NYPD Officer Salvador Duran's text message trying to fix ticket may derail attempted murder probe

A text message from a Bronx cop trying to get tickets fixed has thrown an attempted murder case into turmoil, the Daily News has learned.

"Can you please handle the following tickets?" Officer Salvador Duran said in a text message to a union delegate on Feb. 28, 2010, court records show.

Three days later, Duran called the unidentified delegate, records show. The conversation was recorded on a wiretap.

"Did you get my text?" Duran asked.

The delegate told Duran, a cop assigned to the 40th Precinct, that it "might take some time," but he was "working on it."

By law, the Bronx prosecutors gave the communications over to lawyers for Lance (Moon) Williams, a shooting suspect Duran arrested in May 2009.

The courthouse scenario is expected to play out again and again as the full breadth of the ticket-fixing probe unfolds.

About 40 cops are expected to be indicted in the case, including several Patrolmen's Benevolent Association delegates, sources said.

They're suspected of taking bribes in exchange for fixing tickets, the sources said. About 100 other officers could be hit with departmental charges.

The News reported last month that prosecutors in a DWI case were forced to reveal that the arresting officer, Julissa Goris, was picked up on a wiretap asking PBA delegate Jamie Payan to fix two tickets.

Still, Justice James Kindler refused Wednesday to dismiss the case. He ruled that Goris was credible and said she would be allowed to testify.

Sources in the Bronx district attorney's office said they expect several cases to be affected by the scandal - from traffic violations to murder.

"There are so many cops involved in this, it was bound to affect the high-level felony cases," one source said. "We could have homicidal criminals walking free because cops called in favors."

"It's painful to watch," another source said. "No one expected this to go this far."

It wasn't clear how Duran's suspected involvement in the ticket probe would affect the case against the wheelchair-bound Williams.

Records show Duran arrested Williams after Derrick Jordan was shot in the thigh inside an apartment on E. 157th St. Williams' lawyer declined to comment.

Duran, on the force eight years, could not be reached. Prosecutors, the NYPD and the PBA did not respond to requests for comment.