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Philly police detective charged in $24,000 bribery scheme

Federal authorities have charged a Philadelphia police detective with accepting $24,000 in bribes in an alleged six-year scheme to aid the business of a friend and former officer.

Federal authorities have charged a Philadelphia police detective with accepting $24,000 in bribes in an alleged six-year scheme to aid the business of a friend and former officer.

In exchange for those payments, Patrick Pelosi, a 27-year veteran of the force, routinely fast-tracked requests to clear cars from a national law enforcement database of stolen vehicles after they had been recovered, prosecutors said.

Court documents filed Wednesday allege he struck the deal with a former detective - identified only as "Person #1" - who in retirement started a company that recovered stolen vehicles for clients, including national rental-car chains.

The retired detective was looking for a way to speed the process of getting stolen rental cars back on the road and bypass delays caused by police policies that required full physical inspection of recovered cars before they could be removed from the national registry of stolen vehicles.

The rental companies could not rent their recovered cars until they were cleared from the database for fear that their customers might be pulled over.

In exchange for agreeing to delete recovered cars from the database without those inspections, Pelosi allegedly received monthly payments of $300 to $400 from the retired detective's company.

Prosecutors on Thursday declined to name the ex-officer who allegedly was bribing Pelosi, but said he had retired in 2007 after a 30-year career. Authorities said the two had worked together in the Southwest Detective Division.

Pelosi, who faces charges of honest-services fraud and lying to federal investigators, remains in his position at the division, a police spokesman said Thursday.

He was charged by way of a criminal information - a sign that typically indicates a defendant has waived indictment and intends to plead guilty. His lawyer did not return calls for comment Thursday.

No date has been scheduled for Pelosi's first court appearance.

jroebuck@phillynews.com

215-854-2608 @jeremyrroebuck