Feds: Cop had romantic relationship with informant

BY STEPHANIE FARR, Daily News Staff Writer farrs@phillynews.com, 215-854-4225

Posted: December 14, 2012

A PHILADELPHIA cop had a long-term romantic relationship with a confidential informant and then leaked classified information to the informant that her ex was under investigation by the feds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

When interviewed by investigators, Officer Robertito Fontan lied about his relationship with the informant and denied having provided her with information, prosecutors said. On Wednesday, they charged him with three counts of making false statements to federal investigators.

This was not the first time that Fontan, 41, has been under investigation. In the late 1990s, he was investigated by police Internal Affairs for his role in the false arrest of a man who had spent two months behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Fontan eventually was exonerated but was retrained.

In the recent case, federal authorities said, Fontan met his informant girlfriend in 2003 at the Criminal Justice Center when they were in the same courtroom for separate cases.

Fontan told her that he could help her with her drug case, prosecutors said. He introduced her to other cops and suggested that they use her as a confidential informant, the indictment said.

A few months after meeting the woman, Fontan began a "years-long, intimate relationship" with her that included trips to Disney World, cash and other gifts, prosecutors said.

In 2007, the woman's ex-boyfriend became the target of an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and by local authorities, including Fontan. Prosecutors allege that Fontan divulged the nature of the investigation to his girlfriend and that the woman passed that information to her ex.

When the FBI started to suspect a leak in the investigation, authorities interviewed Fontan, but he denied any involvement with the informant, according to his indictment.

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