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February 9, 2010 |
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| April 02, 2007 |
By: Julie Kay |
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U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta
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he office of U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta won’t say if it’s investigating who tipped off Hollywood police officers that they were under federal investigation for alleged involvement in heroin trafficking and other crimes.
The leak prematurely ended the investigation, which prosecutors say could have netted other officers.
But even if the feds succeed in fingering the leaker, experts say it’s unlikely the person could be criminally charged.
Rumors are swirling about the identity of the leaker. One source close to the investigation says it was Alberto Milian, a former Broward County prosecutor and Coral Gables criminal defense lawyer who has close ties to the Police Benevolent Association. Milian ran unsuccessfully against Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in 2004.
Sources say Hollywood Police Chief James Scarberry, who denies the leak came from within his department, contends Milian was the leaker. In an interview last week, Scarberry said, “it’s possible” that Milian was the culprit. But Scarberry refused to elaborate.
Milian denies he was the leaker and says he does not know who was. “I have no idea,” he said in an interview. “I wouldn’t speculate on something like that. But it wasn’t me.”
Others close to the case say the leaker was Assistant Chief Louis Granteed, who acknowledged that he is a close friend of Officer Kevin Companion, the cop alleged to be the ringleader of the criminal activities.
Granteed did not return calls for comment. But last week he told New Times Broward Palm Beach that he was “absolutely not the leaker.”
Tarnished Badge
Federal investigators began their sting operation into the Hollywood Police Department — dubbed Operation Tarnished Badge — two years ago. According to prosecutors, four Hollywood cops worked for FBI agents who posed as mobsters. The cops allegedly escorted heroin shipments, guarded illegal gambling operations and assisted in the theft of cigarettes.
The four men — Companion, Thomas Simcox, Stephen Harrison, and Jeffry Courtney — face federal corruption and drug charges but have not been indicted by a grand jury, pending ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office on possible plea deals. The four men are facing maximum sentences of life in prison, and fines of up to $4 million on the drug charges alone. All four men have resigned from the force.
The case has generated intense interest not only because it is one of the most high-profile police corruption cases in South Florida in years but also because of the leak.
According to sources, after more than two years working on the sting operation, the feds were ready to flip one of the Hollywood officers, Thomas Simcox, and use him to gather evidence against other officers, and make arrests.
As a standard courtesy, prosecutors notified Chief Scarberry of the undercover investigation. Notifying a police chief just before an arrest is to be made is one of the feds’ standard operating procedures.
Prosecutors, sources say, told Scarberry he could only notify his second-in-command, Granteed, and was instructed to refrain from telling anyone who was not in law enforcement.
Over the next week, however, Scarberry acknowledged telling a total of eight people about the investigation, including two assistant police chiefs, City Manager Cameron Benson and Mayor Mara Giulianti.
After the feds told Scarberry, it’s not publicly known what happened next. But someone apparently tipped off one or more of the officers who were being investigated, and they started calling in sick for work.
A week after the feds told Scarberry about the probe, word of the investigation broke in South Florida newspapers in late February. At that point, the feds ended the investigation, Acosta held a news conference and the four officers were arrested. If word hadn’t leaked, the feds say it’s possible the investigation could have cut a wide swath through the department.
Chief Scarberry has been sharply criticized for telling eight people about the investigation.
A veteran police official and former undercover investigator, Scarberry served as Miami Beach assistant police chief before moving to Hollywood in 1999 to take over a department that was beleaguered by scandals and bitter union battles.
“This could have had a huge impact on the city, that’s why [city officials] needed to know,” Scarberry said in an interview Thursday. “Everyone fully understood that the investigation was confidential. I’m extremely confident that the leak did not come from anyone within our city. It could have been a host of people.”
He previously has said he told Mayor Giulianti because he didn’t want her to be blindsided by the news while she was in Washington receiving a good-government award.
Scarberry said he has not been questioned by the feds about who might have leaked the investigation. “I’m not worried about it,” he said.
Tough to prove intent
Federal prosecutors and the FBI are furious about the leak and Scarberry’s actions, according to sources close to the investigation. But even if prosecutors find out who tipped off the cops under investigation, legal experts say it will be very difficult to bring the leaker or leakers up on charges.
That’s because the obstruction of justice charge requires proof of criminal intent — that the person “corruptly by threats or by force impedes the investigation,” according to the federal statute. That is tough to prove, lawyers say.
“It’s unlikely anyone will be charged,” said Richard Sharpstein, a Miami criminal defense lawyer. “Rarely, if ever, is anyone ever prosecuted for a leak. It’s very difficult to prove the intent in a sea of possible motives.”
Sharpstein said he could not remember a case in Miami-Dade County history of anyone being prosecuted for leaking word of a federal investigation, although there have been several prosecutions of grand jurors for leaking information.
“Gossip among police officers is rampant,” Sharpstein said. “There are always rumors at the Miami-Dade police department that ‘the feds are here, the feds are there.’ It’s a big leap to prove intention to ruin an investigation.”
Lilly Ann Sanchez, a former federal prosecutor and head of white collar litigation at Fowler White Burnett in Miami, agreed that a leak prosecution was unlikely in the Hollywood cops case. But she predicted that Acosta’s office still would be aggressive in trying to identify the leaker.
“The integrity of the investigation is crucial,” she said. “Prosecutions can’t afford to be compromised.”
No notification in the future?
According to sources, some prosecutors have discussed changing their procedures in the future and not notifying police chiefs when officers in their departments are under investigation or subject to arrest.
Another precipitating factor for a change of policy is that Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess has asked county Police Director Robert Parker to brief him about any public corruption investigations in the county.
According to sources, at least one police chief, in the wake of the Hollywood case, has instructed the feds not to notify him if any of his officers are being investigated so he isn’t obliged to notify his bosses at City Hall.
This is not the first time the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami has faced a situation where a police corruption investigation has been blown or compromised by leaks.
In 2004, then-U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez accused then Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos Alvarez and his department of leaking information about a sensitive investigation into fraud and corruption in minority contract awards at Miami International Airport. Alvarez, now Miami-Dade mayor, denied the leak allegations.
According to sources, Jimenez’s office aggressively tried to nail down the source of the alleged leaks but was not successful.
Julie Kay can be reached at jkay@alm.com or at (954) 468-2622.
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