Cpl. Palma supervised the raid. He did not return phone messages from the Daily News.
Seven months after their Lower Northeast store was raided, Anh Ngo and her family are still trying to find out what happened to about $12,000 that disappeared from their store.
They said that they never received a property receipt. The officers left behind only a copy of the search warrant, which notes that they seized cash but doesn't list the amount.
Palma was the supervisor who signed the warrant as a witness to the cash seized.
The raid, on Sept. 16, 2008, began when Richard Cujdik, with his hand on his gun, banged on the door that led to an enclosed space near the cash register, Anh Ngo said.
"Open up, mama-san," Cujdik yelled, using the derogatory term for a female supervisor in Southeast Asia, typically related to sex work, Ngo said. "Do you guys sell bags here?"
Ngo's mother, Jenny Lu, who manages the family store, was behind the cash register.
After the officers shattered the cameras with sledgehammers, they climbed upstairs to the apartment where Ngo and her mother often stayed, Ngo said.
"That's where they found most of our money," Ngo said. "They flipped over our mattresses."
Her mom had squirrelled away more than $10,000 under the bed, mostly in small bills. "She's like a hamster when it comes to money," Ngo said.
"A lot of Asian people, they don't like to put money in the bank," added Anh's brother, Kong, 24. "They like to keep it in their pillows."
The 5-foot-1, 110-pound Lu, who had no criminal record, was hauled off to jail for selling little ziplock bags. When Kong opened the store after the officers left, the floor was littered with candy wrappers, sunflower seeds and cigarette butts, he said.
The Ngos said that the store was in shambles, despite a police directive that says: "Unnecessary damage or destruction of personal property by police during a search is strictly prohibited and WILL result in severe disciplinary action."
Lu, 52, was entered into a special program for first-time offenders and her record is expected to be expunged. The city is attempting to seize the store property, but the forfeiture case remains in limbo because of the FBI investigation.
"What they did to the store wasn't right," said Lu, using Anh as an interpreter. "It was so wrong. The most heartbreaking thing was that when they raided my store, they took my money.
"I sit here and I cry every night because of what they did." *
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