Jeffrey Cujdik, 34, was placed on desk duty in February. His 35-year-old brother, Richard, and McDonnell, 38, were taken off the street in April, and Tolstoy, 35, followed in May.
Defense lawyers say that the overtime payments are a waste of taxpayer money and city resources at a time when the city is trying to curb court-related overtime, which totaled almost $25 million in fiscal year 2008.
"In a city scrambling for money, in an economic crisis, why [is the D.A.'s office] saying, 'Let's subpoena witnesses to come to court' for cases they know are not going to go on?" questioned defense lawyer Guy R. Sciolla, a former assistant district attorney. "It's flat-out wrong to be spending money like that."
Scores of drug cases are in legal limbo pending the outcome of a joint FBI and police Internal Affairs investigation into allegations that the officers fabricated evidence to make drug arrests and then lied under oath in court.
Authorities launched the probe after a Daily News article Feb. 9 in which Cujdik's longtime informant, Ventura Martinez, alleged that Cujdik had instructed him to lie about some drug buys so that officers could obtain search warrants to enter homes of suspected drug dealers.
The investigation expanded in March after the Daily News reported allegations that Cujdik and fellow squad members cut wires to video-surveillance cameras during raids of corner grocery stores selling tiny ziplock bags, which police consider drug paraphernalia. After the cameras went dark, thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise went missing, store owners alleged.
In June, the Daily News described claims of three women who said that they had been sexually violated by Tolstoy during drug raids in their homes.
