Three NW Raiders targets in cover-up Scandal

FORT LAUDERDALE — Three members of the Fort Lauderdale police department’s elite Northwest Raiders street crimes unit are facing arrest, according to several sources and one of their attorneys.

The South Florida Times has learned that the Broward State Attorney Office and an FBI public corruption task force operating in Broward County are investigating Officer Geoffrey Shaffer and Detective Matthew Moceri and their sergeant, Michael Florenco.

The investigation centers on allegations that the officers falsified a police report to cover up an accident, and misrepresented a charge of attempted murde r on a police officer and other charges against a suspect.

“I have been told charges are coming,” said Anthony M. Lavoti Jr., the attorney representing one of the officers. “I have not been told when that will occur, or any other specifics.”

Lavoti is representing Moceri. Shaffer’s attorney, Bradford Cohen, could not be reached for comment. Florenco is being defended by attorney Howard L. Greitzer.

“No one has contacted me, so I don’t have any information that I can provide,” Grietzer said.

The investigation has been completed and, according to several sources close to the probe, the men will be charged “at any time.”

Ron Ishoy, spokesman for the Broward State Attorney’s Office, said he could not comment on an ongoing investigation and “didn’t have any information to offer at this time.”

The investigation involves the Nov. 22, 2009, arrest of Kenneth Gerard Post, 49, on charges of burglary, attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, vandalism, aggravated fleeing and resisting arrest with violence.

Post suffered several bruises and other injuries during his arrest. According to the police reports, he 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,” Florenco wrote in his report.

The report alleges that Post then drove into and damaged the hotel’s security guard golf cart while fleeing, initiating a chase by the officers in two squad cars ending 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 described how they wrestled Post out the car after it became “wedged” against the wall.

Post insisted that 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.

In his complaint, Post alleged he was pulled from his car and “severely beaten” following the chase and said the officers were “clearly wrong for trying to falsify the reports to blame me to cover-up their mistakes.”

Post alleged that it was his vehicle that was rammed from the rear. Photos and an examination of the car he was driving reportedly showed damage to the rear but not the front, which contradicts the police account.

*Pictured above is Kenneth Post