Police Sgt. George Greene Jr. pleaded not guilty in District Court Wednesday to four more charges that have been added to the 11-count indictment handed down last month against him, Police Captain Enrique Saldana and Louis Roldan Jr.
The original indictment, filed Aug. 4, charges all three men with six federal violations and five local ones, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of a criminal investigation, conspiracy to defraud the United States by impeding the functions of the Drug Enforcement Administration, conspiracy to commit extortion, extortion, conspiratorial extortion, conflict of interest, solicitation and receipt of a bribe and extortion under the color of official right.
The indictment alleges that when police officers seized a rental car from the Paul M. Pearson Housing Community around Dec. 4, they confiscated personal items and about a kilogram of "a substance believed by VIPD officials to be a controlled substance."
When the people renting and using the car went to the police department the next day to get their property, they were told by a police official to contact Saldana and that the official and others knew about what was in the car, referring to "the substance suspected to be a controlled substance," according to the indictment.
That day, the car’s driver got a telephone call from Saldana about arranging a meeting to return what was found in the car. They didn’t meet then but around Dec. 18, Roldan — a civilian — told the car’s driver that for $10,000 cash, the substance police thought to be contraband would not be turned over to federal law enforcement. Federal officials recorded several phone calls with Greene and Roldan about returning the items, according to a recent press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The original indictment says around Dec. 23, Roldan, Saldana and Greene arrived in separate vehicles to a meeting with the car’s driver and Roldan and Greene made arrangements for the car’s driver to pay cash for the confiscated items. That night, the car’s driver paid Roldan and Greene $5,000 and received personal items but not the suspected drugs and was again told the substance would not be turned over to federal law enforcement.
In a superseding indictment filed Sept. 17, the government has added four more counts against Greene: two counts of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, one count of making a false statement and one count of money laundering.
At the time of his arrest, Greene "knowingly" possessed a Taurus PT585 .380-caliber ACP semi automatic handgun and a Colt .38-caliber handgun whose serial numbers has been removed, altered and obliterated, according to the indictment.
The document also indicates that Greene originally denied receiving the $5,000 payment but later "acknowledged" getting the money. Further, Greene told agents he thought the money would be stolen if he left it at the Police Department, so he deposited it into his son’s bank account for "safekeeping," the indictment said.
The money was not deposited into the son’s bank account, but rather a portion of the money — $1,800 out of the $5,000 — was deposited by Greene into a Banco Popular account, the indictment alleges.
Greene "told the agents that he and other VIPD officers pretend to be ‘dirty’ police officers in order to get closer to criminal suspects and that his receipt of the $5,000 was the result of a VIPD undercover operation using such pretense, when in truth and in fact the obtaining and receipt of the $5,000 was done without pretense and was the result of extortionate behavior by ‘dirty’ police officers," according to the indictment.
Presiding District Court Judge Curtis Gomez said Wednesday that a new arraignment date would be set for Saldana and Roldan, who were also supposed to appear alongside Greene during the hearing.
There was some back and forth between attorneys about Greene’s trial date, which Gomez said is Nov. 2.