Buffalo rookie police officer fired after being charged with growing marijuana at his home



James Hamilton’s Facebook photo shows him posed behind his Porsche Cayenne wearing sunglasses and a “Party All Day” T-shirt.
But the Buffalo police officer wasn’t celebrating Thursday after his arraignment on charges of operating a marijuana-growing operation in the basement of his Floss Avenue home on the East Side.
A six-month investigation led by the Police Department also resulted in Hamilton’s immediate dismissal from the force on which he served for less than a year.
“Like any organization, you have bad apples,” Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said Thursday.
A rookie cop who was recently named Officer of the Month by his union, Hamilton faces multiple drug and weapons charges in connection with the marijuana-growing operation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy C. Lynch said 82 marijuana plants and 4 pounds of loose marijuana were found in the basement of the home. Police also recovered a 12-gauge shotgun.
Hamilton, 29, was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder, who entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
“My client is innocent,” defense lawyer Matthew Borowski said. “And he intends to fight these charges.”
Prosecutors said Hamilton’s arrest came on the heels of his sale Wednesday afternoon of two quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for $1,100 to a confidential source in the city’s Broadway-Bailey section.
Hamilton, who was under surveillance, was then called to Police Headquarters, where he was arrested. Later in the evening, police with a search warrant went to the home and found the pot-growing operation.
Derenda said the investigation started in May and was led by his Internal Affairs and Narcotics bureaus. He said the investigation, which included the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, was welcomed by rank-and-file officers in his department.