Godwins found danger, got results undercover

By Christopher Conley (Contact)
Thursday, September 27, 2007

Meet Nick Barlotti and Nick Barlotti Jr. At least that's how the criminals knew them.
Their given names are Larry Godwin and Anthony Godwin, father and son and both Memphis police officers who went undercover in successful investigations of Memphis' topless clubs.
Larry Godwin, now police director, infiltrated the seamy club world of Art Baldwin in the 1970s.
The younger Godwin and his partner, Mark Jordan, immersed themselves in the unglamorous and dangerous world of topless nightclubs, befriending drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes over two years.
Last December their work led to numerous criminal charges, 11 federal indictments, 63 state indictments and the closure of Platinum Plus and Tunica Cabaret and Resort.
Many of those locked up in a late-night raid last December were known gang members who used the clubs to sling dope or pimp.
And it's not over yet.
"I took pride in using that name," said Anthony. "I had a lot to live up to."
Larry Godwin first used the name of his maternal grandmother Barlotti as his cover name during the 1970s.
Fresh back from Vietnam, he went deep undercover in the topless clubs. He made numerous drug deals, some involving thousands of hits of LSD and, once, a kilogram of cocaine, a huge amount in those days. He locked up a bunch of people.
He never thought his son would fight his same battles a quarter-century later.
It turned out that way almost by accident.
Anthony Godwin was assigned to the vice detail of the Organized Crime Unit in February 2005. It's not nearly as glamorous as some might think.
On his first venture into a nightclub to check for code violations or vice activity, dancers tried to peddle him narcotics.
He notified his superior, Lt. Henry Williams, of this unexpected turn of events. Williams passed that information up the chain to then-Maj. Dewey Betts. And then the investigation took off as an all-out drug, prostitution, money-laundering probe.
Jordan and young Godwin would have to become their counterparts in the criminal world, leaving their identities behind and taking on assumed roles.
Anthony Godwin became Nick Barlotti, a long-haired Corvette-driving hot shot, with a fence construction company.
If you're undercover and you say you build fences, you better be able to do just that. Anthony supported himself constructing fences before becoming a cop.
Over the next few months, Anthony and Jordan made friends with the dancers and their dealers, buying drugs on dozens of occasions, and witnessing sex shows and wide-open orgies on stage, as outlined in federal court documents.
The two officers bought so much dope in the clubs that the OCU ''buy budget'' was tapped out from time to time.
With no money to buy, sometimes they had to soft-soap their way out of a deal to avoid raising suspicions.
The shady characters of the Memphis underworld are ever wary, always on the con, always looking for the chink in the armor, the shoes that don't match, the telltale turn of speech that might say "cop."
The two officers went through undercover training from Det. Paul Sherman, who coordinates the undercover program to erase their past.
"It's like acting," Sherman said, "but it's not like 'Miami Vice.'"
"You never come out of role. When you do, you're burned and you're done," Sherman said.
The hardest thing is to stop thinking and talking like a cop.
"We teach them to hate the police," Sherman said. "If you don't like the police, you won't act like the police."
"Do you roll?" the two undercover officers would be asked by dancers over the next two years, meaning do they do Ecstasy.
The girls were all rolling. For three or four days at a time.
The two partners babysat for the dancers, listened to their complaints, usually about money and boyfriends. To maintain cover, Anthony once visited a dope dealer in the hospital in Mississippi after he cracked his motorcycle into an 18-wheeler.
The roles Anthony Godwin and Jordan took on were based upon real people, two men arrested in 2002 for selling Ecstasy and methamphetamine in the topless clubs, Sherman said. Same fancy cars, same cocky attitude.
"It wears you out," Anthony said of the undercover life. "Doing the same thing every night got old quick. But you never get bored, because it's a dangerous thing to do," he said.
The undercover role has an officer's head on a swivel, always looking for someone who might recognize him, especially another officer, Anthony said.
"I never pushed him into the police department," Director Godwin said. "I didn't want him to see the things I saw on a regular basis."
Undercover officers have taken on the role of gangsters, living the life for extended periods, leading to indictments against many of the leading Gangster Disciple, Vice Lords and Crips members in Memphis.
"He is very good at what he does," the father said. "I was extremely proud ... and concerned."
"Nobody can understand, unless you've been there," Director Godwin said. "You know who you are, but you lose your identity. ... I would never have dreamed my son would fight the same battle I fought."

Two cops, Jordan and Godwin had been undercover for the pass two years acting as pimps, drug dealers, and gangster at many nightclubs. They had been sent to be undercover to replace there criminal record. Their work had let down to many criminal charges indcluding eleven federals indictment, 63 states indictment and had the Platinum Plus and Tunica Caberet to closed down. They had went through many tests and the most dangerous position to accomplish their work. The government are proudly greatful to these officers.