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Victims want their badges 'retired'

BY GRAHAM RAYMAN | Newsday Staff Writer

June 6, 2006

Twelve years after then-police Commissioner William Bratton "retired" the shield numbers of 25 scandal-shrouded police officers, family members of some of the victims of the "Mafia Cops" say they should suffer the same rebuke.

"Because of that level of misconduct, there is no question in my mind that their shields should be retired," said Michaelangelo Matera, lawyer for the family of slain Gambino capo Eddie Lino. "These are numbers, in light of what's happened, that should never be worn again."

"Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were sentenced to life in prison yesterday for being involved in eight gangland murders.

In 1994, Bratton decommissioned the shield numbers of 25 officers caught robbing drug dealers in the 30th Precinct in Washington Heights. In what became known as the "Dirty 30" scandal, Bratton said the officers had used their shields "not for protection, but as weapons." He declared he wanted to spare the Police Department further shame.

Typically, shield numbers are assigned to an officer until they leave the department or are promoted. Currently, Eppolito's shield number, 3179, is assigned to a detective in the Hate Crimes unit. She did not respond to telephone messages left for her.

Caracappa's shield number, 3249, is not currently assigned, which is not unusual, police officials said.

Police officials said shield numbers, as a rule, are retired only when an officer died in the line of duty. There are no current plans to remove Caracappa and Eppolito's shield numbers from service, they said.

In addition to not retiring their badges, Eppolito and Caracappa are getting to keep their medals and their annual five-figure pensions, the latter because of city laws.

For Michael Palladino, who heads the Detectives Endowment Association, it's the individual who makes the shield; therefore, he said, the badge numbers should not be retired.

"Although they may have disgraced the very shield they wore, there will be individuals who will come along and bring luster back to it," Palladino said.

Pauline Pipitone believes otherwise. She has filed a $150-million lawsuit against the city and the two disgraced detectives in connection with the murder of her son Nicholas Guido, killed in 1986 based on wrong information supplied by Eppolito and Caracappa.

"There should be some accountability by the city," said Mark Longo, Pipitone's attorney, who added that his client supports retiring the badges.

Thomas Reppetto, who co-wrote a history of the Police Department, said he does not recall any other commissioner taking a similar action.

"He had only been in office for a few months," Reppetto said of Bratton, "and he wanted to send a personal message that he would take a hard line against corruption."

The shield numbers Bratton shelved in 1994 remain out of circulation.