Pubdate: Mon, 06 Apr 2015 Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) Copyright: 2015 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc Contact: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340 Author: Sarah Smith Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) OFFICER FACES OLD SQUAD ON TRIAL Downfall of a Former Police Hero. Years before he was one of Philadelphia's dirtiest cops, Jeffrey Walker was a hero. In fall 1998, Walker specialized in drug busts for West Philadelphia's 16th Police District. On the streets, his aggressive work as an undercover cop and his appearance - tall, fit, with dreadlocks - earned him a nickname from drug dealers: Batman. Like any Batman, Jeffrey Walker had a Robin: his partner, Officer Brian Reynolds. In the tough Mantua neighborhood Batman and Robin patrolled that fall, three dealers found an easy way to get rid of the duo. One of the three would get $4,000 to kill them. Within a day of learning about the plot from an informant, police had the dealers in custody. Walker and Reynolds were celebrated as good guys who worked to make the poverty-stricken neighborhood a better place. Fifteen years later, an FBI case revealed a different Jeffrey Walker, then a member of the Narcotics Field Unit. Busted in a sting in May 2013 - the FBI caught him stealing money from a drug dealer - Walker pleaded guilty and began cooperating with federal investigators. Walker, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing for his February 2014 guilty plea in federal court, faces a maximum of life behind bars. In the meantime, he is expected to be a star witness this week in the federal trial against six Philadelphia narcotics officers arrested with his help: Thomas Liciardello, Perry Betts, John Speiser, Michael Spicer, Linwood Norman - Walker's longtime partner on the narcotics unit - and Brian Reynolds, Walker's old "Robin." For jurors, the case may well require them to decide whether the 46- year-old Walker is telling the truth or just trying to pull off his biggest scam yet. For the defense, the strategy against Walker is clear: make him look as unreliable as possible. One defense lawyer subpoenaed Walker's mental health records. A defense motion claims Walker is a "rumored pitchman" for a book about his life. Another motion accuses Walker of abusing drugs. None of the lawyers would go into specifics about those particular accusations, but they spent their opening statements calling Walker everything from a drunk to a "narcissistic creep." Walker was sworn in as a Philadelphia police officer at age 20. After working as a patrol officer in West Philadelphia for a decade, he was transferred into the Narcotics Field Unit in 1999. Reynolds went with him. Once in the prestigious drug unit, it took only a few years before things started to go awry and for the complaints to reach Internal Affairs. The first complaint came in 2002. Another came in '04, another in '05, and three in 2006. The first settlement for a case with a payout attached - $75,000 - came in February 2004. After that, they kept coming. Of the 22 complaints filed against Walker, the department sustained just one: from 2003 about a search without proper warrants. Of the 13 now-closed lawsuits filed against Walker, the city paid in seven of the cases for a total of $352,500. Even as the complaints were piling up, Walker and his partner, Linwood Norman - the pair Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Wzorek described during his opening statement as the group's muscle - collected such departmental honors as the bravery award and the team award. Walker's calm demeanor on the witness stand helped him through the legal system, say people who saw him testify. "You had many sources as well as many citizens complaining, attorneys were complaining. They just turned a blind eye," said Philadelphia attorney Michael Pileggi, who has filed numerous lawsuits against the former officers. "They knew how to work within the system, and work it to their benefit." Also to Walker's benefit: Many of his victims had criminal records. "They're not accused of doing bad things to good people," said Thomas Fitzpatrick, Walker's lawyer. "They're accused of doing bad things to some bad dudes." One victim, Roger Pierce, acknowledges he was a drug dealer when Walker arrested him but says Walker lied in the process. Walker claimed he found black bags of drugs on him. Pierce, 26, said in an interview he used only red bags. Guys on other corners used black bags. Then, when Walker raided Pierce's home in September 2010, he claimed he found drugs. "I had the money there in the safe, but he said I had drugs there. I never brought no customers inside my house where I lay my head at," Pierce said. Pierce pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver and spent more than a year in jail. After learning of Walker's arrest in May 2013, Pierce filed a lawsuit against Walker and the city. So far, a total of 39 federal suits have been filed against Walker and the city. And 165 convictions have been dismissed. As calm as Walker could be on the witness stand, people who encountered him on the street met a different man. In February 2010, Samir Perdue and two friends were driving a Chevy minivan in Southwest Philadelphia when five unmarked police cars surrounded them on Yocum Avenue. Walker, according to the suit Perdue filed with the city after Walker's arrest, allegedly planted a sandwich bag filled with cocaine in the minivan. Walker and Norman drove Perdue and his friends to Mount Moriah Cemetery. Among the gravestones, Perdue said, Walker smacked him and screamed at him, demanding to know where the drugs and money were. Perdue's civil suit also alleges Walker took Perdue's phone and $3,000 in cash. For a while, what Walker was doing as a narcotics officer seemed to work for him. Between his base salary and overtime pay, he usually made $85,000 to $107,000 a year - plus the money he allegedly stole. He was able to buy three houses in Philadelphia, one of which he rents out. And during that time, he ended one marriage and started another. But by March 2011, he had split from the rest of the squad. When he was called to Internal Affairs and didn't check with Liciardello to see what he should say, prosecutor Wzorek said in his opening statement, he got this text from Liciardello: "You're dead to everyone in this squad. Die, rat. I hope you die." And he had also split from his second wife. They divorced in 2009. Nevertheless, Walker kept robbing drug dealers, this time without the squad. In May 2013, it caught up to him. An FBI informant reported early that month that Walker had asked him to help rob a drug dealer. The two planned the heist with the FBI monitoring every move. On May 21, when Walker strolled out of the drug dealer's house clutching $15,000 in cash, the FBI was waiting for him. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom