Ex-police detective admits: I extorted $10G Jersey City numbers ring paid for protection, judge told By Jason Fink Journal staff writer NEWARK - A former Jersey City police officer pleaded guilty yesterday to shaking down an illegal gambling operator for more than $10,000 while he was working as a detective. Frank D'Agosta, 45, who retired in October after being advised that he was under investigation by the FBI, appeared in federal court yesterday morning and admitted that between the summer of 2002 and September 2003, he demanded and collected near-weekly payments from a Jersey City gambling ring, threatening to shut down the operation unless he was paid. Yesterday afternoon, D'Agosta, a 24-year veteran of the force, also pleaded guilty in state Superior Court in Jersey City to charges of official misconduct related to the same case. On the federal charge of extortion, D'Agosta, who lives on Old Bergen Road in Jersey City, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Federal sentencing guidelines, however, call for between 10 and 16 months in prison, according to Deborah Goldklang, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case. He will be sentenced by Judge William Martini on March 24. On the state charges, D'Agosta faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine and will be sentenced by Judge Elaine Davis on March 26. That sentence will run concurrently with his federal sentence. He is free on $100,000 bond, secured by his house on Old Bergen Road, and he must surrender his passport and any firearms he owns. According to court documents, D'Agosta and others extorted money from a numbers running operation that opened in the summer of 2002. D'Agosta collected cash payments ranging from $300 to $3,000 at various places in Jersey City in exchange for protection from the police. On June 2, court documents say, D'Agosta shut down the gambling ring because the owner failed to pay on time. Later that day, he allowed it to open again after the owner paid him $800. The government did not name the gambling operator either in court documents or during the plea hearing, at which D'Agosta, wearing a suit and tie and appearing relaxed, confirmed all the information about his extortion scheme and affirmed the agreement he reached with the government in October. D'Agosta did not comment after the hearing and his attorney, Leonard Meyerson, declined to discuss the specifics of the case. The gambling ring consisted of a lottery in which bettors would select three numbers that would then be matched up against a three-digit number published each day in the newspaper along with the horse racing results, court documents said. There are several investigations ongoing, Police Chief Ronald Buonocore said in a prepared statement. Any bad apples will be weeded out. Reached by telephone last night, Buonocore, who also serves as the city's Police director, said a special investigations unit within the department worked with federal and state authorities on the D'Agosta case.
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/_base_/news-2/10716594001012... The gravest abuse of power - and the gravest threats to personal liberty and security - are those in which the very individuals to whom we look for the preservation of law and order turn out to be the predators.
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