Effort to drop charges in some Cujdik cases

Philadelphia's public defender yesterday moved to throw out criminal charges against 24 people - six serving prison terms and the rest on probation - who were prosecuted with allegedly false information from veteran narcotics officer Jeffrey Cujdik and his paid confidential informant.

The petitions, filed in Common Pleas Court, are the latest fallout since Cujdik's former informant, Ventura "Benny" Martinez, alleged in a Feb. 9 interview with the Philadelphia Daily News that he and Cujdik often falsified information to persuade judges to sign search and arrest warrants for drug suspects.

"It is clear that substantial evidence has now demonstrated that Officer Jeffrey Cujdik and others have all too often engaged in improper behavior and then lied about their actions," Assistant Public Defender Bradley S. Bridge said. "Many people's lives have been disrupted, their homes and businesses illegally entered, and they have been forced to endure unjust hardship."

Bridge said he hoped the petitions would bring "their release from custody and . . . their ultimate vindication."

The District Attorney's Office, which is conducting its own review of the Cujdik-Martinez warrants, has said it would respond to Bridge's petition on a case-by-case basis.

Cujdik's attorney, George Bochetto, discounted the significance of the 24 petitions: "If the history of jurisprudence proves anything, it's that any lawyer can file anything without having any reason whatsoever."

The 24 cases Bridge challenged are typical of those that the Narcotics Field Unit handled: accused neighborhood drug dealers in Kensington and North Philadelphia who sell small amounts on the street. Often the cases involved confiscation of illegal firearms and drug paraphernalia, such as the small glassine envelopes and plastic bags and vials dealers use to package their products.

Some of the cases date to 2003, although half involve arrests since 2005. Eighteen of the defendants are men and six are women. Latinos appear to be the largest ethnic group among the 24. All have previous arrest records and all but one of the 24 pleaded guilty to the charges on which they were arrested.

In addition to the defender's review, a federal-local task force that includes the FBI and Philadelphia police Internal Affairs investigators is poring over hundreds of warrants involving Cujdik and Martinez as well as narcotics officers with whom Cujdik was teamed.

Cujdik, 34, a 12-year veteran, has surrendered his service weapon and has been assigned to desk duty for at least a month. He is the only member of the Narcotics Field Unit to have been reassigned.

Though Cujdik has not commented publicly on Martinez's allegations, he has been backed by Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police. Bochetto has called Martinez a career criminal and liar.

The 24 petitions filed yesterday are over the first of more than 50 criminal cases that Martinez identified as having been based on falsely documented search warrants, according to Bridge.

The petitions will not immediately affect the 24 people serving prison terms or released and on probation. The District Attorney's Office must file its response to the petitions, and months could go by before a judge rules.

The common thread in all 24 cases is that the defendants were arrested based on the work of Cujdik and Martinez, identified in the sworn affidavits underlying the search warrants as "Confidential Informant No. 103."

In most cases, according to a review of warrants filed in Philadelphia criminal courts, Cujdik and a fellow officer or supervisor searched the informant, provided him with marked cash, and sent him to buy drugs from a suspected dealer.

After the controlled buy was made under police surveillance, the informant was searched and the drugs recovered. The controlled buy then became the probable cause needed to persuade a judge to sign a search warrant, allowing police to search a house or vehicle belonging to the suspect.

At the heart of the challenged cases is Martinez's allegation that the controlled buys never occurred and were concocted by Cujdik to obtain a warrant for someone he believed to be a drug dealer.

The case of Danny Gorham, 54, a Kensington man serving a two- to four-year term in state prison in Pittsburgh, is one that Bridge said he found particularly troubling.

"Danny ended up pleading guilty because of the threat of a far more serious sentence, because of the allegations that there was a gun in the house," Bridge said. "Rather than go to jail for five years, which was the threat by Officer Cujdik, he pleaded guilty and got two to four."

Gorham, like many of those charged, has a record of arrests. His dates to 1991, when he was found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail for carrying a firearm without a license. The appeal of his most recent conviction, like all the appeals Bridge filed, is based on the theory that he never would have pleaded guilty had he known Cujdik was suspected of fabricating evidence.

The 24 cases are just a small portion of the work that resulted from the Cujdik-Martinez relationship over almost eight years. Court records show that the team was one of the most productive in the Narcotics Field Unit: more than 180 arrests and seizure of 24 pounds of marijuana, 2,172 grams of cocaine, 25 grams of heroin, 402 grams of crack cocaine, 270 grams of methamphetamines and prescription drugs; $135,684 in cash; and 120 weapons ranging from small-caliber handguns to high-powered rifles.

The relationship unraveled in October, when Martinez's identity was disclosed in court by the lawyer and investigator for a defendant whose criminal case Martinez had helped Cujdik develop.

Martinez was also photographed leaving a Kensington rowhouse that Cujdik owns and that was leased to a woman who was the informant's girlfriend and mother of two of his children.

Martinez said he went to the Daily News after authorities rebuffed his request for protection and relocation. Martinez now says the FBI and police investigators have told him not to speak with reporters.

One case the Cujdik-Martinez relationship generated has already been dropped. On Feb. 19 a federal judge dismissed the charges against suspected drug dealer Thomas Cooper, also known as Thomas Smith, after both the federal prosecutor and federal defender questioned the validity of Cujdik's sworn affidavit and search warrant.

Cooper, 31, was released after being held without bail since his arrest on Aug. 30, 2007.

This is not the first time allegations of falsified evidence has forced a review of criminal cases.

In 1995, the federal prosecution of a small group of officers from the 39th Police District in the northwestern part of the city resulted in the dismissal of charges against more than 500 people. The city eventually paid more than $4 million to settle civil-rights lawsuits filed by the defendants involved.