NORWICH – Norwich City Police Investigator Michael Purdy will resume testimony this morning, his third day on the witness stand in the case against accused drug dealer Michael A. Victor Jr.

Purdy, a 13-year veteran of the city police force, now a narcotics investigator, was the first witness called by the prosecution when the trial began Wednesday.

Under direct examination by District Attorney Joseph McBride, Purdy described first the three-month investigation which led to the March 27, 2009 raid on 31 Hickock Ave. in Norwich in which Victor was arrested; then the raid itself and the evidence collected both there and from a storage unit which was subsequently searched on April 3, 2009.

According to the law enforcement officer, he and other investigators first became aware of the drug operation in early January of that year.

“I received information through a reliable source that Curissa Jenkins was selling narcotics,” Purdy said, including cocaine and heroin. Over the course of the following two months, they established surveillance of Jenkins and other individuals they believed to be involved, the vehicles they drove and those coming and going from Jenkins’ residence. Purdy said two black males were seen frequenting the premises, but their identities were not established until later in the investigation.

Nine controlled buys of narcotics were made during that time, between January and March. Purdy testified that three of those buys involved confidential informants kept under observation and using pre-recorded currency. The others were made using an undercover police officer. On eight of those occasions, he said, the drugs were purchased from Jenkins. The other buy was made through a woman named Cassie Brooks.

Subsequent to these buys, a search warrant was obtained for both the Hickock Ave. apartment and a second apartment at 72 Plymouth St. Purdy said that, because of information obtained by the police indicating that weapons would be present, it was decided a “tactical” or “dynamic” entry was necessary. And at 6:54 a.m. on March 27, entry teams led by the Norwich City Police stormed both apartments. Assisting them were the New York State Police’s Community Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET), the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office and the Village of Greene Police Department’s K-9 unit.

Purdy said he entered the Hickock Ave. apartment after the entry team gave the “all clear,” 2 to 5 minutes after the warrant was executed. He described the layout of the residence and what he found upon his arrival.