Police Captain

A FORMER police captain who supervised narcotics officers now at the center of an FBI-led corruption investigation has landed a top job at the District Attorney's Office. In his first news conference as D.A., Seth Williams yesterday named Christopher M. Werner as his chief of county detectives, a move widely viewed as a step up for the 21-year police veteran. While many in law enforcement praise Werner for his dogged work ethic and aggressive policing, Werner's record suffered a blemish last year, when the Daily News series "Tainted Justice" detailed allegations that a group of narcotics officers under his command engaged in criminal misconduct.

A REPORT OF GUNFIRE brought two cops to the back of Rodney Handy's Oak Lane house one brisk night in March.   Handy, a 22-year-old college student, was just getting home from work. The police officers pulled him over, suspicious of his tinted windows and darkened headlights, and ordered him to exit the car. Handy refused, so officers Shane Darden and Tim Taylor went in after him, prompting a struggle that ended only after Darden used a Taser to subdue Handy, sources familiar with the incident said.

Three young men and a teenager were awaiting arraignment yesterday after having been arrested in an alleged racial attack on a 15-year-old black youth Thursday night in South Philadelphia. The assault was witnessed by a Roman Catholic priest and an off-duty city police captain who went to the 15-year-old's aid. The police captain, William Colarulo, who heads the North Detective Division, chased one of the suspects and arrested him. The 15-year-old, Alik Thomas, was treated for minor injuries at Methodist Hospital and released.

Two men trying to hock a stolen wristwatch at Lou's Loan Inc. in Chester City yesterday quickly learned that they had chosen the wrong pawnshop when they discovered one of the clerks was a moonlighting Chester police captain. Capt. Floyd Sudler was working his part-time job at Lou's Loan, 512 Avenue of the States, about 9:10 a.m. when two Delaware men, Reginald Holland, 33, and Jeffery B. McIlwain, 24, came into the shop to pawn a 14-karat gold Longines wristwatch with a leather band, Chester police said.

In an unusual procedural move, the Mount Ephraim commissioners passed an ordinance to eliminate the position of police captain and later withdrew the ordinance after an angry confrontation with 90 residents who attended last night's meeting. The ordinance, which passed on first reading, would have reduced the borough's only police captain to the rank of sergeant and placed him on patrol duty. Mayor William Bradford said the move was designed to increase police strength on patrols and said the captain's present duties were primarily administrative.

TWO VETERAN Philadelphia police officials were disciplined Friday for their roles in an alleged cover-up of a scuffle between a pair of patrol cops and the grandson of a retired police captain. Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said that Inspector Aaron Horne and Capt. John McCloskey were both suspended for 30 days without pay. Horne, the commander of the Northwest Police Division, was transferred to the Forensic Science Bureau. Horne had been in line for a promotion to chief inspector later this year.

  Ray Lewis, the retired Philadelphia police captain who became a hero to the Occupy Wall Street movement, will not face legal consequences for wearing his old uniform at protests, a Police Department spokesman said Monday. "He will not be arrested," said Lt. Raymond Evers, spokesman for Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey. "He's exercising his First Amendment rights, and we're fine with that," Evers said. That position is in stark contrast to a letter Ramsey signed in November demanding that Lewis "immediately cease and desist" from wearing his old uniform in public.

It was Thanksgiving morning 1996, and the son of a police captain wasn't looking for a turkey shoot. But when Brian Kirkland, 29, left a West Philadelphia speakeasy last year, he says a guy tried to play chicken with him. Kirkland, of Yeadon, the son of Capt. Lawrence Kirkland, of the 18th District, told a judge that Matthew Webster, 28, challenged him to a fight and then pulled a gun. Then, said Kirkland, "I pulled mine," and started shooting. Webster was hit three times and was killed, said Assistant District Attorney Randolph Williams.

PARIS MITTERRAND HAS PROSTATE CANCER President Francois Mitterrand announced yesterday he has prostate cancer, but dismissed retirement rumors and pushed ahead with his crusade in favor of an important referendum on European unity. In an unusual display of candor, the president's doctors said a biopsy during surgery showed malignant lesions. Mitterrand left Cochin Hospital after a six-day stay. Unity is among Mitterrand's most cherished projects. A "yes" vote would be the most powerful legacy of the Socialist leader's presidency, which began in 1981 and is scheduled to end in 1995.