Yesterday morning, six members of the Philadelphia Police Department's Narcotics Field Unit were arrested for allegedly assaulting, kidnapping, and robbing suspects over a six year period.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, officers Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Linwood Norman, John Speiser, Perry Betts, and Thomas Liciardello have been indicted on 26 counts. They stand accused of taking over $500,000 worth of property, money, and drugs from suspects from 2006 to 2012. The Inquirer adds that "extreme force" was exerted in these scenarios, while the officers resorted to falsifying documents to underreport what they seized:
Warren Layre, 61, told The Inquirer in an interview last year that the officers beat him with a steel bar and kicked in his teeth during a warrantless raid on his machine shop on West Sedgwick Street in June 2011. Speaking to a reporter two years later, he pulled back his lip to show the gaps in his teeth that remained.
According to Wednesday's indictment, Liciardello reported less than $7,000 of the $41,158 they seized from Layre's shop.
Reynolds, Spicer, Norman, Betts, and Liciardello all face life in prison if convicted. Meanwhile, Speiser faces a maximum of 40 years in prison. Each of the officers have entered not guilty pleas.
[via Philadelphia Inquirer]
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