Police concealed cop's gun crime, sources say

BY DAVID GAMBACORTA
Philadelphia Daily News
[email protected] 215-854-5994

Posted on Mon, Aug. 1, 2011

HE STARTED crying, just a little at first, but then he couldn't stop, and the tears flowed like a waterfall.

Officer Anthony Magsam was in a world of trouble. It was August 2009, police sources said, and the young cop with high-ranking relatives in the Police Department had just tearfully confessed to stealing parts from two automatic weapons from the department's Firearms Identification Unit.

He found a measure of comfort from his boss, Lt. Vincent Testa, the commanding officer of the unit.

Rather than reporting Magsam, who allegedly committed a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Testa agreed to quietly transfer him to another unit and not to report the theft, according to numerous sources with direct knowledge of the incident.

Everything went according to plan. Until now, that is.

On Friday, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey called for an audit of the FIU in light of the alleged cover-up, and he transferred Testa out of the unit.

The moves were made after the Daily News began inquiring about the transfer and about the Internal Affairs investigation, which appeared to have stalled after having been opened more than a year ago.

Also, the lead Internal Affairs investigator was replaced, as was Capt. Carmen Vuotto, who was overseeing the investigator's work. Vuotto previously worked in the FIU with Testa.

Left untouched, thus far, was Magsam, whose mother, Barbara Feeney, a longtime police sergeant, is married to retired police Chief Inspector Michael Feeney.



Federal crime left unpunished?

Magsam was known by colleagues in the FIU as a gun collector, and he spoke often about knowing how to convert semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons, according to more than a half-dozen police sources who are familiar with the Internal Affairs investigation and Magsam's tenure in the unit.

When firearms examiners discovered that parts from an AR-15 and M2 carbine had been removed - and crudely replaced with parts from a semiautomatic weapon - many immediately suspected Magsam, the sources said.

The stolen parts were soon returned - and photographed by members of the FIU - and Magsam offered a tearful confession to Testa, the sources said.

Being in possession of stolen or unregistered automatic-weapon parts is a violation of the National Firearms Act, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

But Magsam was never reported, disciplined or arrested.

State Police to audit firearms unit
MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011

State Police will conduct the audit of the Police Department’s Firearms Identification Unit that Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey called for after the Daily News raised questions about alleged weapons tampering in the unit.

The People’s Paper reported today that after Officer Anthony Magsam was caught stealing parts from two automatic weapons in the unit, his supervisor, Lt. Vincent Testa agreed to quietly transfer him, according to several sources with knowledge of the incident.

Being in possession of automatic weapons parts is a federal crime punishable up to 10 years in prison.
Testa was removed from the unit last week.

“We’ll have a new look at the case and see what we’ve got,” Ramsey said yesterday. “We’re moving along very quickly. We’ll let the cards fall where they may.”

Quoted:
Philly pd has m2 carbines that's interesting

Quoted:
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Philadelphia Field Division
601 Walnut Street, Suite 1000E
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Voice: (215) 446-7800
Fax: (215) 446-7811
Email: [email protected]

Quoted:
How stupid!

Plus, he put other officers in jeopardy.  Say they were relying on auto fire and.....opps, no dice.

Quoted:
How stupid!

Plus, he put other officers in jeopardy.  Say they were relying on auto fire and.....opps, no dice.

Quoted:


Philly pd has m2 carbines that's interesting

Rather than reporting Magsam, who allegedly committed a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Testa agreed to quietly transfer him to another unit and not to report the theft, according to numerous sources with direct knowledge of the incident.

Quoted:
How stupid!

Plus, he put other officers in jeopardy.  Say they were relying on auto fire and.....opps, no dice.

Quoted:


Very isolated incident.

Ramsey also replaced the lead investigator on the case, noting that he believed that the case had lagged and should have been finished six months ago.

Also Friday, he sent Internal Affairs investigators to the unit after witnesses said a civilian who worked for Testa had been shredding documents.

But according to numerous sources with knowledge of the unit and internal memos obtained by the Daily News, Testa instructed examiners to skirt the process he had touted publicly.

"It was a lot of smoke and mirrors," said a source with firsthand knowledge of the unit. "He had them ship hundreds of weapons, maybe more, without ever being examined."

Ramsey said Internal Affairs investigators were looking for specific case numbers of weapons that were supposedly shipped without being examined, a task that will be aided by State Police.



Though Testa wouldn't comment on the numerous allegations against him, his ex-wife, Donna Testa, spoke in his defense.

"There's no way I believe any of the allegations," she said yesterday. "He's a good guy, straight as an arrow.

"Whatever he did, he sent up the chain of command. I think there's something to be said about the people above him.

"They're making him the fall guy."

Quoted:


More than that. Every investigation involving FIU is now tainted once it lands up in court. Scumbags are going to walk free. Imagine your family member was killed and now the FIU evidence is unusable because of this evidence tampering case.

Quoted:
The FIU is responsible for processing crime scene weapons and spent cartridges.

So if they altered evidence guns and also failed to process evidence in order to keep their backlog stats down; scumbags are going to walk as a result.

Crooked cops let criminals walk.

Quoted:


I can't imagine that in the cases they lied about, that the lies were to the benefit of the defendant. So how many innocent people wound up in prison because they lied and because they lied how many of the guilty got away with it because the FIU pinned it on someone else?

By not test-firing guns, the FIU was potentially missing out on a chance to use their findings on shell casings to solve cases by matching data in the IBIS, sources said.

And waiting to examine a gun that had been directly shipped to City Hall until it was needed for a court case could scuttle cases for cops and prosecutors - especially if examiners ran out of time to check out the weapon.

"It could be the difference between a guilty and not-guilty verdict," said defense attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr. "I've seen it happen. I had a defendant with an aggravated-assault [gun] case, and the prosecutor had requested that the gun be tested.

"He was handed the file at the last minute, and he realized that the gun had never been tested," Peruto said.

The case was later dismissed, he said.

"One of the most significant things that attorneys argue over is the chain of custody of evidence: whose hands were it in, why was it there?" Peruto added.

"If you're scrambling right before a trial to find a weapon, that can bother jurors more than you think."