Officer Bob Cerullo is a dirty cop and double murderer working with the Gambino crime family, as well as a childhood friend of Phillip and Valerie Messick.
History[]
By his account, Cerullo grew up in a neighborhood with Phillip where their community would either serve the law or break it. Cerullo partnered with the Mallicks and Officer Wayne Dumar for the Gambino family's racketeering, laundering, and smuggling operations. Kumar and Cerullo specifically would take the property from burglars they caught so the mob sold it, while the Messicks cooked the books so the crimes were covered up. When Dumar and Cerullo ran guns, they kept some for themselves in the event they needed them.
Cerullo got greedy and shot Dumar dead, staging the murder as a suicide, to take the profits all for himself. When the FBI closed in on the operations, crime boss Jack Fatalli had Jay Fleckner and Darrell Dennehy recover the money and goods from the Merricka, while killing them to silence them. Valerie survived the attack, so after she perjured her testimony to get Fleckner off on charges, she ordered Cerullo to kill Fleckner reportedly to avenge Phillip and herself. Cerullo planted a gun on Fleckner to allege self-defense. Through the guns, Cerullo was tied to Dumar's murder, which revealed the setup. Cerullo blackmailed the prosecution by threatening to admit under oath he planted evidence in dozens of murder cases, a risk the prosecution took. Valerie took an immunity deal in exchange for admitting her part on the stand.
Cerullo was found guilty of second-degree murder and imprisoned. The D.A.'s office received requests for all the retrials Cerullo set up, and Valerie took over Phillip's dirty work. (L&O: "Family Friend")