NEW ORLEANS — David Singleton, 62, once held the reputation as one of the most corrupt cops in the history of the New Orleans Police Department. He earned that title after pleading to guilty to dealing kilos of cocaine for ‘90s-era New Orleans drug kingpin Richard Pena and admitting that he used his police badge and gun to deliver a Pena rival to his execution-style murder through a bogus arrest.
Now, years removed from serving a 15-year federal prison sentence, Singleton is again facing federal cocaine charges.
In a recently unsealed federal indictment, Singleton was charged with conspiracy to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine. Federal court records show that Singleton is being allowed to remain free pending his trial with strict conditions of GPS monitoring and a curfew.
If convicted, Singleton faces from 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $8 million. In the indictment, prosecutors accuse Singleton of dealing cocaine from at least March 2017 “and continuing to on or about July 1, 2021.”
Singleton’s attorney, John Fuller, said his client is taking the allegations seriously and is eager to present the “many positive changes in his life” following his prior convictions.
“We certainly look forward to him having his day in court,” Fuller said.
Singleton’s previous prison sentence was universally decried as lenient compared to the life sentence now being served by Pena, but law enforcement officials defended the decision at the time as one of the costs of bringing down the deadly Pena gang.
ingleton, as an 18-year veteran officer, served as a star federal witness starting in 1997 after being one of the first suspects to cooperate in that notorious case.
Prosecutors placed a high value on Singleton's willingness to take the stand against Pena, whose underlings cornered much of the city's cocaine market in the mid-1990s and kept its grip through a string of more than 20 murders.
Singleton was spared a courtroom appearance to testify directly against Pena when the drug kingpin pleaded guilty to eight of the murders as part of a deal in which prosecutors dropped pursuit of the death penalty. Pena agreed to a life sentence without parole.
Pena's attorney at the time, Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge Laurie White, said Singleton's plea bargain went beyond the usual leniency for a cooperating defendant.
“I think it's outrageous, considering his history and how long he had been in the Police Department,” White said at the time.
Singleton already had been under intense federal scrutiny before he was caught as part of the Pena gang. In 1991, Singleton was acquitted along with another New Orleans police officer on federal charges of shaking down drug dealers.
White pointed to unprosecuted crimes that surfaced in court documents only after Singleton sealed his deal.
The documents, including Pena's 27-page confession, known as a “factual basis,” show that a year before the Curtis kidnapping, Singleton helped kidnap another Pena enemy in the same manner. Navarri Harvey was pulled over and handcuffed by Singleton in November 1994, then delivered to Pena and several of his associates. Harvey was tortured for several days before he was strangled and his body buried in a shallow grave outside Slidell.
Singleton also helped arrange and cover up the 1997 killing of Robin Pitre, whom Pena suspected was a government informant. According to Pena's confession and other documents, Singleton obtained Pitre's Hollygrove address and delivered it to Pena. When Pitre was fatally shot next to her home, Singleton responded to the scene and heard witnesses describe the gunman's car as a white Buick with a broken taillight. The next day, Singleton told the gunman, a hitman for Pena, to fix the taillight.
