Ex-cop pleads guilty to gun charge
A Trumbull man who is a former Greenwich police sergeant pleaded guilty in federal court to taking part in a scheme to illegally transfer weapons to his drug dealer, who was also a convicted felon, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Joseph Ryan, a 57-yearold Trumbull resident who retired from the Greenwich Police Department in July 2019 after a 33-year career, entered the guilty plea in a New Haven courtroom Monday.
“The investigation revealed that Ryan, who was addicted to heroin, transferred firearms to an individual who was a convicted felon, and who helped facilitate heroin transactions between Ryan and a heroin supplier,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
Ryan was working for the Greenwich police at the time he was involved in the weapons transfer, authorities said.
Greenwich police declined to comment Tuesday.
The case began after Ansonia police confiscated a number of guns from a local resident on a “risk warrant,” which allows authorities to take guns if there is a credible risk of harm to the gun owner or others, and held them in their possession. In April 2019, Ryan presented the police in Ansonia with a valid pistol permit and paperwork documenting the sale and transfer of five guns to him, from another person. He was not acting in capacity as a law enforcement officer, court papers stated, but was there to fulfill the sale of the guns.
The guns were later found to be in the possession of Malique Martin, who was arrested in October 2019 in Ansonia after an informant with a federal task force bought four weapons from him, including guns that Ryan had retrieved from the Ansonia police. Martin has been sentenced to a year in prison on federal weapons charges in the case.
Ryan pleaded guilty to one count of possession of firearms by an unlawful user of a controlled substance, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years. He was initially charged with knowingly providing firearms to a convicted felon. Ryan was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Feb. 21, 2020.
“This case was presented in a far more sinister manner than it eventually resolved to be. This agreement (reached in court) is likely to work out in his favor, and we’re optimistic this will be over fairly soon,” said Ryan’s defense lawyer, Phil Russell.
As to the drug use that federal prosecutors alluded to, Russell said it was “an isolated incident” for his client.
Judge Jeffery Meyer will hand down the sentencing July 6 in U.S. District Court in New Haven.
Ryan was released from custody after posting $100,000 bond.
The court earlier required Ryan to take part in a substance abuse program, as well as mental health treatment, according to court documents.
Ryan did not have any public record of misconduct during his police career. He was hired in 1986 after graduating from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., with a degree in criminal justice.
In 2012, according to a review of salaries for municipal employees by Greenwich Time, Ryan was the top earner among rankand-file officers with a salary of $146,796.30.
Ryan was a state certified EMT, according to his LinkedIn page, with expertise in conflict resolution.