Strong Arm of the Law

But as Amendola released Turpin, the tall man allegedly threw a punch at Salvo, landing a glancing blow. Both officers said they responded with necessary force. "I punched him, and we were fighting with him on the ground in the cell," Amendola explained.

Turpin suffered a broken forearm and abrasions to his face. He was later exonerated at trial. A jury found him not guilty of all charges, including two for battery on a law enforcement officer.

On August 18, 1998, Turpin filed a complaint with IA, alleging that Hollywood police officers used unnecessary force to detain him and that he was beaten while in police custody. After filing the complaint, Turpin later alleged in court, an unarmed police officer threatened him in the police station parking lot and told him he had a "big mouth and better learn to keep it shut."

He didn't. Instead, he asked the court to award damages. The City of Hollywood settled out of court for $42,500. "They brought my client to a cell and took off his handcuffs simply as an excuse to give him a beating," says Turpin's attorney, Sanford Topkin.

None of the officers involved received a reprimand for the incident. "The fact that they did not place any of these officers on suspension or do anything to them for the action that they took," Turpin said, "would seem to me that they were condoning [police violence]."

Lawsuits and complaints about excessive use of force have never affected Salvo's career. Office politics, however, is another matter.

Salvo's activity in the Police Benevolent Association and the Hollywood Police Pension Fund often put him at odds with Lt. Jeffrey Marano, a gray-haired, muscular, wide-bellied 48-year-old who controls so-called details, off-duty security work that can amount to significant extra income for officers. Salvo long resented his superior for that control.

"[Marano] wanted every detail," Salvo said in a statement last year. "He wanted every single detail there was." Marano used the details to consolidate power in the Police Department, Salvo alleged. "[Marano] would always take action or do something, you know, to try to get you to be on his side or to eliminate you from being a threat against his opinion," Salvo said.

Marano has maintained that Salvo's showboat mentality and trouble with authority have caused the problems. He simply has an "axe to grind," Marano said in a statement to IA. Once, while holding office as a PBA representative, Salvo escorted his narcotics dog through the Hollywood police station's men's locker room. He claimed the dog smelled drugs in a police officer's locker. A second K-9 unit failed to detect illegal substances. A search was never conducted. "I felt that was inappropriate behavior for a PBA rep," Marano commented.

Last year, the conflict between the two officers boiled over when pension board seats came up for reelection. Salvo was on the ballot. In the days preceding the election, he distributed a flier on a day Marano was off. It read: "Re-elect Pete Salvo. He is good for our pension and represents everyone's interest. NOT JUST MARANO'S."

Salvo received a written reprimand, the only time in the last decade that he has been disciplined.

"You have any interest in going narcotics?" Salvo remembered the chief asking him. The reasoning was simple: Salvo would no longer work under Marano.

Strange, then, that when New Times called, the lieutenant defended his colleague. "I can't say a bad word about Pete Salvo," Marano says, sitting at a desk on the fourth floor of police headquarters. "He's a good guy and a good cop."

If Salvo has been accused of excessive use of force, Marano says, it's not because he's a thug. It's because he's doing his job. "Look at my record," Marano says. "I've had complaints against me for excessive use of force. It goes with the territory."

In the mid-'90s, Marano led Hollywood's infamous Street Crimes Unit, formerly known as the Raiders. The black-shirted, tough-on-crime unit drew a string of complaints and lawsuits that alleged brutality, wrongful arrests, and civil rights violations. In 1998, a federal jury awarded 21-year-old Dwight Edman $750,000 after Marano admitted that police had no probable cause to arrest him on drug charges. The city is currently appealing the award.

"A good, aggressive cop is going to get complaints, most unwarranted," Marano says. "A lug isn't going to get any complaints. Pete Salvo is a good, aggressive cop."

Allegations of police misconduct have dogged the Hollywood Police Department for more than a decade. Throughout the '90s, as Marano's Raiders were accused of abusing citizens and trampling on civil rights, the city earned a reputation for scandal.