ARRESTS IN CORRUPTION STING

William "Billy" White, a ponytailed police lieutenant who built a
larger-than-life reputation crashing around New Haven after gangsters
and killers, was arrested himself Tuesday, charged in an elaborate
FBI sting with taking tens of thousands of dollars in what he thought
was drug money and accepting bribes from bail bondsmen.

White looked drained during his arraignment in U.S. District Court in
Hartford, particularly when a prosecutor produced an enlarged
surveillance photo that caught him staring into the lens of a hidden
camera while removing a brown paper bag stuffed with $27,500 in FBI
cash from the trunk of a car he thought belonged to a drug dealer.

There were hints in court that the photograph could be the first in a
series of disclosures about an out-of-control police culture in which
officers operating in the New Haven area stole thousands from drug
dealers and collected thousands more catching bail jumpers for bondsmen.

At one point in the affidavit, White boasted to an undercover
officer, who secretly recorded the conversation, that he made "a ton
of money .. over the years" from bail bondsmen.

"50, 60 thousand," White said in the affidavit. "I bet you I made
$60,000 off this guy ... In four or five years ... easy, easy."

Kim Mertz, the special agent in charge of the FBI's New Haven
division, said the arrests Tuesday of White and four others conclude
an eight-month undercover investigation, culminating in the execution
of warrants at police headquarters and private homes.

Mertz said the investigation will continue, with FBI agents working
openly to ascertain "the full scope of the criminal acts." She asked
anyone with knowledge of bail bondsmen paying police officers to call the FBI.

White is charged with theft of government funds for allegedly
participating in the theft of nearly $30,000 in cash, much of it
money that FBI agents had planted and disguised as the property of
drug dealers. He is charged also with bribery conspiracy, accused of
taking thousands more from a bail bond business.

The principals in the New Haven bail bond business - Robert Jacobs,
79, and his sons, Paul, 48, and Philip, 47 - were charged with
bribery conspiracy for allegedly paying White thousands of dollars to
hunt absconding criminal defendants whose bonds the Jacobses had posted.

Also charged in the same case was Justen Kasperzyk, 34, a New Haven
detective who worked for White's narcotics division. Kasperzyk, an
officer for 12 years, is charged with stealing less than $1,000 in
government money.

In the affidavit, Kasperzyk is accused of stuffing cash into his
pockets during a drug raid, gambling with stolen FBI money while
running an illegal poker game at an illegal New Haven gambling
parlor, and shaking down a drug dealer's girlfriend for $800.
According to a secret FBI recording, Kasperzyk wanted the $800 to buy
jewelry for his wife.

A couple of burly U.S. marshals led the 63-year-old White into the
courtroom, his hands manacled behind his back. He was wearing his
customary uniform, faded dungarees and a washed-out green polo shirt.
His hair is thinning and receding and starting to turn gray but there
is still enough of it left to hang between his shoulder blades.

During 39 years on the force, White cultivated the image of knowing
everything and being everywhere. He would rocket around the city in a
dented sedan confiscated from drug dealers. He would park in
no-parking zones to have meetings in places that serve organic
coffee. If cars belonging to Mafia soldiers were blowing up, White
could be depended upon to know who was doing it and why.

He was New Haven's top narcotics detective in the 1990s and collected
much of the evidence that a federal anti-crime task force used to
crush New Haven and Bridgeport drug crews, whose inner city sales
were resulting in record body counts.

Tragically, while White was helping to bust the gangs, his son Tyler,
then 22, was being captivated by them. In 1994, Tyler White was
gunned down in one of the gang shootings his father was then working
to stop. White, mourning a dead son, became a stone-faced fixture at
the succeeding gang trials.

From his stunned appearance in court Tuesday, it seemed as if White
were just fully grasping the gravity of the charges against him,
charges that carry maximum sentences of 15 years in prison and
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Ring told Magistrate Thomas P. Smith
that White, in the hours before his court appearance, had made it
clear to the erstwhile colleagues who arrested him that he was going
to kill himself.

"He is at the end of his rope," Ring said in court. "This is the end
for him. He can't go on. He has said things. He has said them
emphatically. He is an extreme risk of suicide."

Smith ordered White held overnight in a specially arranged -
undisclosed - jail where he can be protected from himself and the
other inmates. Smith also ordered a comprehensive psychiatric review,
which he said he will consider today when deciding whether to release
White on bail. Ring has asked that White be detained without bail,
arguing in effect, that if White doesn't kill himself, he is likely
to use all the cash he has collected over the years to flee.

Kasperzyk and the Jacobses were released on bail late Tuesday.

New Haven Police Chief Francisco Ortiz was in court for White's
arraignment but was uncomfortable when asked about it. Outside the
courthouse, he said he was "disgusted" by the behavior but walked
away, ignoring questions about why no one noticed it.

From Ring's remarks in court and from information contained in the
53-page FBI arrest warrant affidavit, it is clear that White was
aware of the risks of his allegedly illegal behavior - behavior that
was captured on audiotape, videotape and 200 intercepted telephone
conversations.

In one series of events, White had been led to believe from the
undercover officer that an informant was reporting that there was
$27,500 in the trunk of a car left unattended in the city's Long Wharf area.

A partial transcript of a FBI recording characterizes White as
agonizing with Hamlet-like intensity over stealing the money. From
the transcript, he clearly wants the money, but he is aware that
there are private security cameras in the area. And he is afraid that
such a theft could result in the murder of the fictitious female informant.

"They might kill her," White told the undercover operative at one
point. "Somebody's killing for that. What do you think, man?" At
another point, White said, "I'm too old to be arrested, that's the thing."

After a couple of false starts, White wrapped a bandana around his
head and pulled on a hooded sweat shirt to defeat the cameras. He
popped the trunk and took the bag of money back to the car where the
undercover officer was waiting. He dumped the money and, after making
a telephone call to check the spelling, he wrote the Spanish
equivalent of "stupid" on the bag. He would return the empty bag to
the car and hoped the message would persuade the owners that their
money was stolen by rival drug dealers.

"Let's go," White allegedly told the undercover operative. "Estupido
on everybody probably."

Courant Staff Writer Josh Kovner contributed to this story.