New Jersey police officer, KEVIN MATTHEW Arrested for stealing Cocaine, Fentanyl from Prosecutor’s Evidence Room
…allegedly made ‘series of cash deposits’ at several banks on different days to avoid financial institutions’ federal requirement to report transactions of more than $10,000
*Two razor blades found in suspect’s office at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office which tested positive for Cocaine
*Caught on CCTV coming and going from the agency’s Paramus headquarters toting bags big enough to carry the narcotics
*“Serving in law enforcement is a position of public trust. If officers illegally break that trust, we will hold them accountable. As alleged, the defendant’s conduct constitutes a shocking and brazen disregard of the law by a high-ranking officer who was sworn to uphold the law”-New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin
*BY IAN PHENNA, POLICE Correspondent, New Jersey
KEVIN T. MATTHEW, A LIEUTENANT IN NEW JERSEY POLICE FORCE has brought infamy and shame to the reputation of law enforcement agency work in the state by his ignoble and unbecoming acts of disrepute in the course of his profession. The suspect was arrested for stealing Cocaine and Fentanyl from the county prosecutor’s evidence room. He then tried to return the drugs in “substantially different” condition after higher-ups began asking questions about what he was doing, state authorities alleged.
This 47-year-old of Cedar Grove, allegedly made a “series of cash deposits” at several banks on different days to avoid the financial institutions’ federal requirement to report transactions of more than $10,000, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
Two razor blades were found in his office at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and later tested positive for cocaine, state prosecutors alleged.
Although authorities didn’t say exactly what they thought the cop was doing with the drugs, they wrote in the criminal complaint that his actions were “taken with the purpose to benefit himself by personal use, personal financial profit or concealing his misconduct.”
“As alleged, the defendant’s conduct constitutes a shocking and brazen disregard of the law by a high-ranking officer who was sworn to uphold the law,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.
Matthew was arrested Tuesday, according to the complaint, and charged by the AG with a litany of offenses, including second-degree official misconduct, tampering with public records, structuring financial transactions, drug possession and paraphernalia possession.
A member of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Victims Unit, Matthew allegedly signed out the drugs between October 2022 and November 2023-even though he didn’t have any reason to do so, Platkin said.
Matthew-who has been on leave from the prosecutor’s office since Nov. 3-was also allegedly caught on camera coming and going from the agency’s Paramus headquarters toting bags big enough to carry the narcotics he’d signed out.
When he brought the drugs back, they looked much different than when he signed them out, Platkin said. But he tried to pass them off as being in the same condition.
“Serving in law enforcement is a position of public trust,” Platkin said. “If officers illegally break that trust, we will hold them accountable.”
Matthew’s attorney, Clifton-based Charles Sciarra, called the allegations “weird,” and said his client “maintains his complete innocence and that he did nothing criminal whatsoever.”
The lawyer said it was “curious” that Matthew was accused of taking the drugs and then returning them. took drugs, then returned them.
“That is not typical behavior for someone being portrayed as a drug user/dealer,” Sciarra wrote in a statement. “Also not customary is a master criminal supposedly depositing all the illegally obtained loot in the local bank.”
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