10-year-old story involved in Cujdik probe

Almost 10 years later, it's an investigative footnote, mentioned in passing in a few judicial opinions: a drug dealer's allegation that a young and relatively green Philadelphia narcotics officer was part of a group that stole $63,000 in cash during a search of his house.

Reginald Harris' story has renewed currency today only because of the officer's name: Richard L. Cujdik, now on desk duty in what officials say is a result of the ongoing probe of the Philadelphia police Narcotics Field Unit.

Richard's brother Jeffrey is under investigation in the alleged falsification of information to obtain search warrants involving suspected drug dealers.

Though Harris' allegations are referred to publicly in the court opinions, the investigation's outcome remains in sealed files in federal court and the FBI offices in Philadelphia.

The information has surfaced in court opinions and briefs filed in an appeal by two convicted drug dealers, Jeffrey Johnson and James Phillips, each serving 30 years in prison.

Johnson's attorney, Jerry S. Goldman, said he hoped the new probe of allegations about the Cujdiks and some other members of the narcotics unit would result in a new trial for his client, now 40.

Richard Cujdik, 35, a 13-year police veteran, did not respond to requests for comment.

What is known is that the probe of Harris' allegations against Cujdik did not result in criminal charges. And, if there was any internal police discipline, it did not cast a cloud on Cujdik's career.

Cujdik - son and brother of narcotics officers - continued to pile up bust after bust with the narcotics unit.

Then, this month, the federal-local probe that began in February with allegations involving Jeffrey Cujdik overtook Richard and fellow officer Robert McDonnell.

Police Internal Affairs officials have confirmed that they reassigned McDonnell and Richard Cujdik to desk duty and that the moves were linked to the investigation.

The significance of Harris' allegations against Richard Cujdik is difficult to gauge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank R. Costello Jr., a career prosecutor who handled the Harris case, said he could not confirm or deny any investigation involving Cujdik.

Other current and former investigators involved in police-corruption investigations in the late 1990s also said they did not remember allegations against Cujdik. The current federal-local task force investigation began Feb. 9, after Jeffrey Cujdik's former paid confidential informant, Ventura Martinez, alleged in an interview that he and Cujdik made up some drug buys to justify search warrants for people Cujdik wanted to search and arrest.

As has his one-year-older brother, Jeffrey Cudjik has been silent, though his attorney, George Bochetto, has criticized reporters and investigators for lending credence to Martinez's word over that of a veteran narcotics officer.

That the investigation of Jeffrey Cujdik now involves his brother and other officers is not unusual. From the start, investigators said they would review searches and criminal cases of officers who worked closely with Jeffrey Cujdik, or whose names appeared in documentation, called an affidavit of probable cause, needed to get a judge to approve a police search.

Allegations of bogus affidavits, stolen money, illegal searches, and false testimony have plagued the Police Department's drug units for decades. Law enforcement veterans - and even some defense attorneys - concede that such allegations are inherent with the illicit drug trade.

Jeffrey Johnson was convicted in December 2000 of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Johnson contended he was just a low-level independent dealer working the Spring Garden housing project in North Philadelphia. What linked Johnson to the much-larger Hunt cocaine ring was, in part, the testimony of Richard Cujdik, one of the arresting officers.

Cujdik, according to court records, testified that the crack-filled gelatin capsules, marked "357," that Johnson sold were trademarks of the Hunt organization and no other city drug ring.

After the verdict, Johnson's attorney criticized the convictions, maintaining that prosecutors withheld evidence that would have undercut Cujdik's and other officers' credibility.

Among the new evidence, according to court records, were memos and police and prosecutors' notes that - contrary to Cujdik's testimony - the marked gelatin capsules were not unique to the Hunt ring or its neighborhood.

Johnson also told of a conversation with his cellmate in the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia - former narcotics officer Kenneth Spencer, himself awaiting sentencing for tipping off drug dealers about police raids - indicating that the drug unit "had a history of fabricating evidence."

And finally, there was Reginald Harris, 39, who alleged that when police searched his Frankford home on Jan. 11, 2000, they left with $63,000 in cash - not the $19,996 Cujdik reported was seized.

Defense lawyer Dennis J. Cogan, who represented Harris at the time, said Harris maintains that his money was taken. He said the FBI came to Harris and asked him to detail his assertions about police taking his money.

"That would suggest that they were already investigating something," Cogan said.

Cogan added that Harris already had pleaded guilty and was awaiting sentencing: "He didn't have a stake in this. ... It's not like he was going to get the money back."

After Harris' Feb. 6, 2002, FBI interview, Cogan said, he never heard back from agents or federal prosecutors. That's not unusual, Cogan said. Defense attorneys usually learn the outcome of an investigation only if someone is charged and prosecuted.

In 2005, U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno denied Johnson's and Phillips' motion for a new trial based on the newly discovered evidence. Robreno wrote that Johnson and Phillips had failed to pass the legal threshold required for success: that if the jury knew of the evidence at trial, it would have acquitted the pair.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed Robreno's ruling in September 2006.

Johnson remains in prison, serving his 30-year sentence and pressing his appeal.

Goldman said that too often, judges simply take a police officer's word when they sign and approve search warrants.

"The federal and state courts must be vigilant and make sure [police] testimony is truthful, because as a result of their testimony, men's and women's lives can be ruined," Goldman said.