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A federal grand jury is investigating allegations of steroid abuse among Boston police officers and yesterday indicted veteran Officer Edgardo Rodriguez on charges of selling steroids, perjury, and attempting to thwart the probe.

“There’s an ongoing grand jury investigation,” Assistant US Attorney John T. McNeil told US Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings at a hearing. “We are taking a hard look at steroid use among officers in the Boston Police Department.”

Rodriguez, 37, was charged with six counts: conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids last year, distribution of anabolic steroids in 2003, obstruction of justice, and three counts of perjury before a federal grand jury.

The 12-year department veteran was suspended without pay yesterday. He had been placed on administrative duty last summer after three other Boston officers were indicted in July for allegedly guarding large shipments of what they believed to be cocaine.

The suspected ringleader in that case is accused of trafficking steroids, and one of the other officers was a regular customer, said an FBI affidavit. After the steroid abuse allegations emerged, Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed to try to require steroids testing for officers as part of negotiations on a new contract. Department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said last night that the proposal is still part of the negotiations.

The department is also dealing with other illegal drug use. In statistics it released last July, it said that 75 officers failed drug tests - 61 of them for cocaine - after the department started annual testing in 1999.

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis last night pledged to strengthen training to help supervisors detect patterns of behavior suggesting an officer is abusing drugs, including steroids. “I have instructed the Bureau of Internal Investigations to develop and conduct extensive training for all Boston Police supervisors to better enable them to detect, expose, and identify illegal substance abuse,” the statement said.

Yesterday, McNeill said that a number of Internal Affairs complaints had been filed against Rodriguez alleging “abusive, aggressive and violent behavior,” which the prosecutor characterized as conduct “consistent with steroids use.”

But Rodriguez’s attorney, Philip A. Tracy Jr., said his client is not addicted to steroids and passed two drug tests he was given by the department in July and August.

McNeil also told the magistrate that Rodriguez had tried to discourage another Boston police officer four or five times from testifying before the grand jury. That officer later testified about Rodriguez’s interference, McNeil said.

Prosecutors yesterday asked the judge to ensure that Rodriguez, a Jamaica Plain native and a former Marine who served in the first Persian Gulf War, does not associate with any other Boston police officers because they could be witnesses in the ongoing probe.

“We don’t want to disclose who we are looking at,” McNeil said. “We don’t want any interference.”

The indictment alleges that last Oct. 5, Rodriguez lied when he told a grand jury that he had not sold steroids to another Boston officer, who is not identified.

Just after testifying, Rodriguez met an officer in the hallway outside the grand jury room and tried to persuade him not to testify, McNeil also alleged.

However, Rodriguez’s attorney told the magistrate that his client was merely warning the officer not to testify without an attorney.

Collings ordered Rodriguez not to have contact with any other Boston police officers, except for anticorruption investigators, but said at Rodriguez’s arraignment on Tuesday there will be a hearing on whether to modify the order.

Collings said that because of the obstruction-of-justice charge, he was ordering Rodriguez to post a $50,000 bond, secured by a second mortgage on his Hyde Park home. Rodriguez was also ordered to surrender a handgun he keeps in his home and any department equipment still in his possession.

Rodriguez’s attorney argued that it was unfair to ask his client to not talk with other officers because Rodriguez’s social life revolves around the department.

Tracy said Rodriguez has been unfairly tarred by his alleged association with the three officers indicted on drug conspiracy charges.

“These charges have no relation to a much more serious conspiracy of three other officers,” Tracy said. “These allegations can usually be handled internally or with less severe consequences than a federal indictment.”

A source close to the probe said yesterday that prosecutors had offered Rodriguez a deal ensuring no jail time if he would resign from the department. Rodriguez rejected the deal, the source said, and was indicted.

In a statement issued with the indictment, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan suggested Rodriguez is being charged because of how he behaved during the investigation, not just because of steroid use.

“This case is not just about steroids use by law enforcement officers,” Sullivan said in the statement. “It is about an officer allegedly distributing steroids to another officer, perjuring himself, and then attempting to obstruct the grand jury’s investigation.”

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Chicago Police shot a man in the arm Monday afternoon after he walked into a police station and pointed a gun at officers, authorities said.

The man, whose name was not released, walked into the Grand Crossing station, 7040 S. Cottage Grove, about 4:30 p.m., approached an officer who was on the phone and said, ‘Can I have a word with you?’ ‘’ District Cmdr. John Franklin said. The officer responded by telling him yes, but to wait until he was off the phone, Franklin said.

‘HE DIDN’T SAY A WORD’

After the officer hung up — within a couple of minutes — he turned to the man and asked what he wanted. The man reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a gun, according to Franklin.

“He didn’t say a word, he just pulled out his weapon,'’ Franklin said.

An officer behind the desk fired his weapon at the man after he refused to drop the weapon, which was cocked, Franklin said. He did not know whether it was loaded.

The man was shot in the upper left arm and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Franklin had been at the desk just seconds before the man walked into the station. He heard the shooting from his office. “I heard, ‘Gun, gun! He’s got a gun,’ ‘’ he said. “I heard pow, pow, pow. And I could see a cloud of gun powder.'’

Franklin said one of the bullets shattered his window, and he used a side door to get back to the front desk.

At that point the man was on the ground. He appeared upset, but never indicated about what, Franklin said.

Franklin said there were civilians in the station at the time, but none was in the line of fire. Charges were pending.

The drug cartels here are clearly Goliath, heavily armed with automatic weapons.

The municipal police, stripped of their guns this month as part of a corruption probe, are now playing the role of David.

About 60 officers were issued slingshots Monday for use on patrols in the tourist section of Avenida Revolucion and the business district of Zona Rio, according to a police department spokesman. Some of the officers bought bags of marbles for ammo.

“It’s obviously very denigrating to them to be carrying these kinds of instruments, but they have to look for ways to provide security for the public,” spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said.

Members of the 2,300-officer city police department handed over their firearms Jan. 4 to federal officials, who are investigating whether any of the officers or guns can be linked to organized crime.

Since then, the city officers have sought the public’s support and engineered several displays of their displeasure.

Bojorquez said the decision to hand out slingshots wasn’t districtwide, but was something two police officials did on their own and paid for themselves.

While some of the officers bought marbles to use with the slingshots, others could end up using rocks, Bojorquez said.

The focus on the police force is part of Operation Tijuana, a sweeping attempt to reduce crime that brought more than 3,000 soldiers and federal police to the area. The operation started Jan. 2, and the officers were relieved of their weapons two days later. It’s unclear when they will receive their guns back.

Police, who say they are vulnerable without guns, staged a massive protest outside federal offices last week. Mexican media have reported police also were using baseball bats in attempts to detain criminals.

CNN Video

A New York Police Department sergeant assigned to the 113 Precinct was hit by an SUV and dragged 30 feet Thursday evening.

The accident happened at the 122nd Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard intersection.

Police sources said Sgt. John Pagnotta and two other officers were in an unmarked car, investigating drug dealing in South Jamaica, when the incident happened.

Pagnotta said he and one of the other officers approached a black Yukon Denali, but then the SUV pinned the sergeant and dragged him.

Pagnotta, 40, said that the SUV fled the scene Northbound on Sutphin Boulevard.

The sergeant was taken to Jamaica Hospital and is listed in stable condition with three broken ribs.

Police said they found the SUV empty a short distance from the scene.

Police have identified the driver as 50-year-old Walter Hurdie. Police are searching for Hurdie to question him about the incident.

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Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the shooting of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in Highlands County.

Few Details have been released, but an FHP spokeswoman said the two were captured Saturday morning.

A news conference is scheduled for to discuss details of the arrests and release further information on Friday’s fatal shooting.

From the ground and the air, law enforcement officers hunted for the two suspected gunmen who shot and killed FHP Trooper Nicholas Sottile. Officers searched cars and hovered above from a helicopter Friday night.

Dodson said, “It’s a tragic lose for the Highway Patrol because he was a good guy. I knew him personally. I knew him for 21 years and he was an awesome guy.”

Investigators said the men opened fire and shot Sgt. Sottile in the chest during a traffic stop on US-27, North of Lake Placid. That’s when the Trooper radioed for help.

“He called in on the radio and said, ‘Can you send me some help? I need some back-up’,” said Dodson.

One suspect was seen running into the neighboring orange groves. The other sped away. State Troopers said it’s a terrible loss and they will do whatever it takes to find the men who killed one of their own.

Dodson said, “That vehicle fled the area. It traveled North on US-27 and was later lost by witnesses.”

Sgt. Sottile was not wearing a bullet proof vest because Troopers are given the option not to wear them.

SARANAC LAKE, N.Y.– Village trustees fired suspended Police Chief Donald G. Perryman Jr. after reviewing 67 pages of findings and recommendations from an administrative officer.

Perryman was suspended in early October, when events surrounding a police patrol-car accident went to administrative hearing.

Officer Robert S. Hite’s presided over two days of testimony that brought forward evidence and eyewitness accounts of an Oct. 5, 2005, crash involving two Saranac Police officers, who totaled a police car just outside the village limits after spending the day in Plattsburgh.

The officers, Sgt. Bruce Nason and Casey Reardon, had been at a police training seminar that morning. Both admitted drinking alcohol between noon and 4 p.m. before driving back to the Saranac Lake police station.

Investigation of the crash was delayed under Perryman’s watch until the day after the crash; no breathalyzer or blood-alcohol testing was ever done.

Hite’s review found Perryman guilty of misconduct as defined in 12 specifications.

He also found Perryman guilty of “creating the appearance of facilitating a coverup” and of “not taking appropriate steps on the evening of October 5, 2005, to address the behavior and conduct” of Nason for “operating a police vehicle after consuming alcoholic beverages.”

The report found Perryman not guilty of 14 definitions of incompetence.

In the report, Hite said: “Chief Perryman engaged in a deliberate course of conduct to prevent the State Police from properly and thoroughly investigating the accident.

“A simple breathalyzer test and an opportunity for Trooper (John) Moody that evening would have prevented the substantial controversy, embarrassment and mistrust of the Saranac Lake Police Department that resulted from the conduct of the chief and other members of the Saranac Lake Police Department on the evening of October 5, 2005.”

The Village Board, in a meeting held in executive session Tuesday night, decided to fire Perryman.

In a statement released Wednesday, trustees said Perryman caused a breach of integrity, one that “is absolutely essential to public trust. And public trust is the foundation upon which all of the activities of a police department are built.”

According to minutes from the closed session, trustees unanimously voted to terminate Perryman.

“Based upon the serious misconduct which has been identified to, but not be limited to, engaging in a deliberate course of conduct to prevent the State Police from properly and thoroughly investigating the events and accident of October 5, 2005, the village has elected to terminate Mr. Perryman’s employment with the village, effective immediately.”

Hite went so far as to call Perryman’s actions “willful” and “deceitful.” “Chief Perryman engaged in willful, deceitful conduct. Chief Perryman’s conduct has undoubtedly eroded the public trust and caused a negative impact on the integrity of the Saranac Lake Police Department, thereby shaking its foundation.”

Trustee Susan Waters moved to terminate Perryman “with cause, effective immediately,” and was seconded by Trustee Christina Fontana.

Attorney Lori Cantwell, who represented the village at the hearing, called the findings “the correct outcome.”

“The village has zero tolerance for what Chief Perryman engaged in and will continue to have this position with all its law-enforcement personnel,” she said.

Cantwell said she was not surprised by anything in the report.

“The village spent an extensive amount of time bringing forward the charges based on solid evidence.”

The two officers involved in the accident are also under suspension pending review of their actions by members of the police union.

Perryman was unable to be reached for comment Wednesday morning.

His attorney, Greg LaDuke, did not return phone calls

The district attorney’s office, which is the only outside agency that usually reviews fatal police shootings in DeKalb County, is missing records on half the reviews it’s finished in recent years.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution requested records for 20 completed reviews on fatal police shootings in the county from 2001 to 2005. But the district attorney’s office told the newspaper it could not find records on ten cases.

News of the missing files comes amid scrutiny of the DeKalb County Police Department, which saw a surge in the number of fatal police shootings last year. In 2006, there were 12 incidents in which officers shot suspects to death. One officer also was killed.

The records that could be found show investigators from the district attorney’s office often relied on the police department’s own findings. And the district attorney only looked at whether officers committed a crime and did not consider if they acted wisely or followed department policy.

The missing files and sparse records reflect the fact that Georgia law does not require any outside review of shootings by police. In Georgia, as in many states, district attorneys are free to decide whether to present a police shooting case to a grand jury.

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Click here to watch the video on YouTube!

This is what happens when a cop faces someone who has nothing to lose and doesn’t want to go back to prison!

Greenwood, Mississippi

A videotaped scuffle between a black teenager and a white police officer who twice pulled his gun in a crowded high school hall has prompted a $1 million lawsuit, accusations of racism and calls for the officer’s dismissal.

The Dec. 6 school surveillance tapes that show the officer pointing his gun at the back of the unarmed teenager’s head were released Jan. 5 as part of discovery in student James Marshall’s lawsuit.

Marshall, an 18-year-old senior at Greenwood High School, said that during the scuffle Officer Casey Wiggins “was cursing, saying he was going to kill me.”

But the officer’s attorney, Mitchell Creel, says the student was “acting up.”

“It’s clear from the videos my client was doing his job and conducting himself as any security officer would under similar circumstances,” Creel said. “It clearly shows Officer Wiggins has done no wrong - absolutely no wrong.”

Marshall and his family have filed a criminal affidavit against Wiggins for assault and battery and a civil complaint in state court against the city seeking $1 million in damages. Carlos Moore, the student’s attorney, also wants Wiggins fired.

Wiggins must work under the direct control of a certified police officer because he is still a trainee, said Robert Davis, director of Law Enforcement Standards and Training for the Department of Public Safety. In Mississippi, police officers can serve for up to two years as trainees before they get their state certification.

There were no other police officers visible in the video of the scuffle.

Assistant Chief Huntley Nevels confirmed Thursday that Wiggins is still on the force, but referred all other questions to the city attorney, who declined to comment.

Wiggins’ police report says he saw Marshall and two other students standing in a circle, “looking at something the suspect was holding.” The officer claims that when he approached, Marshall became “hostile” and began to struggle.

“I then fell to the ground, he was still grabbing me so I reached and pulled my firearm,” Wiggins’ report says.

Marshall says he was just showing off his new tattoo - his name on his left forearm - when the officer accosted him.

Wiggins arrested the student for simple assault, but police never filed charges.

Moore said the officer is a “loose cannon” and that race “played a part in the aftermath because the officer was not punished for what he did.”

A federal deputy marshal was charged Thursday with leaking information about a reputed mobster’s cooperation with prosecutors as they investigated the top echelon of Chicago’s organized crime family.

John Thomas Ambrose, 38, a former supervisory inspector of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, surrendered Thursday at the FBI’s Chicago office, officials said.

Ambrose is accused of revealing information concerning the cooperation and travel plans of Nicholas Calabrese, expected to be a key witness in the government’s Operation Family Secrets murder conspiracy case.

Ambrose appeared briefly before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason, who released him on a $50,000 unsecured bond and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Jan. 30. Ambrose declined to comment as he left the courtroom, but defense attorney Francis C. Lipuma told reporters that his client denies violating the law and plans to go to trial.

“John Ambrose is not connected to the mob at all,” Lipuma said.

Prosecutors said Ambrose told them in a Sept. 6 interview that he passed the information to an associate of reputed mob boss John DiFronzo in hopes of getting information on the whereabouts of organized crime figure Joseph Lombardo, a fugitive at the time.

Lipuma said the government’s claim that Ambrose wanted to ingratiate himself to DiFronzo was based on “an FBI agent’s impressions” and was not what Ambrose said.

Lombardo, among those charged in the Operation Family Secrets indictment, was subsequently captured and is due to stand trial in May.

Calabrese, 63, of Chicago, is among 15 defendants charged in a sweeping indictment alleging a long-term conspiracy by Chicago mobsters to commit at least 18 murders.

The victim include Tony Spilotro, the mob’s one-time man in Las Vegas, who was beaten to death and buried in a corn field.

Gary Shapiro, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago, said that the alleged leak “constitutes an egregious breach of his law enforcement duties” but that there is no evidence Calabrese or other witnesses were ever in danger.

Ambrose has been on leave since September. He is charged with theft of government property, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.