Fired Philadelphia Narcotics Cop Covered In Pulitzer Price-Winning Newspaper Series 'Tainted Justice' And True Crime Book 'Busted' Gets His Job Back

David Gambacorta at the Philadelphia Daily News offers a piece on the reinstatement of a Philly cop who was fired.

In a decision that Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey called "disappointing," an arbitrator on Wednesday moved to reinstate fired Philadelphia narcotics cop Jeffrey Cujdik.

Ramsey booted Cujdik from the force in May, following a long-running Internal Affairs investigation into allegations that the veteran cop lied on search warrants and had an inappropriate relationship with an informant - and then lied about both to investigators. The allegations were first unearthed in the 2009 Daily News series "Tainted Justice."

The series, based on interviews with dozens of victims, detailed incidents of misconduct among a group of undercover narcotics officers, including phony search-warrant applications, the looting of bodegas and even sexual assault.

The city has paid out at least $1.7 million to settle 33 lawsuits filed by bodega owners and two women who said they'd been assaulted by a member of Cujdik's squad.

Federal and local probes of the officers were triggered by the Pulitzer Prize-winning series.

Ramsey said Thursday that the arbitration hearing centered on whether he had just cause to fire Cudjik.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20141120_Tainted_cop_gets_his_job_back.html

You can also read my interview with the Daily News reporters who wrote the newspaper series and the book Busted via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/05/my-crime-beat-column-my-q-with-wendy.html