Tarnished State Health Officials Sued by Man Claiming False Arrest

JOSEPH FISCH: Findings hurt officials' credibility.

A Brooklyn man has sued three Investigators and three supervisors from the state Department of Health's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in Federal court—charging that he was falsely arrested, denied an attorney, drugged and forced to sign a phony confession by employees who were the focus of a scathing Inspector General's report late last year.

Matthew D'Olimpio recently sued the three Investigators, Louis Crisafi, Brendan Vallely and Thomas D'Amicantonio; James Giglio, Director of the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement's Metropolitan Area Regional Office; Michael Moffett, the Section Chief; and Paul Nadel, the Program Director, concerning his 2007 arrest in Brooklyn.

Had Mixed Prescription Drugs

Mr. D'Olimpio alleges that he was stopped on the street by the Investigators, who displayed badges and asked permission to search him. According to court papers, the men searched his wife's car without his permission and found prescription drugs—Klonopin and Vicodin—that were prescribed to him but had been combined into the same bottle for travel purposes.

Without asking whether he had a prescription, the Investigators allegedly handcuffed Mr. D'Olimpio and took him to the 19th Precinct in Manhattan. He asked for an attorney but was never given one, according to the lawsuit.

He also asked for an ambulance to get him his medication, but he said the Investigators told him to call his wife to bring the prescription. Later, Mr. Crisafi gave Mr. D'Olimpio a blue pill, which he did not think was Klonopin, which made him feel confused and drowsy. He said this never happened to him when he took this medication before.

Mr. Crisafi continued to interrogate Mr. D'Olimpio, who said he again asked for an attorney but was ignored.

Signed Confession

Mr. Crisafi asked Mr. D'Olimpio to confess to criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal impersonation for using false information to get drugs. The Investigator gave him a one-page written confession, which Mr. D'Olimpio signed.

The lawsuit also charges that Mr. D'Olimpio was never read his Miranda rights, and that Mr. Crisafi wrote a fourpage confession with Mr. D'Olimpio's forged signature and initials.

Mr. D'Olimpio was taken to the Manhattan Detention Complex, where he stayed overnight. The charges were dropped on Sept. 4, 2008.

On Dec. 8, 2008, State Inspector General Joseph Fisch found that Mr. Crisafi had committed numerous abuses of his position, including not being qualified, falsifying information on his application, using narcotics at work, misusing his parking placard and running an undercover operation without authorization. Mr. Giglio and Mr. Moffett and by implication Mr. Nadel failed to effectively monitor the Metropolitan office and failed to prevent Mr. Crisafi's and his colleagues' abuses.

Last December, the State Department of Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines said the agency would initiate disciplinary action against Mr. Crisafi and a subordinate accused of falsifying a Miranda rights document, and would tighten controls over the Manhattan office, re-examine its hiring procedures, update parking placard policies and make sure that any outstanding parking fines were paid.