Witness set to testify in NYPD cop's drug conspiracy trial whacked 'Don Corleone'-style, prosecutors say
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Bronx Witness Set To Testify Against NYPD Cop Gets Killed
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BY
JOHN MARZULLI
VICTORIA BEKIEMPIS
GRAHAM RAYMAN
THOMAS TRACY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, September 23, 2016, 1:14 PM
An NYPD cop accused of running with a violent drug crew had his bail revoked Wednesday after a cooperating witness set to testify against him was whacked “Don Corleone” gangland-style in the Bronx, the Daily News has learned.
Federal Judge Colleen McMahon made the declaration just hours after victim Robert Bishun, 36, was abducted from his auto body shop and found strangled in the back of his BMW in Fieldston late Tuesday.
“I’ve been around the racetrack once or twice. It certainly sounds like a contract killing,” McMahon said, adding that Bishun’s slaying smacked of “movie violence.”
Details of the grisly murder were outlined in her coutroom by federal prosecutors from the Southern District, who noted the mechanic had been expected to testify against disgraced NYPD Officer Merlin Alston, who’d been out on bail. Alston, 34, is facing narcotic conspiracy charges for being a helper, driver and shotgun-toting bodyguard for Bishun over a four-year period.
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During Wednesday’s hearing, federal prosecutor Tom McKay called Bishun a “cooperating witness” who was expected to testify at Alston’s trial in the next two weeks. McKay also claimed his office has recovered text messages that prove Bishun’s role in the trial was being monitored.
After hearing about Bishun’s death — and another cooperating witness in the Alston case who had his house shot up, the officer — whose wife is also a cop — was ordered remanded to custody.
His attorney, Bradley Henry, opposed the remand, claiming the feds had no evidence linking Alston to Bishun’s death.
Robert Bishun, 36, was abducted from his Bronx auto body shop and found strangled in the back of his BMW. He was expected to testify as a witness in NYPD Officer Merlin Alston’s drug conspiracy case.
Robert Bishun, 36, was abducted from his Bronx auto body shop and found strangled in the back of his BMW. He was expected to testify as a witness in NYPD Officer Merlin Alston’s drug conspiracy case. (FACEBOOK)
“There are other witnesses in this case that are going to be much more devastating than Mr. Bishun would ever be,” he said at court. “So to imagine that Mr. Alston orchestrated this whole thing and set up this robbery to keep an individual who is probably a minor or a somewhat minor cooperator against him from testifying at trial just seems outlandish to me.”
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Bishun may have been slated to testify against Alston because in 2010, the crooked cop and the dealer twice picked up cocaine from a hidden compartment in a car at the dead man’s auto body shop, records show.
Bishun was discovered badly beaten and unconscious in the back of his BMW with a zip tie wrapped around his neck, officials said. The luxury car was left parked on Broadway near the tony Horace Mann School in Fieldston about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday.
About two hours earlier, two men waving guns and wearing masks and gloves stormed into the Stillwell Ave. body shop and demanded cash and jewelry.
They stuffed Bishun’s cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend into the trunks of two cars, and took the murder victim with them.
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Bishun’s cousin and his girlfriend escaped the trunks and called cops, who found the car by its electronic tracking system.
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Alston, an NYPD officer in the Bronx, was arrested and indicted on narcotics conspiracy and official misconduct charges. (JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
The mechanic’s longtime girlfriend told detectives that he recently met with a federal prosecutor to discuss a heroin trafficking arrest dating back to 2012, according to sources.
Bishun was arrested in 2012 after a raid at his shop, where authorities found cocaine and heroin hidden in a car, officials said.
Investigators also seized $40,000 in cash stashed in a Mercedes-Benz registered to Bishun, a .40-caliber handgun, loose ammunition, $30,000 cash from the shop’s office and pay-and-owe sheets detailing millions of dollars in narcotics transactions.
Detectives learned Bishun’s shop was being used as a drug-trafficking hub from a dealer busted in Suffolk County, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
In November 2014, Bishun pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic drugs and agreed to be on supervised bail for five years.
He was never formally sentenced to prison.
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Federal Judge Colleen McMahon revoked NYPD Officer Merlin Alston’s bail after Bishun was abducted from his auto body shop (pictured) and strangled in what “certainly sounds like a contract killing.” (MARCUS SANTOS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
Alston was indicted a month later in December 2014 for conspiracy and official misconduct for driving the drug trafficker around and arranging cocaine transactions between 2010 and 2014.
On at least one occasion, Alston went to a drug meet armed with a shotgun, the records show.
Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Thomas McKay confirmed Bishun's online court docket in the Eastern District of New York drug case was being monitored.
The Daily News reported Wednesday that Long Island Federal Judge Denis Hurley had posted an entry on the dockets of all his criminal defendants — including Bishun — involving "procedures to protect cooperation information." Members of the defense bar and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office had expressed concern to the judge about the order.
"Text messages with screenshots of that part of the docket made their way back to Mr. Bishun through friends and family members," McKay said in court the day after Bishun's brutal killing, according to a transcript. "There's a tab for an open email that says, 'Rob, cooperation request.'"
Alston remains suspended from the force pending the outcome of his criminal case, the NYPD said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bron...ticle-1.2802590
