Officer suspected of robbery was desperate for cash, sister says

WHEN HER big brother came to her two weeks ago asking for money to pay his mortgage, Shannon Lantz said no.

It was about that time that authorities began a sting that would lead to Lantz's brother, Police Officer Sean Alivera, 31, and his partner, Christopher Luciano, 23, being arrested Monday for allegedly stealing 20 pounds of pot and $3,000 from a man they believed was a drug dealer.

But their mark turned out to be an undercover cop, and the partners became the latest in a series of in-house arrests for the Philadelphia Police Department.

Yesterday, Lantz was wracked with what-ifs and left wondering how her brother could have gotten in this situation.

"He really, really begged me for the money to pay his mortgage, and I said no," she said. "I wish I gave it to him. This probably would have never happened."

Lantz said that her brother has never done drugs and that she believes financial strife and depression led him to the alleged robbery while he was on duty.

She said that he's been unable to pay his mortgage on the home he bought eight years ago and that he has had trouble providing for his wife and two children. City payroll records show that he made $57,800 last year plus $4,126 in overtime.

"For him to go and do something like this, the whole family is in shock because it's not him, it's like a bad dream you can't wake up from," she said. "He was brought up way better than this, and he would never do this unless he was in need."

But John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said that there was no excuse for the officers' actions and the shame that they have brought to the "99.9 percent of good cops out there."

"There is no justification in the world," he said. "If he really had to pay his mortgage, why ain't he out there locking drug dealers up and going to court? That will pay his overtime."

What's even harder for everyone involved to understand is why Alivera and Luciano would have done such a thing when an officer from their own district got busted for the same thing just two months ago.

Lantz said that her brother may not have been deterred because perhaps, he saw many more cops get away with it than were caught.

"Now they are cracking down on corrupt cops, but in the past it was always going on," she said. "Before it was so much easier to do anything, and nobody was scared because nobody ever got caught."

She hopes that the department puts checks in place to see if cops are under financial stress that might lead them to steal, and creates oversights that make it harder to go astray.

"It's too easy for them to take money off the streets," she said. "They need to make sure they are OK before they send them out on the street to arrest drug dealers with money and drugs.

"It's too easy for them to take advantage of that, especially if they are in need."

Lantz said that her brother, who is broke, doesn't have money for a lawyer and that she can't understand why after 10 years and some job-related injuries, the FOP is "abandoning him."

McNesby said that the FOP does not provide lawyers to cops involved in corruption or crime.

"If you're found not guilty, by some chance, we will reimburse you," he said. "Except for that, good luck to her brother and whatever federal penitentiary he goes to."