Trial begins for former cop

Gary Cottrell, federal prosecutors said Monday, was a dirty cop who ran a West Philadelphia loan-sharking enterprise that used violence and the threat of violence against those who failed to pay interest fees of 300 percent.

Not true, said Cottrell's defense attorney, Jack McMahon, portraying his client as a friendly businessman who worked for 15 years on the police force and aided the needy who asked him for loans to buy groceries or pay utility bills.

"My client helped over 300 people," McMahon said in his opening statement to the jury. "He's not someone who has hurt people. He has helped people over and over and over."

Cottrell, 47, was charged with obstructing justice and making loans at illegally high rates.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Wzorek told the jury that he also would present a string of witnesses who had taken loans from Cottrell, fallen behind in payments, and then received threats from Cottrell.

Typically, the loans ranged several hundred dollars to several thousand, according to the indictment. But what Cottrell netted from the small loans added up: Prosecutors said Cottrell made more $280,000 between 2006 and 2011.

Wzorek quoted from a text message that Cottrell allegedly sent a man who was behind in his payment: "Don't start BS. Cause it gonna get dealt wit quickly. U on borrowed time as it is."

Cottrell, who joined the force in 1996 and was fired in May 2011, last worked at the 14th District in Germantown.

Wzorek said that after federal agents notified Cottrell that he was under investigation over making so-called juice loans, Cottrell began telling people who had borrowed from him that they should lie to investigators and claim there was no interest on the loans.

One of the people who followed that advice was Cheryl L. Stephens, who was an officer assigned to West Philadelphia's 18th District.

Stephens pleaded guilty in federal court in March 2013 to obstruction of justice for lying to the grand jury investigating Cottrell. She was fired the following month after 11 years on the force. She is listed as a prosecution witness in the case against Cottrell. She is scheduled to be sentenced in December and faces up to five years in prison.