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Witnesses: Drug cops went after innocents

So far, defense lawyers in the federal corruption trial of six Philadelphia narcotics officers have painted all of their clients' accusers as "trashy" drug dealers fabricating claims that they were mistreated or had their money stolen by police.

So far, defense lawyers in the federal corruption trial of six Philadelphia narcotics officers have painted all of their clients' accusers as "trashy" drug dealers fabricating claims that they were mistreated or had their money stolen by police.

On Friday, however, jurors heard from two witnesses who said they, too, were targeted, despite an utter lack of involvement in the illegal drug trade.

Terina Avery, an Army veteran, testified that a diamond ring and $6,000 in federal disaster assistance disappeared from the room she was renting in a Port Richmond boardinghouse after officers conducted a search tied to her landlord. Only $1,950 made its way onto a police property receipt.

Later, plumber Theodore Carobine accused the squad members of planting 100 grams of methamphetamine at his house in Northeast Philadelphia, and stealing gun accessories and jewelry that never showed up on search-warrant inventories. Also gone, he said, was $10,000 in cash he kept in a garage safe to pay for his daughter's nursing school tuition.

"They just kept asking me where the drugs were," Carobine recalled. "I didn't know what they were talking about."

Their testimony came on the 12th day of the racketeering conspiracy trial of Officers Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman, and John Speiser.

Over the last three weeks, witnesses have accused the men - all members of an elite drug squad - of repeatedly roughing up suspects, ignoring due process, pocketing seized drug money, and fabricating police reports to cover their tracks.

But though both Avery, 45, and Carobine, 56, said they had done nothing to warrant police scrutiny, defense lawyers weren't exactly willing to accept that they were blameless.

Avery was renting her room from a landlord charged with selling marijuana out of his Center City barbershop. When Liciardello, Reynolds, Spicer, and Betts searched her building in November 2011, they found more than five pounds of marijuana and three guns in the house.

Police linked those drugs to another tenant, and Avery was never accused of any involvement. But a handgun registered in her name was among the weapons officers seized.

They later charged her landlord, Kenneth Mills, with possessing it, even though Avery offered to show officers the paperwork to prove it was hers. Mills has since filed a civil suit against the city and the officers.

Asked Thursday by prosecutors why she never complained about her missing money and property, Avery replied: "What were they going to do? They just took it."

Carobine, on the other hand, did complain. After his arrest for drug possession in July 2009, he filed a grievance with Internal Affairs and a civil suit against Liciardello, Spicer, Betts, and Reynolds.

A burly tradesman with a white goatee, he kept a gun cabinet stocked with assault weapons and night-vision equipment in his garage. Above his marital bed, according to photos shown in court Friday, he had hung a copy of the Gadsden flag, the iconic Revolutionary-era banner bearing a rattlesnake poised to strike with the slogan, "Don't Tread on Me."

It was in Carobine's bedroom, Liciardello wrote in his official report, that officers discovered 100 grams of meth in a plastic bag. Confronted with that bag in court Friday, Carobine said he had never seen it before and that police had planted the drugs.

He was charged with involvement in the drug business of two longtime friends. The case was thrown out by a judge, after he spent five weeks in jail.

More troubling, though, than what was added to the search-warrant inventory of his house, Carobine said, was what was left off.

In all, he alleged, officers made off with $11,000, two diamond rings, and an arsenal of gun accessories including holsters, magazines, and a night-vision scope. The property receipt listed $8,669 as seized.

Testimony is expected to resume Tuesday.