The city has paid more than $1.2 million to settle false arrest lawsuits involving eight undercover cops charged with corruption in the NYPD Brooklyn South and Queens narcotics squads,
Prosecutors have also been left to clean up the mess created by detectives accused of planting drugs on innocent victims - a practice known as "flaking." Some detectives were accused of fabricating the circumstances surrounding busts.
Nearly 300 drug arrests had to be tossed in Brooklyn and Queens, most of them made by Brooklyn South narcs tainted by their false testimony and shredded credibility.
Two major drug probes in Queens were also derailed by the corruption probe, a spokesman for District Attorney Richard Brown said.
The settlements paid by the city in two dozen state and federal suits reviewed by The News ranged from $15,000 to $300,000. In addition, Detective Jason Arbeeny - now on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court - was forced to hand over $750 out of his own pocket to settle a case, according to court records.
Brooklyn lawyer Leo Glickman, who has represented dozens of plaintiffs who claimed they were falsely arrested on drug charges, said the NYPD ignores warning signs of corruption.
These [indicted] officers were unlucky enough to get caught on surveillance tape or audio tape, and then the Police Department was forced to act," the lawyer said.
Glickman said the NYPD should be carefully monitoring drug arrests that are dismissed by prosecutors for possible patterns of misconduct.
The biggest problem in the Police Department, it seems to me, is the lack of accountability," he said.
An NYPD spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The Brooklyn South scandal came to light when Detective Sean Johnstone, unaware that his hidden wire was recording, was caught on tape bragging that he had seized 28 bags of coke but vouchered only 17. Investigators later learned the undercover cops were flaking suspects from their illicit stash.
Johnstone was indicted along with Sgt. Michael Arenella and Detectives Jerry Bowens and Julio Alvarez in June 2008.
Around the same time, Johnstone was blabbing on the tape, Queens narcs Stephen Anderson and Henry Tavarez were flaking innocent victims with drugs in a Queens bar, proven by surveillance footage in the bar.
Anderson pleaded guilty and began cooperating with authorities. He testified recently at the trial of Arbeeny, a Brooklyn South narcotics detective, that lying, falsifying and flaking were common occurrences driven by arrest quotas and the desire to earn overtime.
He also implicated veteran undercover cop Adolph Osback, and at least one other officer whose name is being withheld by The News because he remains under investigation.
Detectives Endowment Association President Michael Palladino said the vast majority of narcotics cops risking their lives every day are victims of the scandal, too.
By his own admission, Anderson is clearly involved in wrongdoing, but it's disgraceful that to justify his own actions, he decided to attack the integrity and credibility of his hardworking fellow narcotics detectives," Palladino said.
Johnstone was convicted of felony conspiracy, and Arenella of official misconduct. Both were fired. Tavarez also pleaded guilty, and Alvarez was acquitted after a bench trial. Osback is awaiting trial in Brooklyn and Queens.
Bowens murdered his girlfriend after he was arrested and is serving a 40-year prison sentence.
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