Schumer, cops demand police departments get share of $16M from DOJ for drug prosecution
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NEW CITY — Red tape can become costly to local police forces.
Hudson Valley police departments — including the Rockland Sheriff's Office, Clarkstown, and Orangetown — are owed shares from more than $16 million in forfeiture funds resulting from the takedown of a criminal pharmaceutical company.
The company, the Rochester Drug Cooperative, illegally trafficked in opioids like oxycodone and fentanyl from 2012 to 2019, when executives were indicted. Federal prosecutors with the Department of Justice got $16.16 million in penalties from the company.
Under federal laws, local police departments who took part in the investigation with personnel deserve a share.
The Hudson Valley departments are still waiting on the Justice Department to fork over the cash.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Wednesday the "clock is ticking but stops now," pulling out his Swatch watch for symbolism.
"Our Hudson Valley cops risk their lives every day to protect their communities and have gone above and beyond to assist federal law enforcement officials in busting organized drug trafficking rings to keep our region safe," Schumer said, standing with officers outside the Rockland Sheriff's Office.
"The least we can do is pay them for the important work they have done," he said. " ... they've waited up to four years in some cases, which strains budgets and makes planning difficult as a result of not knowing when they will receive funding they are owed."
The Sheriff's Office and Clarkstown are owed several million dollars out of the $16.1 million pie, he said. Both departments assigned two officers each to the investigation led by the Westchester Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force. Orangetown, Yonkers, Westchester County Police Department, Woodbury, New Windsor, and the Putnam County Sheriff's Office earned shares.
The departments have been waiting for the Justice Department to determine shares, based on a formula that takes into account pay, equipment, and other factors.
Rockland Sheriff Louis Falco raised the issue of non-payment with Schumer, the Senate majority leader. Falco said officers "put their lives on the line and deserve an equitable share of seized assets for their time and effort."
"It's unacceptable we've waited for up to four years and enough is enough," Falco said.
From 2012 through March 2017, the Rochester Drug Cooperative knowingly and intentionally violated federal narcotics laws by distributing dangerous, highly addictive opioids to pharmacy customers that it knew were being sold and used illicitly, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District in Manhattan said in a 2019 statement.
The company acted at the direction of its senior management, including Laurence F. Doud III, the company’s former chief executive officer, and William Pietruszewski, the company’s former chief compliance officer.
From 2012 to 2016, RDC’s sales of oxycodone tablets grew from 4.7 million to 42.2 million – an increase of approximately 800 percent – and during the same period, RDC’s fentanyl sales grew from approximately 63,000 dosages in 2012 to over 1.3 million in 2016 – an increase of approximately 2,000 percent. During that same time period, Doud’s compensation increased by over 125 percent, growing to over $1.5 million in 2016.
The original forfeiture penalty stood at $20 million, but the company went bankrupt after paying $16.1 million.
Then U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in 2019: “This prosecution is the first of its kind: executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking, trafficking the same drugs that are fueling the opioid epidemic that is ravaging this country."
Clarkstown Police Chief Jeff Wanamaker said his department's role involved cryptocurrency, a form of digital asset based on a network that is distributed across a large number of computers. This decentralized structure allows them to exist outside the control of governments and central authorities.
Putnam County Sheriff Kevin McConville said law enforcement began talking about the frustrations with the delays in paying the forfeiture assets a year ago.
He said drug use and illegal sales have not decreased, adding, "You see every day another death."
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Rep. Mike Lawler, R-Rockland, is part of the bipartisan campaign to pressure the Justice Department to pay the departments. Lawler lauded the work of local police and the investigation to get dangerous drugs off the streets noting the opioid crisis with other drugs has caused deaths for decades.
He's working with Schumer and the region's other Congress members, Pat Ryan, and Jamaal Bowman, to ensure the police get their shares to enhance other investigations and equipment. The forfeiture money can't pay for personnel. Lawler was Orangetown's deputy supervisor at the time of the investigation.
Schumer wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland to voice his concerns.
"I urge the DOJ to immediately expedite the payment process, ensuring these dedicated officers receive the compensation they have long awaited," Schumer wrote.
Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.
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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Feds pressured by Schumer, Lawler, police to pay share of RDC penalty
