Author: Security Solutions International Staff
By Nathan Gorenstein The Philadelphia Inquirer
CAMDEN, N.J. — Jason Stetser had a reputation on the Camden police force as an officer who could sniff out illegal drugs. At home, he kept a "trophy" book of photographs taken at the scenes of his biggest busts.
But by 2008, Stetser had slid over to the other side of the law. He started keeping cash found during raids, twice gave addicts drugs in return for information, and no longer cared if he violated the rules to make drug arrests.
"I figured I was doing good, what was best. And it just got out of control," Stetser said Tuesday at the federal trial of two other former Camden officers.
Antonio Figueroa, 35, and Robert Bayard, 33, were members of the Special Operations Unit with Stetser in 2008 and 2009 when, according to federal prosecutors, they falsified police reports, planted drugs, stole cash, and violated the civil rights of the drug suspects they arrested.
Stetser and two other officers have pleaded guilty to similar charges, resulting in the dismissal of 200 criminal cases by the state.
Stetser spent Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court testifying against Figueroa and Bayard and the afternoon undergoing cross-examination, which will continue next week. He often answered with just a "yes" or "no" in a near-monotone.
Stetser, 33, became more animated when asked about his reputation on the force.
"I enjoyed my status" as a successful officer, he said, adding that he was proud of his album containing photos of illegal drugs confiscated while on duty.
He emphatically denied a suggestion by a defense attorney, Ralph A. Jacobs, that he allowed prostitutes to smoke crack in his cruiser or that he had taken them to Atlantic City. "Absolutely not," he said.
Stetser, of Waterford Township, pleaded guilty in June 2010. After his indictment, "my whole life collapsed, pretty much," he said at one point Tuesday.
A big man, more than six feet tall, he was known on the street as "Fat Face" and had a reputation for aggressively going after drug dealers. His father, Jim, was a Camden officer who retired in 1989.
On the witness stand, Stetser appeared ashamed when he admitted twice giving crack to prostitutes in exchange for information on suspected drug dealers. Stetser said he dropped packets of crack – taken during other raids and not turned in as the rules required – onto the street for the women to pick up.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Skahill walked Stetser through the details of about a half-dozen incidents in which he testified that members of the unit had violated the law. Stetser said the officers, including Figueroa and Bayard, would force residents to consent to searches of their homes by claiming that their refusal could result in their losing the property or having their children taken away by the state.
In August 2008, Stetser said, he saw Figueroa "take a $100 bill from the dresser and put it in his front shirt pocket" while inside a home on the 2100 block of Sewell Street.
"It was the first time I ever saw an officer take money," Stetser said.
About two weeks later, his supervisor, Sgt. Dan Morris, slipped Stetser $800 taken during the search of another house. Morris also has pleaded guilty and testified in the trial.
Morris and Stetser are facing up to 10 years in jail, and agreed to testify in the hope of a reduced sentence.
Stetser described a number of incidents in which he said the officers falsified lengthy policy reports to justify illegal searches, typically describing street-corner drug transactions that never took place.
A number of the allegedly falsified reports were written by Figueroa.
Jacobs suggested that Stetser had Figueroa write reports based on fabricated information he supplied as a way to deflect responsibility to the unsuspecting officer. Stetser disputed that.
Copyright 2011 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC
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