A former Ansonia detective who stole cocaine from the police department’s evidence room and raided medicine drop-off boxes to steal painkillers will not be going to prison, a judge said Wednesday.
Instead, Matthew Macero, 42, received a three-year suspended sentence, which means no jail as long as he continues to stay out of trouble.
In an unusual move, Macero also has to write a letter to the Valley Indy explaining his actions.
Under the terms of a plea bargain, Macero pleaded guilty to fourth-degree larceny, making a false statement, and falsely reporting an incident before Judge Hillary Strackbein at Superior Court in New London.
All three of the charges are Class A misdemeanors.
Macero, a a decorated Ansonia police officer for 12 years before he retired during the investigation, originally faced three felony charges in the case.
A prosecutor told the Valley Indy that while he had no doubt he could prove the original charges in the case, he agreed to reduce the charges because Macero was willing to accept responsibility for his actions. Macero was an exemplary officer for more than a decade before he got hooked on painkillers — and saw his life spiral out of control due to his addiction, the prosecutor said.
Background
Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale asked state police to start investigating his department in September 2013, after two other Ansonia cops had seen Macero accessing a drop box for prescription meds found in the police department’s front lobby, according to a warrant for Macero’s arrest.
Local police departments often contact an outside law enforcement agency to investigate allegations of criminal activity, in addition to conducting their own internal investigations.
Hale had been told that Macero had taken two drug tests for a worker’s compensation claim and had allegedly tested positive for cocaine and methadone.
The state police investigation took two years.
The warrant for Macero’s arrest says surveillance footage from the police department showed Macero stealing drugs from the evidence room — in particular a “burn barrel” in which police put seized drugs they intend to destroy. State cops also used DNA evidence to implicate Macero.
Click here to read more about the investigation.
Prior to Macero’s addiction troubles, he was by all public accounts a good cop.
In 2012, for example, he foiled a burglary attempt at a Maple Street market.
He was one of several Ansonia officers thanked by the federal Department of Justice in March 2010 for playing a role in a Beaver Street weapons sting in 2009.
In May 2013, Macero was given a departmental citation for more than seven years of work as an undercover officer serving in the Valley Street Crimes Unit and the Ansonia Police Department’s Anti-Crime Unit.
And while serving in the department’s Anti-Crime Unit, he and his partner also played a key role in helping Derby cops solve a May 2012 killing in which one of their informants was implicated.
Lawyer: ‘He Will Rise Again’
Macero’s lawyer, Daniel Esposito, sent the Valley Indy a prepared statement Thursday saying Macero was “naive” about taking pain meds after an on-the-job injury.
“The scourge that synthetic opiates have spawned knows no boundaries,” Esposito said. “Matt was seriously injured on the job and naive to the seduction that his prescribed medications carried.”
Esposito said that in pleading guilty Wednesday, Macero took responsibility for his crimes.
“Matt is a phoenix,” Esposito’s statement concluded. “He will rise again.”
Article continues after Esposito’s statement.
Macero, Matt – 5.12.16 Press Release by ValleyIndyDotOrg
Prosecutor Explains
The prosecutor handling Macero’s case, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Shay, said Wednesday’s plea deal was the best way to resolve the matter.
He said he had no doubt that the charges lodged against Macero could be proved at trial, crediting the state police with doing a thorough investigation.
But he said Macero wanted to accept responsibility for his actions.
Given that — and Macero’s record as a decorated police officer who served the community for more than a decade — Wednesday’s resolution was best for all parties involved, he said.
“The thinking was that here we had a person who was willing to accept responsibility for what he did, publicly,” Shay said, adding later: “I didn’t think this was a case where he needed to go to jail.”
“If he had a completely different attitude, we would have gone to trial. We were ready. The state police did an absolutely tremendous job investigating the case. I had no worries about a trial,” Shay said. “But you have to try to do the right thing. I feel good about the way this case was resolved. It’s a sad case. Basically it’s another tragic example of an ever-growing problem we have.”
Shay said the investigation confirmed Macero became addicted to painkillers after being injured on the job.
“Every case in which a police officer does something wrong is not equal,” Shay added. “They’re all different. You’ve got to look at what is the purpose behind the activity?”
He noted Macero wasn’t taking bribes, for example, or interfering with other cops’ cases.
“He was overcome by his addiction and there were drugs in a burn barrel that were going to be destroyed and he couldn’t control his compulsion,” Shay said.
Of course, he said, there’s no excuse for Macero stealing drugs. But he said a multitude of conditions the judge included as part of the plea deal will ensure Macero will walk the straight and narrow — or face going to prison for the three years of suspended jail time Judge Strackbein handed down in the case.
First, Macero must not seek any law enforcement jobs, and must send a sworn affidavit to the Police Officer Standards and Training Council waiving his right to seek recertification as a cop.
He must also take only prescribed medications, seek “intensive” drug treatment, and must take random urine tests whenever probation officials ask.
Also included — 200 hours of community service. Shay said Thursday that would likely entail Macero speaking throughout the state at DARE meetings conducted by state police to show the dangers of drug addiction.
Write A Letter Saying What You Did
Finally, the judge also ordered Macero to send a letter to the Valley Indy within 30 days repeating a statement he made in court after pleading guilty Wednesday accepting responsibility.
Shay said Macero’s statement told the story of how he became addicted to drugs, and “makes it clear that nobody else in the department was complicit in this, nobody else had any participation whatsoever.”
“It was really a heartfelt apology yesterday in court about how it was the worst decision of his life and how he breached the trust not only of the public but also of his fellow officers,” Shay said.
The prosecutor said he pushed for the Valley Indy letter — after speaking with Ansonia police brass — in an effort to repair the public trust that Macero’s actions damaged.
He noted that a defendant having to make such a public apology “doesn’t really happen all that often. It’s an extremely humbling and very humiliating experience.”
But one that he thought was necessary.
“One of the things that’s frustrating about the whole situation, there’s a cloud as long as this thing is pending over the entire department,” Shay said. “You’re out there trying to do a job where you rely on the trust of the community to do the job effectively. And there’s a lingering doubt in everybody’s mind: were you involved in this?”
“I said from the beginning to (Macero’s) attorney, I really really think in a case like this where you have a breach of the public trust, having somebody stand up there apologize publicly, not just on the record, but I wanted this to go in the newspaper (as well),” Shay said. “He never resisted any of that, never fought that. They thought that was a good idea.”
Police Chief Reacts
Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale thanked Shay and state police Thursday for their efforts.
Hale said police concluded early on that no other officers were involved.
He said he hopes Macero’s letter to the Valley Indy will make that clear as well.
The police department also increased oversight of evidence collection and processing, he said.
“It was a trust issue more than a procedural issue, but we’ve tightened up wherever we could,” Hale said.
“We’re certainly glad there’s a resolution. We have moved on,” Hale said. “We’ve made the corrections we needed to make. We’re glad that the issue is closed.”
