By ELGIN JONES
EJones@SFLTimes.comFORT LAUDERDALE –Three members of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s NW Raiders crime-fighting unit are targets of a criminal investigation into allegations that they falsified a police report to support attempted murder of a police officer and other charges against a suspect.
An FBI public corruption task force, operating in Broward County, is investigating Officer Geoffrey Shaffer, Detective Matthew Moceri and their sergeant, Michael Florenco.
The investigation has been finalized and turned over to the Broward State Attorney’s Office. According to several sources, the trio could be charged “at any time.”
Broward State Attorney’s Office spokesman Ron Ishoy declined comment saying he “could not comment” on an ongoing investigation.
Nonetheless, the South Florida Times has confirmed that the investigation surrounds the Nov. 22, 2009 arrest of 49-year-old Kenneth Gerard Post on the charges of burglary, attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, vandalism, aggravated fleeing and resisting arrest with violence.
According to the police reports, Post is accused of breaking into a patio bar at the Hilton Hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach and stealing “hundreds of dollars” worth of liquor.
“Def. then placed the liquor bottles in this vehicle and fled the parking lot,” wrote Florenco in his report.
The report alleges Post then drove into and damaged the hotel’s security guard golf cart while fleeing, initiating a pursuit by the officer in two separate squad cars that ended in the Rio Vista neighborhood.
“The white Cadillac then began to spin and came to rest facing our vehicle. Post then accelerated his vehicle and attempted to ram us by striking our vehicle again in the front,” Florenco wrote in the report. “Post then reversed his vehicle up against a small concrete wall.”
The officers went on to describe how they were able to wrestle Post out the car after it became “wedged” against the wall.
Post was arrested and complained he did not commit the crimes of which he was accused. After obtaining a copy of the police report, with the help of relatives he filed a complaint with the Fort Lauderdale police internal affairs division.
Photos and an examination of the car Post was driving reportedly showed no damage, and do not support the information in the police report. The damage to one of the police vehicles may have been caused from them hitting a pole, according to sources.
Shaffer is a six-year veteran, Moceri has seven years with the department and Florenco was hired in 1999. Moceri and Florenco were also investigated, but not charged, in a case in which drugs were allegedly planted on two men, and their money stolen. In that case, two members of the NW Raiders, Billy Koepke and Brian Dodge , have been arrested and are awaiting trial.
*Pictured above is Kenneth Post
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