U.S. Attorney's Office indicts 6 Philly narcotics cops on corruption charges

In a federal indictment that reads like an over-the-top script for a bad cop drama, six Philadelphia Police Department narcotics officers today were arrested on corruption charges.

The defendants were charged in a racketeering conspiracy that includes robbery, extortion, kidnapping and drug dealing. Most of the charges center around the defendants' alleged use of their badges to rob and extort cash, drugs and personal property from suspected drug dealers.

At a press conference unsealing the indictment, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said, "This is one of the worst cases of corruption I have ever heard."

According to the indictment, the defendants — Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman and John Speiser — used violent means to steal and extort over $500,000 in cash, drugs and personal property from the victims over the course of 22 incidents.

In one alleged instance, the defendants beat a victim and then dangled him over a balcony railing on the 18th floor of his apartment to get the password to the victim's Palm Pilot. The defendants then stole $8,000 in personal items from the victim.

In another episode, Officer Norman — like Omar with a badge — allegedly stole three kilos of cocaine from a drug dealer and then sold the drugs for thousands of dollars.

Other allegations of violence included kicking a victim in the mouth, knocking out another victim's teeth, and hitting a third victim in the back of the head with a steel bar.

According to the indictment, not all the money stolen was suspected drug money: Liciardello is accused of stealing $12,000 in cash from a victim who had recently sold a conversion van.

The indictment is yet another black eye for the PPD's Narcotics Field Unit, which was the subject of the Daily News' 2010 Pulitzer-prize winning series, "Tainted Justice." The cops mentioned in today's indictment are not the same as named in the series written by reporters Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman.

At the press conference, a grim-faced Commissioner Ramsey repeatedly lamented his inability to transfer officers out of the Narcotics Unit. "Our contract does not allow for rotation, does not allow for transfer of individuals," said Ramsey. "It is incidents like this that hopefully will give us what we need in order to change that. We need to be able to move people from these sensitive units if there is any hint at all that they are engaging in misconduct."

The PPD's current contract with Lodge 5 of the Fraternity Order of Police is set to expire this year. The FOP and the city are in arbitration for a new pact.

The indictment comes after a two-year joint investigation by the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department that was launched after the arrest of former officer Jeffrey Walker. Walker was caught in an FBI sting and pled guilty to federal counts of robbery and using a firearm during a violent crime in January. Walker, who participated in many of the incidents detailed in the indictment, cooperated with the investigation soon after his arrest.

To cover their tracks, the defendants allegedly falsified their police reports, underreporting the amounts of money and property seized. Discovering the misconduct was made more difficult because the victims were suspected drug dealers, "generally not the going to be the individuals who go running to law enforcement to provide information about illegal activity being committed" according to United States Attorney Zane David Memeger.

If convicted, the defendants would face life in prison, except for Speiser, who faces a maximum of 40 years.

Contact Jim Saksa at James.F.Saksa @gmail.com