Boston Police Detective Convicted of Perjury

BOSTON (AP) _ A police detective whose partner was killed while making a drug bust has been convicted of crimes involving use of a phony tipster to get the search warrant needed for the raid.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Carlos A. Luna on Wednesday of 10 counts of perjury and 15 counts of filing a false report. The jury acquitted Luna of one false-report count and reached no verdict on several other counts.

Luna remains free on personal recognizance until his sentencing, which Judge John Moriarty scheduled for June 13.

Luna remained composed as he heard the verdict. Defense attorney Willie Davis described his reaction as ″complete disappointment.″ He promised an appeal, centered on how the judge handled jurors’ requests for information.

Prosecutors and police officials refused to comment because Luna’s supervisor, Sgt. Hugo Amate, is on trial separately.

The 3-year-old case raised questions about the use of unidentified tipsters and, prosecutors said, harmed the credibility of Boston police.

Luna was accused of inventing an informant named John who purportedly identified drug dealers in 1988. The fake information was used to get a warrant for a Feb. 17, 1988, raid in which police officer Sherman C. Griffiths was shot to death.

The man charged with firing on Griffiths, Albert Lewin, was acquitted last year after much of the evidence against him was thrown out.

In Luna’s trial, Davis argued the defendant was inadequately trained when he was rushed onto the department’s newly expanded drug control unit in 1985.

Search warrants often were copied one from another, and usually cited unnamed informants, testimony showed.