Notorious narcotics detective Peter Valentin has been on modified duty since March, but the city is still paying his giant legal tab.
As NYPD’s highest overtime earner who called himself “PistolPete” and “the King of the Bronx,” Valentin was sued 28 times since 2006, with an average settlement of $50,000. Since April, Valentin’s six settlements totaled $402,000. With $884,000 already paid out because, the total is close to $1.3 million, the Daily News reports. There are two more lawsuits remaining.
An Internal Affairs investigation confirmed that Valentin and his team were “conducting dubious raids.” The raids usually ended in no charges or charges being thrown out by the court, but homes were trashed, jobs were lost and lives were ruined in the process.
In one case, an elderly resident’s pet dog was killed and left in the hallway, wrapped in a shower curtain.
One family’s lawsuit alleged that Valentin illegally raided their apartment twice in the same year. The second time, two of the family members were “driven around in a police van for several hours and then taken to the precinct stationhouse before they were released without being charged.”
In another lawsuit, a nursing mother was forced to spend a week on Rikers Island because Valentin had claimed he field-tested some powder as positive for cocaine. An actual lab test came back negative. It was just crushed egg shells. “You can touch it and see it’s not crack cocaine,” she said. “That was the worst week of my life. They had everybody under siege and they didn’t find anything.” (Photo: Daily News)
