FORMER BOSTON POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED FOR OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE IN POLICE CORRUPTION PROBE

Boston, MA... A former Boston Police Officer was sentenced to federal prison today for committing perjury and obstructing justice in a federal grand jury probe of police corruption.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - New England Field Division and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, announced today that EDGARDO RODRIGUEZ, age 38, of 54 Haliron Street, Hyde Park, was sentenced to one year imprisonment, to be followed by two years of supervised release. Rodriguez was sentenced on a six count indictment charging him with three counts of perjury before a federal grand jury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to distribute Anabolic steroids, and distribution of Anabolic steroids.

At the plea hearing on November 19, 2007, the government summarized evidence revealing that between February and June 2006, RODRIGUEZ conspired with former Boston Police Officer Roberto Pulido to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute Anabolic steroids. Evidence of the conspiracy was captured through the interception of Pulido's telephone calls with RODRIGUEZ and others. The evidence also revealed that as early as 2003, RODRIGUEZ distributed steroids to another Boston Police Officer.

During a grand jury investigation in the wake of the arrests of Pulido, and his former BPD co-defendants Nelson Carrasquillo and Carlos Pizarro, RODRIGUEZ was subpoenaed to testify. On October 5, 2006, RODRIGUEZ appeared before the federal grand jury investigating police corruption. During that testimony RODRIGUEZ made a series of false statements under oath about steroid use and distribution by other Boston Police officers. RODRIGUEZ sought to conceal his own illegal conduct and that of other officers, and to obstruct the grand jury's investigation.

The case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Boston Police Department'sAnti-Corruption Unit. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. McNeil in Sullivan's Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit.