HOLLYWOOD POLICE CHIEF BLASTS OFFICER ACCUSED IN SCANDAL

HOLLYWOOD Police Officer Kevin Companion discussed a string of crimes
with an undercover FBI agent and bragged that he had friends high up
in the department who would help him quietly retire if caught, Chief
James Scarberry said.

Companion, accused with three other officers of running heroin,
protecting gambling operations and smuggling stolen diamonds, named
Major Louis Granteed and Capt. Tony Rode as the officers who would
persuade Scarberry to let him resign without further investigation,
the chief said.

In a lengthy, wide-ranging interview last week, Scarberry called the
comments, captured by FBI surveillance tape, 'unbelievably stupid,"
adding that both men were disgusted by Companion's alleged crimes.

'Those comments just show the mentality of Kevin Companion. It
doesn't reflect at all on Louie or Tony, because they would never
have tolerated this if they knew what was going on. I trust both of
them completely," Scarberry said.

Scarberry said he viewed some tapes in late January and was told
about others by FBI agents hoping to expand their investigation. He
immediately informed Granteed, an assistant chief, and other top
commanders about the operation, saying they needed to know.

Last month FBI agents charged Companion, Officers Thomas Simcox and
Steve Harrison and Sgt. Jeff Courtney with escorting drug shipments,
laundering stolen jewelry and bearer bonds and protecting a crooked
card game on a yacht, among other crimes.

All of their dealings were with FBI agents posing as mobsters, and
most transactions were videotaped.

Scarberry also said he knew who leaked the information that caused
FBI agents to prematurely end their probe into possible widespread
corruption in the department. He insisted the leak didn't come from
anyone on his staff or in the city, but wouldn't provide details.

And Scarberry said he has no plans to investigate other members of
his department who may have been caught on tape or were mentioned by
the four officers as potential partners in future crimes. He said he
believes the four accused officers had not committed any crimes other
than those conceived, arranged and videotaped by federal agents
during a two-year sting.

'Unless some very unexpected information comes to us from the FBI, I
think it's going to end with these four," Scarberry said. 'There are
other officers whose names were mentioned during some of the
conversations, things like this guy or that guy could help them with
some of the criminal activity. I think they were just bragging."

Rode, who wasn't told because that wasn't his chain of command,
referred all questions to Scarberry. Granteed said he would never
protect dishonest officers.

'I had no idea they were doing anything like this and wouldn't put up
with it," Granteed said. 'Kevin is a friend, but I've come this far
in my career by being honest and having the trust of the chief and my
fellow officers."

The tape shows Companion talking to FBI agents he thought were
members of a New York crime family, Scarberry said.

'[Companion] just says if he walks in to my office and sees two
meatballs -- talking about FBI agents -- sitting there, Louie and
Tony would talk to me so he could turn in his papers and just
retire," Scarberry said. 'That's how stupid Kevin is if he thinks
that would ever happen. The FBI agents made it clear that [Companion]
never approached either one of them."

In late January federal agents turned Simcox into a cooperating
witness to search for what they called other crooked cops in the
department, according to federal investigators and Scarberry.

Simcox worked in the department for about three weeks as an
undercover informant before Courtney and Companion found out about
the investigation around Feb. 22, a day before federal prosecutors
announced the charges.

'I know where the leak came from. Jeff Courtney knows who the leak
is, and he's going to tell the FBI, and that will be it," said
Scarberry, who told Mayor Mara Giulianti, City Manager Cameron Benson
and several senior officers about the investigation. 'It didn't come
from anyone in this department, or anyone in the city of Hollywood.
That I know for sure.'

Courtney's lawyer took issue with Scarberry's version of the leak.

'I mean no disrespect to the chief, I don't know where he got that
information," attorney Mel Black said. 'There are certain assumptions
that might be mistaken."

An FBI spokeswoman said she could not comment. Companion's lawyer
could not be reached Friday.

According to federal prosecutors and the FBI arrest affidavit, the
four officers occasionally did work for what they believed to be
mobsters over a period of about two years, sometimes with lengthy
gaps between jobs.

Scarberry said he has no interest in trying to find out if the
officers committed other crimes when they weren't under FBI surveillance.

'This went on for two years ... and the only actual times they did
anything wrong, according to the [arrest affidavit] was when the FBI
was setting up things for them to do," Scarberry said. 'No, I'm not
worried at all. I just don't have any reason to believe they were
involved in anything else, and there's no indication anyone else on
the department was involved."

Granteed, the assistant chief, said Friday there are no dishonest
cops left in the entire department and any further investigation is
unnecessary.

'There was no corruption in our agency until the FBI brought the
corruption to our agency," Granteed said. 'All four of the officers
have been working a long time and have outstanding performance
records. They should have just said no."