Phila. officer sentenced for obstructing FBI probe

A former Philadelphia police officer who was acquitted last year of extending loans at illegally high interest rates was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison for attempting to obstruct the FBI investigation of his case.

Gary Cottrell, 48, said that while he always felt confident he would be found not guilty of charges of making extortionate loans, the stress of the investigation surrounding his business had altered his judgment.

He was found guilty in November of asking two people to whom he had granted loans to lie to agents about the interest they had been charged.

"I should have just let it play out like it was going to play out," Cottrell told U.S. District Judge Darnell Jones II at a hearing.

Prosecutors had alleged that Cottrell charged his borrowers interest rates as high as 300 percent, and used violence and threats of violence against those who refused to pay.

At his trial, defense attorney Jack McMahon painted his client as a friendly businessman whose loans brought welcome relief to an element of the community that would not have qualified for more traditional loans. Money he lent was used to pay tuition, make mortgage payments, and buy groceries when money was tight, the lawyer said.

"These people came to him over and over again because he helped them," McMahon said Monday. "These people were in a situation where they couldn't go to a bank."

In addition to the prison term, Jones ordered Cottrell to pay back all interest he had collected from the two government witnesses he had encouraged to lie.

Cottrell worked for 15 years as a police officer, most recently in the 14th District in Germantown. He was fired in May 2011 as a result of criminal charges filed against him in a separate insurance fraud case in Common Pleas Court.

State prosecutors allege Cottrell operated as a "wreck chaser" who traveled throughout the city, often in uniform, to direct accident victims to an auto body shop engaged in an ongoing fraud scheme.

He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and is scheduled for trial Oct. 15.