NewCardDude
06-19-2004, 05:57 PM
By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK -- When police officers raided a self-storage warehouse in Manhattan last year, the entertainment industry tagged along _ but not for script ideas.
Private investigators hired by movie and recording industry groups had helped link a space in a Manhattan storage facility to an alleged criminal operation pirating DVDs and compact discs. They were there when the officers moved in.
The teamwork might have gone unnoticed, if not for the raid's deadly outcome.
Last week, undercover Officer Bryan Conroy was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Ousmane Zongo, an unarmed African immigrant working inside the warehouse who was not involved in the alleged pirating scheme.
The circumstances of the May 22, 2003, shooting remain murky.
An attorney in a multimillion-dollar wrongful death lawsuit filed by Zongo's family views the industry associations as potential defendants.
"We don't know yet what role they played, but it's something we'll be looking at very closely," said the lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein.
Police and industry officials insist tactics used in the counterfeiting investigation played no part in the shooting. More than a year later, the aggressive battle against a thriving black market for knockoff compact discs and DVDs continues unabated.
"We're proceeding along as we always have," said William Shannon, executive director of the Recording Industry Association of America's anti-piracy unit.
Determined to stop counterfeiters from siphoning off millions of dollars in revenues each year, the movie industry launched nearly 3,000 private investigations across the country in 2003 alone. The cases resulted in the seizure of more than 500,000 conterfeit DVDs.
The recording industry association's anti-piracy unit last year took credit for seizing five million counterfeit CDs. Its private investigators teamed with police and sheriffs' departments in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit and Jacksonville, Fla., for raids on clandestine "labs" that copy, DVDs, CDs and videotapes.
In New York, considered one of the capitals of counterfeiting, the movie industry has six full-time investigators and two supervisors, Shannon said.
The investigators typically are retired NYPD detectives who conduct surveillance and tail suspects, but never participate in arrests. During raids, they remain outside until the location is secured, then go in to identify and take an inventory of pirated merchandise, Shannon said.
"These are police operations," he said. "None of us rush in the doors."
In one recent case, industry investigators staked out a Bronx address where they spotted suspects delivering boxes of blank CDs. On April 27, police officers armed with a search warrant raided the spot, arresting one suspect and seizing 29 CD burners and thousands of copies of movies like "Walking Tall," "Big Fish" and "Jeeper Creepers II."
Police officials say trademark counterfeiters hurt legitimate business, rob the city of tax dollars and lure consumers into buying inferior goods. They also say counterfeiting operations, like illegal drug sales, can spur violent crime.
In late 1992, a man was shot to death during a holdup at a Manhattan warehouse used for a pirating operation, and a second man was injured jumping out the window to escape the robbery. Four months earlier, two men were injured in a shooting at another bootleg factory.
"Here in New York, we take the crime very seriously," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
The Zongo case stemmed from the arrest of a Staten Island man identified by private investigators as a piracy suspect. The man informed police that knockoff goods were being stored in a warehouse in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.
Officer Conroy _ who was disguised as a delivery man _ was among 10 officers who converged on the warehouse, where Zongo, 35, of Burkina Faso, was repairing African art and musical instruments.
The officers discovered thousands of bootleg CDs, DVDs and videos stashed inside two storage units. Conroy was guarding the cache when he encountered Zongo.
Though he had nothing to do with the case, Zongo ran away. He led Conroy on a winding chase through a labyrinth of hallways before being fatally shot in the chest, abdomen and upper back.
There were no witnesses to the shooting.
The officer told a grand jury that before he fired, the victim had refused his orders to halt, struggled with him and tried to grab his gun. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK -- When police officers raided a self-storage warehouse in Manhattan last year, the entertainment industry tagged along _ but not for script ideas.
Private investigators hired by movie and recording industry groups had helped link a space in a Manhattan storage facility to an alleged criminal operation pirating DVDs and compact discs. They were there when the officers moved in.
The teamwork might have gone unnoticed, if not for the raid's deadly outcome.
Last week, undercover Officer Bryan Conroy was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Ousmane Zongo, an unarmed African immigrant working inside the warehouse who was not involved in the alleged pirating scheme.
The circumstances of the May 22, 2003, shooting remain murky.
An attorney in a multimillion-dollar wrongful death lawsuit filed by Zongo's family views the industry associations as potential defendants.
"We don't know yet what role they played, but it's something we'll be looking at very closely," said the lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein.
Police and industry officials insist tactics used in the counterfeiting investigation played no part in the shooting. More than a year later, the aggressive battle against a thriving black market for knockoff compact discs and DVDs continues unabated.
"We're proceeding along as we always have," said William Shannon, executive director of the Recording Industry Association of America's anti-piracy unit.
Determined to stop counterfeiters from siphoning off millions of dollars in revenues each year, the movie industry launched nearly 3,000 private investigations across the country in 2003 alone. The cases resulted in the seizure of more than 500,000 conterfeit DVDs.
The recording industry association's anti-piracy unit last year took credit for seizing five million counterfeit CDs. Its private investigators teamed with police and sheriffs' departments in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit and Jacksonville, Fla., for raids on clandestine "labs" that copy, DVDs, CDs and videotapes.
In New York, considered one of the capitals of counterfeiting, the movie industry has six full-time investigators and two supervisors, Shannon said.
The investigators typically are retired NYPD detectives who conduct surveillance and tail suspects, but never participate in arrests. During raids, they remain outside until the location is secured, then go in to identify and take an inventory of pirated merchandise, Shannon said.
"These are police operations," he said. "None of us rush in the doors."
In one recent case, industry investigators staked out a Bronx address where they spotted suspects delivering boxes of blank CDs. On April 27, police officers armed with a search warrant raided the spot, arresting one suspect and seizing 29 CD burners and thousands of copies of movies like "Walking Tall," "Big Fish" and "Jeeper Creepers II."
Police officials say trademark counterfeiters hurt legitimate business, rob the city of tax dollars and lure consumers into buying inferior goods. They also say counterfeiting operations, like illegal drug sales, can spur violent crime.
In late 1992, a man was shot to death during a holdup at a Manhattan warehouse used for a pirating operation, and a second man was injured jumping out the window to escape the robbery. Four months earlier, two men were injured in a shooting at another bootleg factory.
"Here in New York, we take the crime very seriously," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
The Zongo case stemmed from the arrest of a Staten Island man identified by private investigators as a piracy suspect. The man informed police that knockoff goods were being stored in a warehouse in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.
Officer Conroy _ who was disguised as a delivery man _ was among 10 officers who converged on the warehouse, where Zongo, 35, of Burkina Faso, was repairing African art and musical instruments.
The officers discovered thousands of bootleg CDs, DVDs and videos stashed inside two storage units. Conroy was guarding the cache when he encountered Zongo.
Though he had nothing to do with the case, Zongo ran away. He led Conroy on a winding chase through a labyrinth of hallways before being fatally shot in the chest, abdomen and upper back.
There were no witnesses to the shooting.
The officer told a grand jury that before he fired, the victim had refused his orders to halt, struggled with him and tried to grab his gun. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press