Pubdate: Sun, 29 Aug 1999
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 1999 The Miami Herald
Contact:  One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693
Fax: (305) 376-8950
Website: http://www.herald.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald
Author: Joseph Tanfani And Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo

COPS - DEALER'S GYM PROTECTED

Opa-Locka Police Watched Site On Overtime

Working on overtime, police in Opa-locka watched over a small building
in the city's notorious Triangle, a neighborhood long terrorized by
open drug warfare.

But several officers say they were there to protect the drug dealers
- -- not the citizens.

Officers in Opa-locka told The Herald that, starting in late 1996,
they were ordered to park their cruisers for hours outside a private
gym owned by Rickey Brownlee, mastermind of a ruthless cocaine and
heroin empire based in the Triangle. The cops said the same thing to
federal agents investigating Opa-locka corruption.

"I was ordered to sit on that property," said Felix "Tony" Lacks, now
a special assistant to the Opa-locka chief. "We weren't happy about it
but we were ordered to. We were sitting there for months."

"We were not getting paid off-duty rates," Lacks said. "We were
getting paid overtime. That meant I was getting paid $30 an hour."

Former leaders of the Opa-locka department say there never was such a
duty -- only officers working extra hours to crack down on the
Triangle drug trade.

Special detail

The detail went on for several months starting in the fall of 1996.
Overtime records show that officers worked a special detail in the
Triangle, but they say nothing about Washington Avenue or the gym.

Opa-locka cops said it was no secret that the building at 2080-82
Washington Ave. was owned by Brownlee -- a popular Robin Hood figure
to many in Opa-locka, a ruthless drug lord to the federal agents who
pursued him for two years. On Thursday, he was convicted for a third
time of drug-dealing charges and could spend the rest of his life in
prison.

Brownlee purchased the former laundry in November 1996, fixed it up
and brought in a treadmill and other exercise equipment. It's just
around the corner from an Opa-locka police substation and about two
blocks away from the Brownlee-owned Homestyle Restaurant, where
Brownlee used to treat the neighborhood to free holiday meals.

A dozen people were shot in drug turf wars last year in the Triangle,
an area of blocked-off streets between Northwest 151st Street,
Ali-Baba Avenue and Northwest 22nd Avenue.

Federal prosecutor Ron DeWaard, who handled the Brownlee case, said he
could not comment.

No sign of protection

Brownlee's lawyer, Mel Black, said he has reviewed federal
surveillance tapes of the rear of the gym property, and saw no
evidence Opa-locka police were protecting the property -- at least
from February through May 1997, when the camera was running.

"There was no dope and no Opa-locka police protection," Black
said.

Federal agents say they did find evidence the gym was used in
Brownlee's drug operation.

In an affidavit, an agent of the Drug Enforcement  Administration said
one of Brownlee's lieutenants was spotted by agents picking up a
package from the gym just before selling two kilograms of cocaine to
agents.

Another Brownlee associate was caught on tape bringing a package from
the gym, opening it in his car and examining what "appeared to contain
plastic bags full of a white powdery substance."

But none of the Opa-locka officers say they were told to look for
crimes. They said they were there to provide security, or given no
explanation at all.

The Washington Avenue detail happened during the tenure of former
Chief Arlington Sands Jr., who became city manager, was fired and
received a $313,000 settlement, and Deputy Chief Craig Collins, who in
June was demoted to sergeant and suspended with pay -- though so far
he has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

No worries

Collins said he would not talk in detail about the allegations.
Federal law enforcement agents say it was Collins and Sands who asked
them for help in taking down the Brownlee drug organization.

"I know why they were there. You know where Washington is. That's
easy," Collins said, alluding to the neighborhood's reputation as a
drug hotbed. "If somebody wants to interpret it differently, that's
their problem.

"I'm sure this will all work itself out. I have no worries, none at
all," Collins said.

The lawyer for Collins and Sands, Joseph Geller, said the stories of
watching Brownlee's gym are fiction cooked up in the cauldron of
Opa-locka political intrigue.

He said a new political regime in Opa-locka City Hall is trying to
trump up bogus charges so it  can fire Collins without paying a hefty
settlement.

If cops were stationed there, Geller said, they were there to protect
the public, not Brownlee's gym.

"Wouldn't that maybe be a place that you might station a car or two to
see if a gunfight could break out?" Geller said. "That's where I would
station my cops if I thought that rival posses with Uzis might be
taking potshots at each other."

Stuck with overtime

Three officers told The Herald they worked the Washington Avenue duty.
Typically, officers would spend four hours on overtime at the end of
their shifts, parked outside the gym in their Opa-locka police cruisers.

Officer Robert Kukowinski said he was "stuck" working the four-hour
overtime duty one evening.

"I was bored," Kukowinski said. When another officer came by,
Kukowinski said the two of them decided to visit the gym.

"We went up there and had the door slammed in our face," Kukowinski
said. After a few minutes, the door opened again; Kukowinski said he
saw some "nice equipment," and one guy working out on a treadmill.

He said he was told only to sit in the 2000 block of Washington
Avenue. "I felt that was our purpose, to guard the gym," Kukowinski
said.

Another officer, Pete Rojas, said he was told by a shift supervisor to
keep an eye on the gym as he patrolled the Triangle. He said everyone
in the department knew the gym was owned by Brownlee.

"I was just told, `Watch this property. There's gym equipment in
there, and keep an eye on the place so it won't get burglarized,' "
said Rojas, who was fired by Collins and later reinstated.

"Man, it was crazy," said Rojas. "Crazy for us to protect some drug
dealer's property when there's other crimes going on in the city."

`Not good at all'

Opa-locka City Manager Anthony Robinson said he learned about the duty
from a police officer about three weeks ago.

"That's what they said to me -- it was a protection detail, which was
very unfortunate," Robinson said. "Not good. Not good at all."

Astonished, Robinson called more officers for confirmation -- and then
tipped off federal investigators, who are conducting a wide-ranging
investigation into public corruption in Opa-locka. Two federal agents
came to City Hall and interviewed about 15 officers.

Opa-locka officers who worked the special duty say they didn't ask too
many questions.

"It came up between us, and nobody could give an answer," said one
officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Nobody could figure out
the logic of sitting here. A lot of people say: `If they want to pay
off duty, I'll take it.' "

That officer also was not told to watch the gym, or given any other
instructions other than where to park the cruiser -- across the street
from the gym on Washington Avenue.

"I thought something happened and we were there to keep the peace,"
the officer said.

Who gave the orders? Robinson said he's trying to find out. Officers
said it was a regular slot that was filled in by shift commanders, but
they never learned who ordered the work.

Current Police Chief Evelyn Hicks said she doesn't like what she has
heard so far, saying her officers characterized the duty as "a
security detail of some sort."

"If there was something improper done, it makes all of us look sort of
suspicious to the community," she said.
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