Task force to investigate narcotics officer

A federal-city task force has been formed to investigate allegations that a Philadelphia police narcotics officer falsified information to obtain warrants and rented a house to his key paid confidential informant.

The task force, announced shortly before noon today by Mayor Nutter, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and Janice Fedarcyk, who heads the FBI office in Philadelphia, will also include investigators from the offices of city Inspector General Amy Kurland and Integrity Officer Curtis Douglas.

Ramsey said there was no evidence that the allegations involved any officer other than Jeffrey Cujdik, 34, a 12-year veteran of the police department.

Late last month, Cujdik was relieved of all police duties and surrendered his badge and gun, although Ramsey said Cujdik continues to be paid.

Ramsey said police first learned of the allegations in early December and had begun a probe with the help of a city police officers assigned to work with the FBI office here.

"We think high ethical statndards matter in Philadelphia, but especially the police department," Nutter said.

Nutter promised a "complete and thorough investigation" and "swift action."

Word of the alleged problems with arrests made by Cujdik and his one-time paid confident informant, former drug dealer Ventura Martinez, 47, became public Monday in an article in the Daily News.

Since then, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham has announced an investigation of the allegations and also confirmed that there were pending criminal cases involving Cujdik and Martinez that could be compromised.

Abraham's office was not represented at the news conference and spokeswoman Cathie Abookire was not immediately available for comment.

Even before the Daily News article, the police department's Internal Affairs Unit and the FBI had ongoing probes involving Cujdik, officials have confirmed.

And Bradley S. Bridge, a lawyer with the city Defender Association, which represents poor or indigent defendants in criminal cases, has confirmed that he is looking a dozen cases that he said "are clearly problematic."

The current investigation recalls the probe that began 14 years ago in the 39th District police scandal in which five rogue officers were charged with preying on drug suspects, stealing their money and covering up the busts with phony arrest and search warrants.

Within five years, what began as a probe of 40 problematic arests resulted in the reversal of charges or convictions involving 500 people. The City of Philadelphia paid more than $4 million to settle federal civil rights lawsuits filed by people wrongly arested and jailed through the officers' actions.

Like the 39th District Case, this investigation also is likely to expand. Any officer partnered with Cujdik will be looked at, as well as that partner's cases. If that partner's own cases are tainted, investigators will be promped to look at cases involving officers who he or she was partnered with.