A former Chicago police officer who broke the so-called code of silence to cooperate against four fellow officers was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison, a sharp reduction because of his extensive cooperation.
A federal prosecutor quoted Frank Serpico, the former New York City detective who exposed police corruption in the 1970s, in extolling the bravery of James Benson, then a Grand Central District tactical officer, in cooperating in the investigation before he was indicted.
“We must create an atmosphere where the crooked cop fears the honest cop, not the other way around,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian Netols quoted Serpico as saying at a New York City Council hearing on police brutality.
“Why doesn’t the crooked cop fear the honest cop?” Netols said. “Because of the code of silence.”
Netols credited Benson’s cooperation with leading the other four officers to plead guilty.
The convictions of two of them marked the first time that Chicago police officers were convicted of being aware of criminal conduct of other cops but doing nothing about it, authorities have said.
According to the charges, former Detective Jon F. Woodall, former Officer Peter Matich and Benson were tipped that other officers had overlooked 7 kilograms of cocaine hidden in an impounded car.
The three officers agreed to sell 5 kilograms and plant 2 kilos on a drug suspect and wrongly charge him with a narcotics offense.
The charges eventually were dropped.
“The conduct you have admitted to can only be described as outrageous,” U.S. District Judge John Darrah told Benson, 35, as he imposed the 18-month prison term and fined him $5,000.
Woodall and Matich pleaded guilty, but Darrah previously declined to accept their plea deals, dissatisfied with the agreed 9-year prison term for Woodall and 7 1/2 years for Matich.
The two are scheduled to plead guilty this month to charges that call for increased prison sentences.
In pleading guilty to unprecedented civil rights charges, former Officers Edgar Placencio and Ruben Oliveras admitted they assisted in concealing the conduct of their crooked colleagues, authorities said.
While defending most police as honest, Netols said the officers were “a product of a police culture that the lowest common denominator wins on a given day.”
Netols, who has prosecuted about 30 police officers, said Benson was the first to tell authorities of criminal wrongdoing by close colleagues “not out of fear of what would happen to him but out of a sincere belief that he was doing the right thing.”
Except for his cooperation, Benson faced as much as 14 years in prison.
