A former Ansonia police officer faces three felonies in connection to an investigation of the police department’s evidence room.
Matthew Macero, who worked undercover investigating drug crimes for the department’s anti-crime unit and the former Valley Street Crimes Unit, was charged Sept. 8 with illegal alteration of records, possession of narcotics and second-degree larceny.
A message seeking comment was left with Macero’s lawyer Tuesday.
State police arrested Macero. They launched an investigation into alleged “irregularities” regarding evidence processing within the Ansonia Police Department in September 2013.
State police started the investigation at the request of Ansonia police after the “irregularities” were discovered.
In a prepared statement Tuesday, Ansonia police described the irregularities as “tampering and theft of evidence” from the police department.
A statement from the Ansonia Police Department is embedded below. Article continues after the document.
Macero was arraigned Monday in Superior court in Derby, where he pleaded not guilty to each charge.
However, further details of the accusations against Macero were not available to the public Tuesday.
His court file, a public document, was not available in Derby court Tuesday. Clerks said Macero’s case was transferred to Superior Court in New London.
Macero’s next court date is Oct. 27.
State police had no information Tuesday afternoon.
The “offense” dates for each charge — that is, the date the crimes allegedly happened — is Sept. 26.
That is the date a truck from the state police major crimes squad was parked outside the Ansonia Police Department on Elm Street. It remained there for several days, with investigators hauling out numerous boxes.
Macero went on medical leave during the investigation. He retired Nov. 6, 2013.
In a statement, Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale said the criminal probe “showed that Matthew Macero used his position and trusted relationships within the (Ansonia police) department to gain access to items of evidence for his personal needs.”
The department has put “additional safeguards into place to prevent this from happening in the future,” Hale said.
The new safeguards include new seizure and evidence destruction policies, evidence room audits, tougher restrictions regarding who can access evidence, and putting a sergeant in charge of all evidence processes, the chief said in his statement.
“While Matthew Macero betrayed that trust, I want to assure the City of Ansonia that the honorable police officers that work at the Ansonia Police Department are committed to serving the residents and they perform at a high level of professionalism and integrity daily,” Hale said.
Macero worked in Ansonia for 12 years.
Accomplished Career
Macero’s career at the police department was marked with accomplishments. Click here for a previous story.
According to the minutes of the May 2001 Board of Aldermen meeting during which he was hired as a recruit police officer, Macero served as an intern in the department’s records room in the 1980s.
Hale said Macero at the time tested and interviewed well during the hiring process. “We liked him very much, and we think he’ll do well,” Hale told the board, according to the minutes.
Macero has played a key role in a number of investigations:
- In the days after the murder of alleged drug suspect Javon Zimmerman outside a Derby bar last May, Macero aided Derby police in interviewing Cordaryl Silva, the man who would eventually be convicted of Zimmerman’s murder.
- In 2012, he foiled an attempted burglary of a Maple Street market, leading to the arrest of four teenagers.
- In February 2012, Macero followed up a drug case that began in Seymour by leading the search of the home of an Ansonia man alleged to be running a large scale marijuana and narcotics dealing operation.
- Macero 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.
“Officer Macero has conducted numerous narcotics investigations that resulted in arrests and convictions,” an officer reading the citation said, adding that because of Macero’s “dedicated work ethic and extensive knowledge of the narcotics trade, the city of Ansonia has been able to collaboratively improve the quality of life for its citizens.”
This story will be updated.
