Police Busted For Drugs; N.J. Tourist Town Shaken

SEA GIRT, N.J. - The detectives were installing their gear in trailers at the state police academy here when a local police lieutenant, Robert Hindman, dropped by to see what was going on.

He watched as they installed wiretap tape recorders and radio base stations and computers. The detectives told him they were investigating gamblers and bookmakers along the Jersey shore.

``Good luck,'' Hindman told them.

When their four-month investigation ended, the detectives had videotapes and secret recordings and enough evidence to arrest more than 21 people. But they weren't gamblers, the detectives said, they were drug dealers. And some were Sea Girt cops, one of whom was Hindman.

The operation - complete with its cover as a gambling investigation - snared three of the 12 officers who patrol this tiny seashore town. Hindman has pleaded guilty to drug-conspiracy charges, and two others were indicted last month. Among the charges: One officer snorted lines of cocaine from a desktop in the police station. No other officers have been implicated.

The arrests have rocked the 1- square-mile community like little else in its quiet history.

In its aftershock, public television has lumped Sea Girt with Miami and Los Angeles in a documentary called ``When Cops Go Bad.'' And the Police Department has borne the brunt of jokes such as this one in a local newspaper:

``How do Sea Girt residents know their police have been on patrol?

``The white lines are missing from the road.''

A residential town of 2,700, Sea Girt doubles its population in the summertime. Its mile-long boardwalk attracts joggers and the town doesn't get much rowdier than a little partying at the Parker House, a summertime bar a block off the beach.

Nobody thought it could happen in Sea Girt.

``We felt pretty isolated here, and it's proven we aren't,'' said William MacInnes, a retired Air Force general who is the borough's part-time mayor.

Hindman, who is cooperating with prosecutors, has resigned. The two other officers, Sgt. Joseph Beaumont and Capt. Guy Cavalieri, have been suspended without pay. They were the most experienced and top-ranking officers in the department led by Chief William Joule. Everybody knew them, and more than a few residents hired Cavalieri, who worked as a landscaper in his off-duty hours.

According to the indictment, the three joined the small force about a decade ago and were involved in drugs at least as early as 1986, but the investigation didn't get under way until December 1989. The first arrests were in April. As the detectives spread their net, they said, they found more and more area residents involved in the drug ring - a hairdresser, an electrician, a bowling-alley owner, a truck driver. They, the two officers and 15 others were indicted.

Hindman pleaded guilty before the indictments were returned. All the others have pleaded not guilty.

But in court last summer, Hindman laid out just how pervasive the drug use was around the red-brick Sea Girt police station.

``The last time I bought some from (Cavalieri) he brought a quarter-pound of marijuana into headquarters and used the headquarters scale in our office. It was his and mine, combined. I purchased 1 ounce of marijuana from him in March '90,'' Hindman testified.

And he told about the time a patrolman smelled marijuana on Cavalieri's uniform jacket hanging on a chair in the station and found a half-smoked marijuana joint in the pocket. The patrolman reported it to Hindman, who later warned Cavalieri.

``We talked about covering this up,'' Hindman testified. He said the pair decided to hide a joint in Hindman's uniform - Cavalieri happened to have an extra marijuana cigarette with him - and file a false report about it.

``We made it look like there was a bunch of (the joints) around and people were planting them on us,'' Hindman testified.

The indictment says Cavalieri didn't just buy marijuana, he stole it from the evidence locker at the police station.

Beaumont, the indictment says, didn't just sell cocaine, he used it, once snorting lines of cocaine laid out on a police station desktop. The indictment also says he once gave his Police Department business card to someone looking to buy marijuana.

Beaumont, known as BoBo, is charged with helping distribute cocaine.

Undercover detectives and informants wearing body microphones said they purchased drugs from Beaumont and others charged in the case. In some instances, detectives videotaped the buys with a secret camera hidden in a stereo speaker at a location they won't disclose.

In several instances during the four-month investigation, detectives said, the officers were high on drugs while on duty.

The detectives knew where the officers were almost minute by minute through the investigation because they were following the Sea Girt officers 24 hours a day.

But despite the dozens of detectives tracking their movements, the wiretaps and the fact that the undercover trailer headquarters was only six blocks from the Sea Girt police station, the local officers apparently never knew they were being watched.

``They thought they were insulated from the rest of the world,'' said State Police Lt. Jack Terrill.

But then so did Sea Girt.

In the year since the first arrest, Sea Girt has healed slowly. Residents have sent notes of support to the rest of the police force, which volunteered to take drug tests to bolster public confidence.

And in the clear vision of hindsight, many, including Mayor MacInnes, ponder why what appears to be such widespread drug use went undetected for so long.

``It makes you wonder how it didn't come to light sooner and why it didn't,'' he said.