Ex-Detective Is Given
7-Year Prison Term
By WILLIAM K.
RASHBAUM, NYTimes on the Web, October 14, 2006
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Michael Nagle for The New York Times
At his
sentencing, Thomas Rachko, a retired detective, sobbed and
apologized for stealing about $800,000 in drug money. |
Brooklyn, NY -- In a Brooklyn
courtroom packed with his family, friends and neighbors, a retired police
detective who had admitted to stealing roughly $800,000 from drug dealers
delivered a tormented apology yesterday, moments before a judge sentenced him to
seven years in federal prison.
Sobbing as he described how a voracious gambling addiction drove his thefts and
led to a separation from his wife, the detective, Thomas Rachko, 48, also spoke
of his two sons, 11 and 13 years old, who were not in court.
He said the boys had read many times of his successes during his 20-year police
career, only “to be forced because of my hideous actions to read about my
disgusting behavior.”
“I just can’t believe I did what I did to them,” Mr. Rachko told Judge Carol B.
Amon of United States District Court in Brooklyn.
A big man with close-cropped silver hair, he rubbed his hand over his face as
his voice quavered.
“I am so sorry, but by the same token, your honor, I am here today to be
punished,” he said. “I deserve to be punished. What I did was
horrendous. I can’t believe I did it, but it is deserving of punishment.”
Mr. Rachko, who retired from the Police Department in 2002, had faced life in
prison on narcotics conspiracy charges arising from his significant role in the
department’s biggest scandal in a decade. His sentencing brought the
criminal investigation to a close.
He was arrested on Nov. 26, 2003, just hours after he and his old partner, Julio
C. Vasquez, were captured on videotape stealing $169,000 from a drug money
courier. He began cooperating with the authorities almost immediately, and
the theft unraveled a web of corruption — thefts of drug money and drugs that
Mr. Vasquez helped sell for cash. As many as 10 current or retired police
detectives and supervisors were implicated.
Mr. Rachko, who before he retired was assigned to the Northern Manhattan
Initiative, a narcotics unit that focused on drug dealers in Harlem and
Washington Heights, spent his drug plunder betting on horses. He sometimes
collected his illicit take right outside Off-Track Betting parlors so he could
go back in and gamble some more.
But he stressed to the judge that he was not seeking to lessen the gravity of
his crimes by citing his addiction.
“I do not use gambling as an excuse for what I did, your honor,” he said.
“I knew when I did what I did I was doing wrong, and I was breaking the law.
I just did not have the courage or the proper mind-set to stop. I knew
because of the fact that for most of my years I was a good detective, I knew
that I was going to get caught. But I just could not control myself.”
He told the judge that his gambling addiction placed a tremendous burden on his
family. He also apologized to his community, a Bronx neighborhood, whose
residents turned out with his family to support him, filling every seat on the
courtroom’s polished wooden benches. He said he never bought anything for
himself, adding that the dark gray suit in which he was sentenced was given to
him as a gift 10 years ago.
“Yes, I was greedy for that money,” he said. “Almost like a — a junkie
would be for a bag of heroin. I just wanted that money to gamble.”
His lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, had pleaded with the judge to look at some of the
positive things Mr. Rachko had done, citing his work as a detective before he
began committing crimes, and his extensive volunteer work in the Bronx.
The prosecutor, Adam Abensohn, an assistant United States attorney, said some of
his colleagues had known Mr. Rachko before his arrest, and “liked him, trusted
him and believed him.”
Before pronouncing sentence, Judge Amon called his crimes a “horrible breach of
the public trust.” But she noted that he was remorseful and had
cooperated, as detailed in a prosecution letter that enabled her to mete out a
lighter sentence than the statutory minimum of 10 years and the maximum life
term advised by sentencing guidelines.
The proceeding yesterday brought to an end the three-year investigation by the
El Dorado Task Force, the anti-money-laundering unit of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security that videotaped the $169,000
theft, and by F.B.I. agents and the police Internal Affairs Bureau
investigators.
Mr. Vasquez was sentenced to six years in prison. John Maguire, a retired
lieutenant, was sentenced to 14 months, and Carlos Rodriguez, a former
detective, was sentenced to two years. Another detective was fired after a
police administrative hearing, and the department is seeking to fire two more.
After the sentencing, an F.B.I. agent who worked on the case shook Mr. Rachko’s
hand. Then, the retired detective, who will keep his police pension and
pay a $10,000 fine after serving his prison term and five years of supervised
release, walked into the courtroom gallery and held his wife in a long embrace
as both wept. He then hugged several supporters who had filled the
benches.
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