Source: Boston Globe (MA) Contact: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Pubdate: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 Author: Patricia Nealon EXTORTION TRIAL WITNESS TELLS OF POLICE ABUSES Boston police detective yesterday became the first officer to testify publicly about the shady practices he learned from two former colleagues who have admitted stealing more than $200,000 from drug dealers and other criminals in an on-the-job crime spree. Since Walter F. Robinson Jr. and Kenneth Acerra have pleaded guilty to avoid trial, the testimony of Detective John Brazil offers the first glimpse into the crooked world of phony search warrants and stolen drug money perfected by his two mentors on the night shift. Brazil was the lead government witness against attorney Joseph P. Murphy of Milton, who is on trial in US District Court for allegedly engaging in an extortion scheme with Robinson and Acerra. Authorities say Murphy twice told defendants that drug charges could be dropped or they could get out of jail before trial if they made payoffs to the two detectives. Brazil, currently on administrative leave from the Boston Police Department, has been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. Last month, Robinson and Acerra each pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy, civil rights violations and tax fraud shortly before they were to stand trial. They did not plead guilty to the extortion charges involving Murphy. Under a plea agreement, the two detectives will serve three years in prison and repay as much as $100,000 if US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock accepts the deal at their sentencing May 21. Under the terms of the agreement, the extortion charges against them involving Murphy will be dismissed. The federal investigation that prompted their indictment was sparked by a Globe Spotlight Team report in February 1996. On the witness stand yesterday, Brazil, 51, described how he met Robinson and Acerra in the fall of 1991 while working at the Area E station, which covers Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and West Roxbury. ''I wanted to learn how to do search warrants,'' Brazil testified. So his supervisor, Sergeant Leonard W. Marquardt, put him in touch with Robinson and Acerra, who were known for being ''efficient'' at preparing search warrants, Brazil said. That efficiency, Brazil testified, was grounded in a system of lying on search warrant applications - using made-up informants and nonexistent surveillance. Soon, Brazil was filling out search warrant applications and affidavits for Robinson and Acerra using the tricks of the trade they'd taught him. If he needed informants' names to boost the credibility of an application, he was told, ''Just put down the last person that you arrested,'' Brazil testified. He did just that on a May 6, 1992, application that is central to the case against Murphy. That warrant was used to raid a Jamaica Plain apartment as well as a taxi owned by Bruno Machore, a suspected drug dealer who will be a key prosecution witness against Murphy. According to court documents filed after the raid and admitted as evidence yesterday, Robinson, Acerra and Brazil found four bags of cocaine and drug paraphernalia in the apartment and $7,500 in cash in Machore's cab parked outside. The government alleges that Murphy told Machore that if he paid Robinson and Acerra $1,000 each, the case against him would be dismissed. That happened after neither detective showed up in court. Robinson later appeared before a judge and said that the money had been taken for safekeeping and was not part of the search. It was returned to Murphy, according to prosecutors. Three weeks after the Jamaica Plain search, Robinson, Acerra and Brazil raided two apartments on Edgemere Road in West Roxbury, where Machore was arrested again. Brazil testified that he broke open a strong box he'd found under the bed and discovered about $8,000 packaged in eight bundles. He testified that he gave the money to Robinson. But Robinson never mentioned the cash in an incident report, and didn't fill out a form used to keep track of seized money. And Acerra never listed the money - which prosecutors said could have been as much as $17,000 - in a document filed in West Roxbury District Court. Brazil testified that he overheard Robinson and Acerra talking about the money in the detective squad. Robinson said he knew Murphy, who was Machore's attorney; before becoming a defense lawyer, Murphy was an assistant clerk magistrate at West Roxbury District Court for 12 years. ''I'll talk to him,'' Robinson said, according to Brazil. ''We can work this out.'' In the summer of 1992, prosecutors say, Murphy visited one of Machore's co-defendants in prison four times and told him that for $50,000 - $25,000 each for Robinson and Acerra - they would be released from jail pending trial. Neither paid the money but both were released. Both are expected to testify. In a related development, a Boston attorney yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against Robinson, Brazil and the city of Boston, claiming that his client, Jose de La Rosa, was falsely charged with cocaine trafficking and robbed of $2,300 by Robinson and Brazil in September 1991. The 11-page complaint filed by attorney Howard Friedman claims that Robinson - after he and Brazil searched de La Rosa's apartment but found no drugs - produced a bag of cocaine at the police station and said it would be used as evidence against de La Rosa. The encounter took place, according to the complaint, after de La Rosa insisted he was not a drug dealer and could not ''set up'' a drug deal for Robinson, Acerra and Brazil. In October, after the cocaine trafficking charge against de La Rosa had been pending for six years, it was dismissed, the complaint says.