Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Capt Rick Maglione, Sgt Steven Greenlaw Is it Police Corruption Fort Lauderdale Florida

Law Office of the PUBLIC DEFENDER
Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Howard Finkelstein • Public Defender
Broward County Courthouse • 201 S.E. 6th Street • Suite 3872 • Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
Telephone: (954) 831-8650 • Fax: (954) 831-8853 • Internet Address: http://www.browarddefender.org
June 21, 2013
Michael J. Satz
State Attorney
Office of the State Attorney
Broward County Courthouse
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Dear Mr. Satz,
My investigator recently requested and received a copy of Fort Lauderdale Detective Steven Greenlaw's Internal Affairs file. His request was prompted by news reports that Detective Greenlaw worked for Scott Rothstein, Bova Prime Restaurant and the law firm of Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler.
Detective Greenlaw's lA file contained a June 21, 2006 letter from Assistant State Attorney David Di Pietro to the Internal Affairs Division advising that
Detective Greenlaw and Detective Siekierski admitted to him that they lied under oath during a deposition. Both detectives had been asked if they or any other officer involved in the investigation had received a tip or information that the defendant was in possession of illegal drugs. Both detectives answered no.
Detective Greenlaw, in deposition, stated that it was only chance that the traffic stop for illegal tint led to the narcotics arrest. ASA Di Pietro learned that answer was a lie after defense counsel filed a motion to dismiss based on entrapment and Dectective Greenlaw's and Siekierski's untruthful testimony. ASA Di Pietro confronted the detectives and only then did they come clean and admit that they lied to protect the CI and did not know that they could refuse to answer the question. ASA Di Pietro copied his letter to both Assistant State Attorney In Charge Jeff Marcus and Supervising Assistant State Attorney Richard Petrovich.
Detective Greenlaw's Internal Affairs file also contained an investigative report by Captain Rick Maglione concluding that the incident was merely a "training issue." Captain Maglione responded to ASA Di Pietro's letter on July 12,2006 and thanked him for bringing the matter to his attention and advised that the detectives would participate in training. To suggest this was sufficient is laughable. This is not a matter oftraining, but of honesty. An officer DOES NOT have to be trained to know he CAN NOT lie- especially under oath.
Instead affiling perjury charges, you sent a prosecutor to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department to train officers not to lie- which appears to be nothing more than an excuse to justify giving the officers a pass and avoid Brady notices.The detectives were not prosecuted for perjury, nor did my office receive any Brady notices regarding the detectives' perjury. l do not understand how this would not fit into your "liberal" Brady disclosure policy. (quoted from your letter of October 26, 2011 ). Unlike other incidents where your failure to establish a communication system shielded you from receiving information regarding police misconduct, ASA Di Pietro notified lA that these officers lied. You were on notice and yet you did not comply with your Brady obligation or prosecute the officers.
This office did receive, however, pursuant to a public records request, a November 19,2010 close-out memo authored by ASA David Schulson finding
"no evidence to support the filing of the criminal charge of falsifying records" against Sergeant Steven Greenlaw. ASA Schulson stated that he was provided all relevant documents by the Broward Sheriffs Office, including Captain Maglione's summary and final report. ASA Schulson concurred with Captain Maglione that Greenlaw did not intentionally make incorrect entries on his OffDuty Police Employment Request Form. There is no mention of Sergeant Greenlaw's 2006 perjury. ASA Schulson was most likely unaware of that incident due to the lack of any communication among the attorneys in your office, law enforcement agencies and other government offices whose personnel regularly appear on the state's witness lists. Perhaps if ASA Schulson knew of the 2006 perjury, he may have looked beyond Captain Maglione's 2010 reports. Perhaps if there were proper Brady procedures in place, a lying police officer would come to the attention of your prosecutors and be disclosed to the defense as is required by law.
As I have over the last several years and many letters, l am asking you to implement a Brady system consistent with 21st century technology. You cannot continue to do what you have done for the past 38 years. Your history of convicting innocent people and your continuing failure to comply with Brady, has proven that your current system is broken and has been for a very long time.