Drug unit officers indicted
Authorities accuse police sergeant of leading unit on an illegal search of a home
TROY, N.Y. » Two officers from the Troy Police Department’s drug unit were named in a 14- count indictment that was unsealed in Rensselaer County Court on Friday afternoon.
Detective John Comitale Jr. and Sgt. Ronald Epstein each appeared before visiting Albany County Judge Peter Lynch.
Lynch was assigned to the case after the grand jury indicted Epstein, the commander of the narcotics squad, in December.
Epstein is accused of leading the six-man Firearms Interdiction and Narcotics Suppression unit on an illegal June 9, 2017 search of a home at 112 Oakwood Ave. Epstein also allegedly failed to seize the more than 1/8 ounce of cocaine discovered during the search.
During the investigation, handled by state police at the request of city police and overseen by Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka after Rensselaer County DA Joel Abelove recused himself from the case, questions arose about a burglary report Epstein allegedly filed in an attempt to cover up entering the home illegally.
According to the latest indictment on Friday, the grand jury is accusing Epstein of fourth-degree criminal mischief, second-degree criminal trespass, second- and fourth- degree criminal facilitation, three counts of official misconduct, first- and second- degree falsifying business records, two counts first -and second- degree offering a false instrument for filing, and third- degree bribery.
The indictment accuses Comitale of second- degree criminal trespass, second- and fourth- degree criminal facilitation and of-
ficial misconduct.
Both Comitale and Epstein entered a not guilty plea in court with their attorneys Friday afternoon. Both were released on their own recognizances and both are scheduled back in Rensselaer County Court on March 19 at 1 p.m. for a pretrial conference. Both of the officers are still out of work on suspension and admin-
istrative leave.
Epstein had originally been named in an indictment in December. The indictment accused him of not seizing the cocaine, proposing the unit file a false report to cover up the illegal entry and offering overtime to another officer to lie about what really happened. The falsifying records counts relate to covering up the real reason for entering the residence and not reporting that officers had found cocaine, authorities said. The trespass
charge relates to Epstein allegedly entering the home illegally, while the mischief charge relates to his breaking down a door to gain entry to the home. He was charged with facilitation for allegedly not seizing the cocaine.
The attorneys representing Comitale and Epstein spoke after the indictments were unsealed and each attorney believe that their client did nothing illegal and therefore are not guilty of any of the charges.
“He’s a good cop, he’s
doing his job,” said Shane Hug, who is representing Epstein, “and now he finds himself on the other end of an indictment, that for some reason was increased — no new evidence came out since the last indictment. The only thing that changed from the misdemeanor indictment until now was that my client had the audacity to turn down a plea offer; to say, ‘I’m not pleading guilty because I didn’t do anything,’ and what we were told was, ‘If you do not plead guilty to everything contained in the misdemeanor indictment, we will charge you with felonies,’ and that’s fine; facts don’t change, and we look forward to our day in court where he’s going to be acquitted.”
“This case is very difficult and it’s the old adage, this case proves true, you can indict a ham sandwich,” added Andrew Safranko, who is representing Comitale. “This case has nothing to do with anything but a vindictive prosecutor. Mr. Epstein was
offered a plea bargain to plead guilty to misdemeanors, if he pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, his case would go away. He didn’t plead guilty to the misdemeanors so nowwehave felony charges, and because he didn’t do it, my client is now brought into the fray. This is just nothing more than a way of the special prosecutor to attempt to try extort a guilty plea out of Mr. Epstein to try to save Mr. Comitale, and the reality is neither one of them did anything wrong.”