Al's Bargain Place by alfred

By WENDY RUDERMAN & BARBARA LAKER
Philadelphia Daily News
Sept 11 2009

Narcotics Officer Jeffrey Cujdik and fellow squad members routinely conducted "illegal searches" of corner stores, then disabled surveillance cameras to "cover up" their actions and the theft of money and merchandise, according to allegations in two civil lawsuits filed yesterday.

The lawsuits, brought by two bodega owners and filed separately in federal court, name the city, Cujdik and other officers who carried out the store raids. Merchants Jose Duran and Jose Santana also claim in the suit that police brass failed to properly supervise the officers.

The lawsuits are the latest legal fallout stemming from a Daily News series, "Tainted Justice."

The series began with a Feb. 9 article detailing allegations that Cujdik sometimes lied on search-warrant applications to gain access to suspected drug houses.

Last week, a Frankford man, Luigi Lanzara, filed a civil lawsuit against Cujdik, Officer Robert McDonnell, then-Sgt. Joseph Bologna, and the city. The suit claims that a search warrant executed on his house was based on lies. Lanzara and his brother, Antonio, were arrested in 2006 on drug and gun charges. At the time, police characterized the case as one of the city's biggest gun busts.

All gun charges against Lanzara were dropped because all but one of the guns were legally owned by the Lanzaras' elderly father, a longtime collector. The other was legally owned by Luigi Lanzara's wife.

Luigi Lanzara got three years' probation after pleading guilty to a marijuana charge.

As a result of the charges, he "sustained pain, permanent injury, emotional distress, and financial and reputational losses," according to the Sept. 4 lawsuit.

Cujdik is at the center of an expanding federal and local probe into allegations of police misconduct. He is one of four narcotics officers, including his brother Richard, who remain on desk duty. No officer has been charged criminally.

In March, the Daily News delved into allegations that Jeffrey and Richard Cujdik and their squad members disabled surveillance cameras during raids of bodegas and smoke shops that sold tiny ziplock bags, which police consider drug paraphernalia. After the cameras went dark, thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise went missing, stores owners alleged.

Bodega owner Jose Duran had a hidden backup hard-drive that captured some of the September 2007 raid at his West Oak Lane store. The footage shows officers cutting camera wires. Duran alleges that the officers failed to report nearly $10,000 in cash and merchandise taken from the store.

In his lawsuit, filed by attorney David Rudovsky, Duran alleges that the officers "intentionally and maliciously destroyed plaintiff's personal property, consumed food and beverages . . . stole plaintiff's money and merchandise, and deliberately caused food and other items to spoil by their illegal search practices."

Chief Deputy City Solicitor Craig M. Straw, who heads the civil-rights unit, did not return a phone call.