Queens Detective Faces Charges of False Drug Arrests - NYTimes.com

Queens Detective Faces Charges of False Drug Arrests - NYTimes.com

Detective Faces Charges of False Drug Arrests
By AL BAKER
Published: December 3, 2010
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An undercover New York City police detective assigned to an embattled narcotics unit in Queens has been charged with falsely accusing five men of selling drugs to him, according to a 48-count indictment unsealed last month in Queens.

The detective, Adolph Osback, 38, has also been indicted in Brooklyn on separate charges stemming from his days working in a Brooklyn South narcotics bureau that gained notoriety for a case involving accusations that some of its officers had traded drugs for information, officials said.

A trial against two officers involved in that scandal, which led to prosecutors throwing out more than 150 criminal cases, began on Friday, said a spokesman for Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney.

In the Queens case, the indictment, unsealed Nov. 16, says that based on the word of Detective Osback, five men were arrested and charged — between January 2006 and May 2007 — with third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a felony punishable by up to nine years in prison. The drugs in question included cocaine, according to a law enforcement official, though the specifics of the cases were not laid bare in the indictment.

The criminal charges against the five men were ultimately dismissed and their criminal court records sealed, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing. The developments were first reported Thursday by WABC-TV.

A police official said that Detective Osback, who was appointed to the Police Department in September 2000, was suspended without pay on Nov. 16 and stripped of his gun and shield. A day earlier, he had been indicted in Brooklyn on charges stemming from alleged actions in November 2005, according to that indictment. The case languished for five years as detectives worked to locate a witness.

The narcotics unit in Queens where Detective Osback was assigned has generated a string of embarrassing cases of police wrongdoing. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, was asked on Friday if Detective Osback’s arrest signified the tip of a wider corruption inquiry or if it was believed to be an isolated instance of a rogue officer.

“We have an ongoing investigation at this time and so I would really not want to go much beyond where it is,” Mr. Brown said.

He added that at present “mainly Detective Osback has been indicted, and he was arraigned on multiple offenses involving perjury, unlawful imprisonment and official misconduct.”

The police said there was no indication of a wider problem.

Detective Osback has pleaded not guilty at arraignments in Brooklyn and Queens, and is free on bail, said his lawyer, Damien M. Brown. He is due back in court Jan. 12. “He is a family man,” Mr. Brown said. “He is absolutely innocent; he will be vindicated.”

Alain Delaquérière and Mick Meenan contributed reporting

A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page