Season 2
Valchek was the impetus behind the investigation into corruption at the docks, due to a petty feud he had with Dockworker Union Treasurer Frank Sobotka, another American-Pole. Both men wanted to donate stained glass windows to a local church, and Sobotka refused to withdraw his larger, more expensive window which had been installed first. Valchek became curious as to how the struggling union could afford the expensive window. He ordered his subordinates (including Sergeant Ellis Carver) to begin harassing Sobotka and his union, putting parking tickets on their cars and pulling them over for breathalyzer tests directly outside the bar they frequent. The union responded by stealing Valchek's valuable district surveillance van and shipping it from port to port, sending him photographs from each destination.
Valchek discussed the union with Krawczyk, who knew of Sobotka making numerous campaign contributions. Valchek felt there was a possibility of illegal activity, while at the same time noticing Deputy Commissioner Burrell's nomination for Acting Commissioner. Knowing that Burrell had trouble finding support with the first district council members, Valchek offered Burrell political influence in exchange for a special unit devoted to investigating Sobotka, with Prez as the lead investigator. Burrell had Colonel Rawls send an investigative team from CID to Valchek, all "highly recommended" officers, who were in fact dead-weight "humps." When Valchek witnessed the task force's lack of work ethic, he demanded a real police detail led by Cedric Daniels as commander (on Prez's recommendation and repaying the favor owed to Daniels from Season 1), threatening to derail Burrell's effort to become Commissioner if he did not agree. Burrell obligingly recreated Daniels' task force.
As the investigation expanded to cover Greek drug traffickers, Sobotka ceased to be the primary target, angering Valchek. Valchek went to the FBI to try to refocus the investigation, turning it into a racketeering case, but the bureau remained more focused on the union and port than Sobotka. Valchek confronted Daniels' team publicly; he insulted and shoved Prez, who responds by punching Valchek in the face. Furious, he disowned his son-in-law and threatened to have him removed from the department. Daniels convinced him to reduce Prez's punishment, pointing out that any official action would have to mention that Valchek provoked the attack (Daniels even offers to have the BPD rewrite the statements on Valchek's behalf but claims the FBI agents who witnessed the attack would not follow suit). Valchek grudgingly assigned Prez two months of duty on the midnight shift of the district's narcotics unit and accepted a letter of apology in exchange for not charging him.
At the close of the investigation, Valchek delighted in personally making the arrest of Sobotka, and held him in the union offices until he could be publicly dragged out in front of the press. Sobotka was ultimately killed, but the surveillance van was still being shipped around the world.
Read more about this topic: Stan Valchek, Biography
Famous quotes containing the word season:
“Let us have a good many maples and hickories and scarlet oaks, then, I say. Blaze away! Shall that dirty roll of bunting in the gun-house be all the colors a village can display? A village is not complete, unless it have these trees to mark the season in it. They are important, like the town clock. A village that has them not will not be found to work well. It has a screw loose, an essential part is wanting.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)