Someone named George A. was kind enough a couple of days ago to link this Jerry Capeci piece on indicted Hollywood cop (and wannabe Mafioso) Kevin Companion in a message below. I was going to let it stand alone -- you know, as one of those little Pulp treats you have to dig for a little to enjoy. But it's such a ground-breaking piece on the Hollywood police corruption case that I have to share it with you here.
Capeci, one of the top mob experts in America who I've read for years, gets the scoop from his unnamed sources on Companion, the son of Joe Companion, a long-time Hollywood officer who died in 1994. Here's the best insight into Companion so far: --------------------------------------------
"His father was Irish, but he lived Italian," said a source familiar with Companion's mindset. Among other things, sources said, Companion often used Italian colloquialisms, had an Italian flag on his car, and had Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra sound bites on his cell phone. He idolized Sinatra and boasted that in 1998 he drove to Hollywood, the California version, to attend
his funeral.
Near the end of the investigation, a source said, Garcia told Companion that he "went on record with his boss" and informed him that he put Companion on his payroll "to protect himself just in case they were ever spotted together" by the law.
During the discussion, Big Jack told Companion that he had told his boss that "the cop was very helpful" and added that "if the books ever opened up down the line," there was a chance that he could be proposed for membership in the family. "You never know," said Big Jack.
"I would be honored," replied Companion, the source said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Big Jack," of course, was actually an undercover FBI agent named Joaquin (Jack) Garcia, whom Capeci describes as a "a tall, burly Cuban emigre." So here you have a Cuban guy telling an Irish cop he might let him in the Italian mob.
And you doubt that South Florida is the center of the world? And the case is only to get better. Vanessa Blum has a front-page story in the Sun-Sentinel today announcing that one of the four H-wood cops already arrested, Sgt. Jeffry Courtney, appears to be close to striking a deal with prosecutors. He would join another of the arrestees, Det. Thomas Simcox, on the cooperating side of the federal table. Since it seems that the evidence is a slam dunk on all four officers, one can only assume that the two of them are going to produce more arrests in the department.
