DETECTIVE IS FOUND GUILTY OF PLANTING DRUGS

The New York Police Department, already saddled with corruption
scandals, saw its image further tainted on Tuesday with the
conviction of a detective for planting drugs on a woman and her
boyfriend. Metro Twitter Logo.

The bench verdict from Justice Gustin L. Reichbach in State Supreme
Court in Brooklyn stemmed from acts committed in 2007 by the
defendant, Jason Arbeeny, a 14-year veteran of the department who
worked in the Brooklyn South unit.

Before announcing the verdict, Justice Reichbach scolded the
department for what he described as a widespread culture of
corruption endemic in its drug units.

"I thought I was not naive," he said. "But even this court was
shocked, not only by the seeming pervasive scope of misconduct but
even more distressingly by the seeming casualness by which such
conduct is employed."

The case against Detective Arbeeny was rooted in a far larger tale of
corruption in Police Department drug units: several narcotics
officers in Brooklyn have been caught mishandling drugs they seized
as evidence, and hundreds of potentially tainted drug cases have been
dismissed. The city has made payments to settle civil suits over
wrongful incarcerations.

During the trial, prosecutors described the corruption in the drug
units that Detective Arbeeny worked for. One former detective,
Stephen Anderson, who did not know the defendant, testified that
officers in those units often planted drugs on innocent people. Mr.
Anderson has pleaded guilty to official misconduct over a 2008
episode involving drug evidence and now faces two to four years in prison.

Detective Arbeeny was convicted of official misconduct, offering a
false instrument for filing and falsifying business records. Charles
Guria, a prosecutor, described this latest case of police corruption
as an abuse of power.

"It's a sad day when a police officer misuses his authority," Mr. Guria said.

On Jan. 25, 2007, prosecutors said, Detective Arbeeny planted a small
bag of crack cocaine on two innocent people.

The detective's lawyer, Michael Elbaz, tried to discredit the most
important prosecution witnesses, Yvelisse DeLeon and her boyfriend,
Juan Figueroa. Ms. DeLeon had testified that the couple drove up to
their apartment building in Coney Island and were approached by two
plainclothes police officers. She said she then saw Detective Arbeeny
remove a bag of powder from his pocket and place it in the vehicle.

"He brought out his pocket," Ms. DeLeon told the court. "He said,
'Look what I find.' It looked like little powder in a little bag."

Later in 2007, the detective was accused of stealing multiple bags of
cocaine from the prisoner van to which he had been assigned; Justice
Reichbach found Detective Arbeeny not guilty of those charges.

Though there had been conflicting testimony during the trial about
the existence of quotas in the department's drug units, Justice
Reichbach said, a system of flawed procedures in part led to the
charges against Detective Arbeeny.

In the department's Brooklyn South narcotics unit, for instance,
drugs seized as evidence are not counted or sealed until they reach
the precinct and can be handled by multiple officers along the way,
Justice Reichbach said, adding that such unacceptable practices "pale
in significance" to the "cowboy culture" of the drug units.

"Anything goes in the never-ending war on drugs," he said, "and a
refusal to go along with questionable practices raise the specter of
blacklisting and isolation."

Sentencing is scheduled for January. Detective Arbeeny faces up to
four years in prison.