DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A federal civil rights lawsuit alleges that the Philadelphia Police Department’s top brass conspired to punish two veteran cops who blew the whistle on widespread problems in the Firearms Identification Unit.
The lawsuit, filed May 17, pits Lt. Leonard Logan and Sgt. Andrew Little against Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, several deputy commissioners and other high-ranking cops over a scandal in the FIU that was exposed last August by the Daily News.
Numerous members of the FIU had told the People’s Paper that Officer Anthony Magsam stole automatic weapon parts from the unit in 2009, and later returned the parts and confessed to the alleged theft.
Magsam, whose mother, police Sgt. Barbara Feeney is married to a retired chief inspector, was never disciplined. Magsam resigned from the force in December.
According to the lawsuit, Little, who worked in the FIU at the time of the alleged theft, reported the incident to Ramsey and Deputy Commissioners Richard Ross and Patricia Georgio-Fox in May 2010.
Little also reported to the top brass that the FIU’s commander, Lt. Vincent Testa, had ordered cops in the unit to falsely claim that they had inspected scores of weapons, in an attempt to dramatically reduce the unit’s backlog of guns.
An Internal Affairs investigation was launched, and Logan was put in charge of the case.
According to the lawsuit, Logan determined that Testa and other top officials, including Chief Inspector Evelyn Heath and Deputy Commissioner William Blackburn, had orchestrated a cover-up of Magsam’s alleged theft.
Logan began to fear that his bosses would interfere with his investigation, the lawsuit alleges, prompting him to reach out to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Both agencies launched their own investigations into the matter.
Neither Ramsey nor other top brass could explain to the Daily News last summer why the Internal Affairs investigation had seemingly stalled for so long.
The lawsuit alleges that Ramsey, Blackburn, Heath, Testa and others “entered into an agreement to silence Little and Logan” for reporting the problems in the FIU to the feds.
Ramsey told the Daily News Tuesday that he has not seen the lawsuit.
Logan was removed by Ramsey from Internal Affairs and suspended in January for not doing a thorough investigation. Little was transferred from the FIU and suspended in December for failing to supervise. The lawsuit claims both suffered more than $150,000 in economic damages.
Ramsey also transferred an inspector and a captain from Internal Affairs in January, and suspended Testa, while ordering that he never return to FIU.
Contact David Gambacorta at 215-854-5994, gambacd@phillynews.com or on Twitter @dgambacorta.
