More trouble for detective under scrutiny
The drug raid at a Northeast Philadelphia home on Tuesday night was substantial, with more than $300,000 worth of heroin recovered. But it was a photo found on the suspect's iPad that turned investigators' heads.
The drug raid at a Northeast Philadelphia home on Tuesday night was substantial, with more than $300,000 worth of heroin recovered. But it was a photo found on the suspect's iPad that turned investigators' heads.
The snapshot, law enforcement sources said Friday, showed homicide Detective Ron Dove at a bar, smiling, with his arm around the suspected dealer, Jose Martinez.
That photo and others of Dove and Martinez, who was being held Friday on $500,000 bail, were turned over to Internal Affairs investigators who already suspected the detective of concealing evidence and hampering investigations in three killings and a man's disappearance.
Though it was unclear Friday what connection Dove may have to Martinez, the photos are the latest in a deluge of troubling developments surrounding the 16-year veteran.
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey could not be reached for comment.
Dove was removed from street work this month, amid allegations that he helped his girlfriend, Erica Sanchez, flee after she allegedly stabbed her ex-boyfriend, Cesar Vera, to death last month.
Dove and Sanchez have been dating for five years. He has told investigators he is in love with the young woman and has not broken any laws.
Dove, who has not reported to work since being placed on desk duty, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Investigators were also trying to determine whether Dove tried to suppress an investigation into the unsolved 2010 shooting death of Leslie Delzingaro, 45, in J.J.'s Lounge, a bar in Olney owned by Sanchez's father.
The mother of two was visiting J.J.'s Lounge for her job selling decorative lighting when two gunmen sprayed the bar with bullets. Dove was the lead investigator on that case.
Delzingaro's family has maintained Dove seemed dismissive of the case and told them the bar owner was a "great guy."
Delzingaro's family filed a complaint with Internal Affairs after reading recent news coverage of the investigation into Dove.
Investigators also say Dove may have concealed information in a third unsolved killing - the May 2012 slaying of Melanie Colon, 22, who was shot six times at close range and found face down behind a Juniata Park apartment building. She was a DJ and mother of a young boy, Joshua, who turns 6 this month.
Colon's friend Reynaldo Torres, a mechanic on her street, was the last person seen with her. He has since disappeared, and investigators believe Vera may have been linked to Colon's death and Torres' disappearance.
Notes found on Dove's iPad when detectives raided his home this month led investigators to search for Torres' body twice this week in an overgrown, trash-filled ravine near where Vera lived on Westmoreland Street.
Investigators searched the ravine with cadaver dogs. They zeroed in on a tarp in a pit near a break in the fence.
No human body parts were found, but debris in the tarp has been submitted for DNA testing, the sources said. Investigators are awaiting those results.
The ravine remained blocked off by police on Friday.
All Dove's cases have been reassigned to other detectives, police said. Asked whether officials were reviewing Dove's cases, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office said she could not comment on the open investigation.
In Tuesday's raid, narcotics officers found nearly a kilogram of heroin - some in bulk and some already packaged.
Martinez was arraigned Wednesday, charged with manufacture, delivery, or possession of drugs and related offenses.
