Rogue Cop Framed?

To the Editor:

Once again Bill Phillips, rogue cop and principal witness against corrupt police officers during the Knapp Commission hearings, is up for parole. He won't be paroled (after 30 years behind bars, and a prison record without a blemish) for a number of reasons, the primary two of which are:

1. He won't admit to a murder and an attempted murder that he says he did not commit.

2. The pressure to keep imprisoned a corrupt cop who exposed the most widespread corruption in NYPD history will continue until Phillips is in his grave. Put it this way: degenerate gambler (and great player) Pete Rose, will be welcomed into the Baseball Hall of Fame long before Bill Phillips is seriously considered for parole.

I think it is highly unlikely that Phillips committed the crimes for which he has served 30 years, and anyone who is really interested should read Leonard Shecter's (and Phillips's) book, "On the Pad: The Underworld and its Corrupt Police; Confessions of a Cop on the Take." Most members of law enforcement, especially the NYPD, won't read the book because they don't care if Phillips is guilty or if he was framed; they hate his guts for exposing the corruption in the department.

Four years after the murder of a prostitute and the attempted murder of a pimp, Det. John Justy (now deceased) just happened to think of Phillips as a suspect from an artist's drawing showing a pockmarked face of a middle-aged man who could have been almost anybody. The timing of Justy's focus on Phillips is interesting - at the very time when cops and citizens were outraged that after Phillips's shocking Knapp Commission account of his corrupt career as an NYPD detective, he was about to walk, free as a bird and with money in his pockets. The fact that Justy's partner committed suicide right before Phillips testified at the Knapp Commission certainly provided a strong motive to hate Phillips. The murder case was based mainly on the eyewitness identification by a "john" with a psychiatric history who survived being shot, and a prostitute who was not shot because Phillips reportedly had emptied his 5-shot revolver. No corrupt cop survives and thrives in the world of shakedowns and extortion, as Phillips did, if he's so careless as to leave witnesses who can nail him for murder. There is no way Phillips, who had no prior history of violence, committed two murders and left live witnesses to report them.

Another interesting detail in Leonard Shecter's 1973 book is that two potentially good witnesses, employees of the building where the murders took place, had died of natural causes before Phillips was ever considered a suspect. If they were alive, they could have said whether Phillips was in the building at the time of the murders.

As the Knapp Commission Chief Counsel, Michael Armstrong, wrote, Phillips was an extremely effective undercover agent for the Commission, providing details of the kinds of widespread corruption reported by hero cop Frank Serpico. Armstrong believes Phillips is serving his life sentence - apparently without parole - for another man's crimes. Judge Whitman Knapp has also come out in support of Phillips.

Back in the 1970s, even an honest cop, Frank Serpico, was hated by many cops, and probably would have been framed if the opportunity came up. His near-fatal shooting during a drug buy raised many questions. The idea that the epitome of a corrupt cop - Bill Phillips - could get three days in the TV limelight during the Knapp Commission and save his own skin by ratting out other corrupt cops - exposing the rot in the Police Department - was more than a sufficient motive to frame Phillips. Incidentally, the shabby treatment of Joe Trimboli, who almost single-handedly brought down a more recent corrupt and criminal cop, Michael Dowd (75th Precinct), shows that the NYPD will not rush to support those who expose serious corruption, especially when it impacts negatively on the careers of high-level bosses.

What's wrong is that when it comes to Bill Phillips, the truth doesn't count - not with the NYPD, not with the prosecutor's office, and certainly not with the Parole Board. For many, it's hard to feel sorry for Phillips, a corrupt cop and a "rat." But when truth and fairness (Isn't 30 years enough?) are disregarded, justice is denied. When justice is denied, we're all victims.

MICHAEL J. GORMAN

Editor's note: The writer is a retired NYPD Lieutenant and an attorney.