Det. Ed Hill of North Miami Beach has already broken one giant police no-no: sleeping with the Russian mail-order bride of a man he'd just arrested for murder. Just for good measure, he went ahead and took over the jailed man's driveway-paving business, too.
Now Hill is accused of forging a signature on a key document in the ongoing murder case against David Superville. "What I've read here today is appalling," Miami Circuit Judge Jorge Cueto said of the new charges in court today.
Hill's ethical lapses mark one of the most bizarre criminal cases in recent Dade history.
They took a turn for the weirder in court this afternoon, when a handwriting expert testified that Superville's signature was forged on a document waiving his Miranda rights. Cueto, the judge, agreed that Hill, who has been on the NMB force for 22 years, seems to have faked the signature.
"I'm not an expert, but this looks fake to me," Cueto said.
Prosecutors have a chance to respond, but the allegedly faked signature might just derail the entire case against the 49-year-old Superville. (Hill declined to comment on the forgery accusations to the Herald.)
The accusations against Sueprville were strange enough to begin with: Prosecutors say he and another man spent months in 2001 tailing a Brazilian businessman named James Duarte in exchange for $32,000 from another Brazilian, Ivan Amaral.
Amaral then allegedly hired a hitman to whack Duarte, who was shot to death with a .22 caliber pistol in August 2001. He was allegedly upset that the businessman had been dating his ex-girlfriend.
Hill's troubles started after he booked Superville in 2007 for second degree murder for his alleged role in the plot.
Superville says that after getting out on bail from jail six months later, he learned that Hill was not only sleeping with his wife, Anna Gulevitskaya, but that he'd taken over his business as well.
Here's what he told police investigators in February 2008:
"From day one, when (Hill) interviewed me and found out about who my wife was, you know, that she's a Russian mail order bride, she's absolutely gorgeous, he was fascinated with her," he says.
Both Gulevitskaya and Hill admitted to investigators that the relationship turned sexual after the detective bought her trips home to Russia, expensive meals and vacations in the Keys.
Asked how often they'd hooked up, Hill told investigators: "I can't give you a number. We had sex."
Hill was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and civil service violations and suspended for three weeks. Then he had another bizarre run in with IA investigators.
In July 2009, a friend of Gulevitskaya's was murdered in West Little River. Hill showed up at the scene and told Miami-Dade cops he was part of a "Russian task force" to try to get info on the homicide.
Again, he was found guilty of conduct unbecoming and neglect of duty.
Riptide has left a message with North Miami Beach police officials to see if Hill will face new internal charges over this afternoon's court revelations. We'll update when we hear back.
Superville, who maintains he didn't know that Amaral wanted to kill Duarte, wants his case tossed over Hill's ethical lapses.
