Pubdate: Tue, 26 Feb 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: New York Region
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Robert F. Worth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

DRUG CORRUPTION TRIAL BEGINS FOR FORMER POLICE COMMANDER

Nine months after a fast-rising police commander became one of the 
highest-ranking officials ever indicted in a drug corruption case, 
prosecutors argued in court yesterday that he had conspired with a drug 
dealer and a fellow officer to steal $60,000 from a drug supplier in the Bronx.

The defendant, Dennis M. Sindone, a deputy inspector at the time of his 
arrest last spring, is charged with one count of violating the drug 
supplier's civil rights in connection with the robbery, in July 1996.

Mr. Sindone, 39, sat impassively in federal District Court in Manhattan 
yesterday, occasionally shaking his head as Robert Noyer, a former 
subordinate, testified against him. Mr. Noyer said that he and Mr. Sindone 
plotted to fake an arrest of one of Mr. Noyer's drug-dealer friends just as 
the dealer was delivering cash to a supplier. The three men then split the 
proceeds, Mr. Noyer said. At the time, Mr. Sindone was the commander of the 
60th Precinct in Brooklyn. Mr. Noyer had just joined a special robbery task 
force at the 44th Precinct.

Mr. Noyer pleaded guilty last year to participating in the staged arrest 
and robbery and to other charges that included a 1999 robbery in which he 
used a gun. He was charged in that robbery after Jose Tavares, the drug 
dealer who helped stage the arrest in 1996, implicated him, prosecutors 
said. Mr. Tavares was arrested on an unrelated drug charge in May 1999.

Mr. Noyer and Mr. Tavares could have their sentences in the drug robbery 
reduced because of their testimony against Mr. Sindone, officials said. Mr. 
Noyer, who was released on $50,000 bail in June, faces up to 40 years in 
prison, and Mr. Tavares faces a lesser sentence. Mr. Sindone's lawyer, 
James Culleton, invoked those facts to cast doubt on the credibility of 
their stories.

"Mr. Sindone is here because he's a lifeline for Mr. Noyer, and he's a 
lifeline for Mr. Tavares," Mr. Culleton said.

Mr. Noyer said he had conceived the plan to stage a robbery in the spring 
of 1996 and then persuaded Mr. Sindone and Mr. Tavares to join him. He had 
become friendly with Mr. Sindone before then, when they worked together at 
the 50th Precinct, often drinking together at a nearby bar after work.

On July 3, 1996, Mr. Noyer testified, he and Mr. Sindone pretended to 
arrest Mr. Tavares as he arrived in a gypsy cab at the corner of Grand 
Concourse and East Tremont Avenue. With bystanders watching, Mr. Noyer 
handcuffed Mr. Tavares and the two officers drove off with him in a police 
car. They then uncuffed Mr. Tavares and released him, warning him not to 
answer calls or leave home so that the drug supplier would believe that he 
had been arrested. Then they divided the money, Mr. Noyer said.

But in his opening statement, Mr. Culleton called Mr. Noyer a former drug 
dealer whose "whole life has been a lie." He added that when Mr. Tavares 
pleaded guilty last year in the case, he named only Mr. Noyer as a 
co-conspirator. Five months later, Mr. Noyer told investigators that a 
second officer was involved, but said that officer had blond hair and green 
eyes, Mr. Culleton said. Mr. Sindone has dark hair.

Mr. Culleton also cast doubt on what appeared to be one of the 
prosecution's strongest points, the fact that Mr. Noyer and Mr. Tavares 
independently named Mr. Sindone, although not at first. Mr. Culleton said 
he would introduce evidence showing that Mr. Noyer and Mr. Tavares could 
have spoken during the period between Mr. Tavares's arrest in 1999 and Mr. 
Noyer's arrest last year.
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