Investigation

RICHARD DeCoatsworth, a five-year veteran police officer who was hailed as a hero after being shot in the face by a suspect in 2007 but who more recently drew controversial headlines, left the force last week. DeCoatsworth, whose most recent assignment was with the Marine Unit, took disability retirement from the department after it was determined that injuries from the 2007 shooting prevented him from continuing to do police work, said spokesman Lt. Ray Evers. After he caught the shotgun blast to the face as a rookie cop in 2007, DeCoatsworth was invited to attend a February 2009 presidential speech.

ANTHONY MAGSAM had a decision to make. He opened his front door early yesterday in Northeast Philly and found a group of SWAT cops standing there, search warrant in hand. He decided to cooperate. Magsam, a veteran police officer who's at the center of an ongoing investigation into the Police Department's Firearms Identification Unit, or FIU, let the cops inside and went quietly to Internal Affairs for questioning, said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. The SWAT officers removed 51 firearms from Magsam's house, on Tyson Avenue near Loretto Avenue.

Lee Heist's phone won't stop ringing. Just about every five minutes, it chimes with calls, from New York, from Philadelphia, from Lancaster County. They're calling with questions about Brenda Heist - Heist's ex-wife, who disappeared from Lititz, Pa., without a trace 11 years ago. After years of futile investigation, Brenda Heist was declared dead in 2009. Lee Heist, who was once a prime suspect in her disappearance, began a new life: He remarried four years ago and lives in a modest ranch house in Norristown with his wife and dogs.

Walter Meyerle, the tattoo artist convicted of sexually assaulting 15 children over more than a decade, is under investigation for possible witness tampering, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said Friday. "My office is looking into the question of whether he or his agents may have sought to do illegal things to influence the proceedings against him," Heckler said. "It is an ongoing investigation; county detectives are involved. " Heckler declined to say when the investigation started and whether a county grand jury is investigating Meyerle.

The son-in-law of Gov. Corbett, a narcotics officer with the Philadelphia Police Department, is under investigation by the FBI and was removed from the street Thursday, sources said. The Philadelphia Police Department confirmed that a narcotics officer was taken off the street and placed on administrative leave Thursday, following the results of an FBI and Internal Affairs investigation. The department said it would not identify the officer because he had not been arrested or formally charged.

A member of the Colwyn Police Department is under investigation for repeatedly Tasering a juvenile while the boy was in a holding cell last week, according to borough officials and sources. The 17-year-old boy was allegedly arrested for fighting on April 24, charged with disorderly conduct and placed in a holding cell, according to sources. The officer allegedly Tasered the boy up to nine times, sources said, for reasons that are still unclear. The juvenile was allegedly Tasered once in the head and may have been handcuffed, sources said.

HARRISBURG - Former top officials at Pennsylvania State University did not fully cooperate with state investigators in the Jerry Sandusky case, Gov. Corbett said Thursday, and are likely now the focus of an investigation by the state Attorney General's Office. The governor, who as attorney general launched the child sexual-abuse investigation into Sandusky in 2009, said investigators had subpoenaed e-mails of top university officials, but did not receive critical exchanges until after Sandusky was charged last fall.

The police squad repeatedly swooped down on bodegas and smoke shops, saying they were searching for the small plastic bags often used to package drugs. But merchants complained that the officers made off with cash and merchandise after disabling security cameras to mask their conduct. The actions of the Narcotics Field Unit - in one case graphically captured by a camera with a backup hard drive - triggered a major scandal in the city in 2009. The result was an FBI investigation of the officers, dropped charges against some defendants, and numerous federal civil right lawsuits filed by people who said they were abused or framed by the squad.

A 7-month-old girl died after being found unresponsive at a Center City day-care center late Wednesday afternoon, police said. The infant was reported to be unresponsive in a crib at 4:27 p.m. at the Apple Blossom Learning Tree Day School at 1601 Lombard St., police said. She was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and pronounced dead at 5:01 p.m., police said. The death was being investigated by the Special Victims Unit. The day-care center did not immediately respond to a voicemail message seeking comment.

As many have seen on You Tube and elsewhere, Philadelphia police Lt. Jonathan Josey was recently captured on video hitting a woman in the face and knocking her to the ground during the city's Puerto Rican Day Parade . The video is not pleasant. But did it justify Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey's quick decision to fire Josey? From my years in law enforcement, I know that when a police officer resorts to the use of force - whether justified or not - it is never pretty. Police work is often ugly, and when it's exposed to the public, there is a natural aversion to much of it. However, whether this public disgust is justified can be determined only through a dispassionate evaluation of the facts.

More than two dozen bar and restaurant owners across New Jersey may have used cheap booze poured from top-shelf bottles to overcharge customers, the state Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday. Though none of the proprietors have been charged, details of the investigation - dubbed "Operation Swill" - will be released at a news conference Thursday. In the meantime, officials issued a statement that identified 29 licensed bars and restaurants they said were under investigation, allegedly charging customers for premium drinks made with cheap liquor camouflaged as high-end brands.

RE: Ronnie Polaneczky's column: At no time did Warden John Delaney "mishandle" or convert to his personal use any monies entrusted to him. At the hearing on this matter, the city "investigator" was asked a series of questions on this issue and specifically stated that it was not his belief that Warden Delaney stole any of the money entrusted to him or that he used it for other than authorized purposes. After a three-year investigation costing the city likely thousands of dollars, the presenting of more than 15 witnesses by the city's deputy chief integrity officer and a recognition by the commissioner of prisons that this problem could have been resolved three years ago, Warden Delaney was reprimanded.

Months after the FBI began probing allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), investigators are now looking at whether someone set out to smear him while he was running for reelection last year and then ascending to his new post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to four people briefed on the inquiry. As part of a wider public-corruption investigation into the senator, the FBI has been examining whether Menendez patronized prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - After an office manager for New Jersey City University admitted embezzling $486,000 in student funds three years ago, the U.S. Department of Education began auditing the use of all federal money by the state college. It soon discovered that $608,766 in federally subsidized loans and grant money had been improperly awarded by the school - in some cases to students who flunked out or never showed up to class, making them ineligible for financial assistance. An examination of federal Department of Education records by The Star-Ledger of Newark shows that NJCU was not the only state college in New Jersey cited for giving too much money to students who were either ineligible for the aid or whose financial need was overestimated.

WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers, who have spent months seeking to tie President Obama to last year's deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, are increasingly focusing their probe on a new target: former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The GOP-led investigation of the Sept. 11 assaults that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others now centers heavily on the State Department and whether officials there deliberately misled the public about the nature of the assault.

KANSAS ATHLETIC officials are reviewing allegations that the former AAU basketball coach of Ben McLemore received cash payments aimed at steering the star freshman to a sports agent. AAU coach Darius Cobb told USA Today he received $10,000 in two payments from Rodney Blackstock , the founder and CEO of Hooplife Academy in Greensboro, N.C. Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger issued a statement Saturday saying that the university had received an inquiry about the relationship between the McLemore family and Blackstock.

Lee Heist's phone won't stop ringing. Just about every five minutes, it chimes with calls, from New York, from Philadelphia, from Lancaster County. They're calling with questions about Brenda Heist - Heist's ex-wife, who disappeared from Lititz, Pa., without a trace 11 years ago. After years of futile investigation, Brenda Heist was declared dead in 2009. Lee Heist, who was once a prime suspect in her disappearance, began a new life: He remarried four years ago and lives in a modest ranch house in Norristown with his wife and dogs.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has quietly assembled an elite team of veteran prosecutors to investigate public corruption. To staff the effort, Williams has hired prosecutors from the state Attorney General's Office who brought successful cases against senior political figures in both parties, including former House Speaker John M. Perzel. Earlier this month, Williams received court approval to create a new investigative grand jury, which allows prosecutors to subpoena documents and compel testimony.

Share values for Beneficial Mutual Bancorp Inc., the largest bank still based in Philadelphia, fell 5 percent to $9.46 Thursday after Beneficial told investors that the Justice Department had begun investigating it under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act. Beneficial closed at $8.97 on Friday. The equal-credit law, according to the Federal Trade Commission, "prohibits credit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or because you get public assistance.

Police are seeking a Delaware County mother who has been missing since Friday. Melissa Rodriguez, 30, of Collingdale, had planned to travel to visit friends in Newark, N.J., for the weekend, police said, but never showed up. Her husband, Jose Luis Rodriguez, called police Tuesday after she did not return a text he had sent. On Monday she did not show up for a new job and failed to pick up their two girls, ages 7 and 11, from school. "It is an ongoing and active investigation to find her," said Collingdale Police Chief Robert Adams.