FBI PROBES 5 COPS AS DRUG DEALERS

Miedzianowski Case Spurs Inquiry

While prosecuting a former officer who for years operated a drug ring
from inside the Chicago Police Department, federal authorities
discovered that as many as five other officers were involved in
narcotics activity that included setting up drug dealers and stealing
their cocaine, according to FBI documents obtained by the Tribune.

The Police Department, which is assisting in the federal
investigation, stripped three officers of their badges in the summer
of 1999 and reassigned them to department headquarters, where they
continue to perform administrative duties.

Those under investigation include an officer who is a defendant in a
federal lawsuit that accuses him and others of planting drugs on
Jeremiah Mearday in March 1998.

Mearday has maintained he was set up in retaliation for his earlier
complaints of police brutality that touched off a storm of community
protests and led to the firing of two Chicago police officers.

The current investigation spilled over from the prosecution of former
gang crimes officer Joseph Miedzianowski, who was convicted in April
of overseeing a Miami-to-Chicago drug ring and described by
authorities as the most corrupt cop ever prosecuted in northern
Illinois.

According to a sworn statement given in October as part of Mearday's
pending lawsuit, a Cook County prosecutor testified that Officer
James Benson was the target of a federal investigation that involved
"narcotics, illegal narcotics activity."

Assistant State's Atty. Gabriel DeMatteo also testified that
Benson--who helped search Mearday when six packets of cocaine
allegedly were recovered from Mearday's boots--had prior,
unsubstantiated departmental complaints that involved allegations
"relative to narcotics planting."

DeMatteo declined to comment, as did Benson, 33, a 10-year Police
Department employee.

Differing accounts

In his sworn statement, DeMatteo also testified that he dropped state
felony drug charges against Mearday because of the ongoing federal
investigation.

DeMatteo's account appears to contradict the public statements by a
spokesman for State's Atty. Richard Devine who had maintained the
drug charges were dropped so prosecutors could concentrate on the
allegations that Mearday had assaulted officers during his March 1998
arrest.

DeMatteo gave his sworn statement as part of Mearday's federal civil
rights lawsuit, which could go to trial early next year after
settlement talks between the city's attorneys and Mearday's lawyer,
Craig Tobin, broke down last month. U.S. District Judge Ruben
Castillo urged both sides to settle rather than go to trial, saying
"it would be in the interests of all the citizens of Chicago to avoid
that trauma."

Tobin said the city's last offer was for less than $200,000 to settle
both the federal case, alleging wrongful arrest and malicious
prosecution, and a pending case in Cook County Circuit Court stemming
from an incident in September 1997 when two officers were accused of
beating Mearday with flashlights and breaking his jaw.

In a sworn statement he gave as part of Mearday's federal lawsuit,
Benson said FBI agents had interviewed him about the theft of cocaine
from a drug dealer's car impounded by police.

When Tobin pressed Benson about whether he participated in the theft
of cocaine, the officer replied: "All I'm aware of is the allegation
that was given to me that was the failure to inventory evidence.
Besides that, I don't know what's alleged as far as the incident
goes."

Benson's criminal defense lawyer, James Cutrone, said Benson was
ordered in 1999 to appear before a federal grand jury.

"He was subpoenaed but his appearance has been excused," Cutrone
said. "He didn't have to go in, and nothing has happened since."

Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian Netols, the lead prosecutor on the case,
declined to comment.

The current federal investigation into alleged police corruption is
the latest for the Chicago Police Department, which for years has
been dogged by corruption allegations as a steady stream of officers
have been led to prison in handcuffs.

Federal authorities have been investigating Miedzianowski and other
allegedly corrupt officers since September 1998.

Miedzianowski, 48, once a celebrated gang crimes officer, was
convicted on racketeering and drug conspiracy charges, and faces a
lifetime behind bars when he is sentenced Jan. 25.

His former partner, John Galligan, pleaded guilty Nov. 8 to covering
up for Miedzianowski and is to be sentenced in March.

Two federal inquiries in 1996 and 1997 led to the conviction of seven
officers in the Austin District and three officers in the Gresham
District on charges that they routinely shook down drug dealers.

Now, federal authorities have cast their attention on the
Grand-Central District, where Benson, Detective Jon Woodall and a
third officer stripped of their police powers had worked and where
the allegations of stealing from drug dealers bear similarities to
those raised in the Austin and Gresham investigations. The third
officer has not been identified in court records.

One of Miedzianowski's co-defendants who testified against him has
emerged as a key government source in the current investigation,
providing a crisp account of alleged police corruption.

According to FBI documents, convicted drug dealer Frederick Rock told
agents in a series of interviews in 1998 and 1999 that he assisted as
many as five officers in setting up drug dealers and selling a
kilogram of cocaine.

The only officer Rock identified was Woodall, according to the FBI documents.

Woodall was previously identified in news accounts and court
proceedings as being under federal investigation, but Rock's
statements provide new details of Woodall's and other unidentified
officers' alleged drug activity.

Woodall could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, George
Murtaugh, declined to comment.

Rock told agents that Miedzianowski introduced him to Woodall in
early 1997. He said he and Woodall hatched a plan in late winter 1998
to rip off two drug dealers who were supposed to make a delivery of 5
kilograms of cocaine--11 pounds--to Rock's home.

"Woodall and his men eventually arrived in a number of unmarked
vehicles and set up a surveillance," according to FBI documents.
After the suspected drug dealers left Rock's home, Woodall and his
colleagues stopped them.

About two days later, Rock told the FBI, Woodall called and arranged
for a meeting near Rock's home. Woodall arrived in a green double-cab
Ford truck and told Rock to get in.

"Woodall searched Rock and then asked Rock how long it would take to
get rid of a kilogram of cocaine. Rock told Woodall that if he were
to sell the whole kilogram of cocaine, he could get between $18,000
and $19,000," according to the FBI documents. "Rock told Woodall that
he could make more money by cutting up the kilogram and selling the
cocaine in small packages. This, however, would take about two to
three weeks. Rock indicated that he could make $30,000 selling the
cocaine in small packages."

According to the documents, Woodall then pulled the truck into Rock's
garage, allegedly reached behind the seat for a kilogram of cocaine
and handed it to Rock.

`5 cops involved'

Woodall, according to the documents, instructed Rock to sell the
cocaine and give him $25,000. "Woodall indicated that there were five
cops involved in the deal and each cop would get $5,000," Rock told
FBI agents.

A week or two later, Rock told agents he met Woodall in the parking
lot of a Northwest Side restaurant, where Rock allegedly handed the
officer $4,800 and explained to him that the sale of cocaine had
slowed.

"Woodall related that other police officers that Woodall obtained the
cocaine with were getting upset because [I] was not selling the
cocaine fast enough," Rock told agents. He said he later made a
second payment of $5,500 to Woodall.

On March 23, 1998, a drug dealer "involved in the 5-kilogram
incident" was killed and Woodall informed Rock that two detectives
wanted to interview him. After Rock said he knew nothing about
killing, Woodall told Rock to keep quiet about their activities and
"further warned Rock that a lot of police officers were involved in
the kilogram deal."

Woodall drove Rock to the police station, where he was questioned
about the death and where he remained silent about his alleged drug
partnership with city cops, according to the FBI documents.

Rock had begun cooperating with federal authorities Dec. 18, 1998,
two days after he, Miedzianowski and a handful of others were
arrested on drug-related charges. Rock, a former Maniac Latin
Disciple, also was among the first to plead guilty in the case.

He is awaiting sentencing after testifying at Miedzianowski's trial
and giving a series of interviews with the FBI, providing details
about other alleged drug dealers, gang members and crooked cops.