
saying it would be unfair for his client to have charges hanging over his
head, particularly because Levenberg couldn't provide the judge with a
timeframe for the completion of the Cujdik investigation.

Common Pleas Judge A. Jack Snite Jr. agreed and denied the state's request
to delay the case. As a result, Levenberg withdrew the charges.

DeMarco said he believed that both Snite and Levenberg "did the proper
thing." Prosecutors have five years from the date of [name redacted] Dec.
11, 2007, arrest to re-file the felony charges. *