Officer Bob

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Internal Affairs, as you probably know, is the office inside a police department charged with rooting out criminal cops. So what happens when IA guys, instead of busting bad cops tip ‘em off about how to avoid getting caught? What happens is called business as usual, my friend.

In late 2006, a New York City detective was suspected of being involved with illegal drugs, and an Internal Affairs Bureau sergeant was bluntly advising him on how to avoid investigators, according to new court filings in a continuing federal probe of police corruption.

Their profanity-laced conversation was quoted in an indictment issued on Wednesday by a grand jury in Brooklyn.

The new charges in the case accused the sergeant, Sgt. William Valerio, of false statements, bank fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors said he was the seventh person — and third police officer — indicted in the investigation since 2006.

The bank fraud charges stemmed from accusation that Sergeant Valerio was involved with Detective Luis M. Batista in producing a false termite inspection certificate required for a mortgage for a $412,000 house sale in Elmont, Long Island. The indictment also accused Mr. Batista of altering a receipt for the inspection, raising the cost to $1,000 from $100.

The wiretap excerpts, with obscenities deleted, attributed to Sergeant Valerio the comments cautioning Detective Batista. “Be very careful when you’re coming and going, because the [expletive] will follow you,” Sergeant Valerio was quoted as saying. “Look over your [expletive] shoulder 100 million times.”