IS ON CASE
Cops on trial turn to top private eye to discredit witness
TWO FORMER high-ranking commanders indicted in the NYPD corruption scandal have hired one of the city’s top private investigators to dig up dirt on the government’s star witness, the Daily News has learned.
James Harkins, a retired decorated detective with a build like an NFL lineman, has helped criminal defense lawyers secure acquittals in federal and state trials involving murder, gangland killings and the U.S. Naval Academy sex assault case.
Harkins, 52, has been shaking the trees and beating the bushes on behalf of now retired Deputy Chief Michael Harrington and Deputy Inspector James Grant, who are charged with taking gifts and free vacations from shady businessman Jonah Rechnitz in return for official favors.
“The fact that he is the go-to guy for high-ranking members of law enforcement when they find themselves in hot water, should tell you everything you need to know about how highly regarded and effective he is,” said a source with knowledge of the federal case.
Harrington’s lawyer Andrew Weinstein refused to confirm or deny whether Harkins is working for him in the corruption case, but praised his investigative assistance in the Naval Academy trial in which Midshipman Tra’ves Bush was cleared of sexual assault charges.
“I credit him and his tireless work ethic for many of my own professional successes,” Weinstein said.
Other lawyers say Harkins is a throwback to private eyes who get results by old-fashioned shoe leather and relentlessly knocking on doors, rather than punching keys on a computer. Approached outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Harkins (photo) declined to comment.
His office is located in Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Center, and he is known to frequent a discreet table in the rear of the Tribeca Grill restaurant. Harkins retired from the NYPD Intelligence Division after getting promoted to detective second-grade for his work with the feds nailing Vere (Joker) Padmore, the crossdressing leader of a violent robbery crew that included dirty cop Anthony Trotman.
Former Brooklyn Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Harrison who prosecuted Padmore’s crew, said he has put Harkins to work on his whitecollar corporate crime cases. “He is the most incredible bloodhound I have ever seen, he has found people all over the world for me,” Harrison said. “He’s better than anybody at finding people.” Harkins tracked down a 350-pound homeless street vendor whose name was mentioned in a police report about a Manhattan murder and then forgotten. Harkins found him living in Brooklyn years later. The vendor testified that the killer had a large tattoo on his right arm — just like the government’s star witness. Not guilty was the verdict. A Genovese gangster, Michael (Mikey Cigars) Coppola, beat a 1977 rap for rubbing out Johnny (Coca Cola) Lardiere after Harkins dug up a moldy guest ledger for the motel where the crime occurred 30 years earlier. An ear witness contradicted the government’s evidence about how the shooting went down, recalled lawyer Henry Mazurek.
“Jimmy found the motel guest who occupied the room next to where the murder took place,” Mazurek said.
The Staten Island district attorney's office recently dismissed murder charges against a man who had stabbed the victim 22 times after Harkins found surveillance videos around an industrial park that showed the victim was the aggressor.
Legendary lawyer Edward Hayes described Harkins as “brilliant and goodhearted despite his forbidding appearance.”