BY STEFANIE DAZIO
A three-year veteran of the
Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department was arrested July 16 in
connection with cocaine and Oxycodone possession, the department said in a news
release.
Officer Lee Frazzano was
immediately suspended without pay, the release said.
The internal affairs
investigation began when the department received information that Frazzano had
become involved in illegal narcotics, the release said. He agreed to take a
Reasonable Suspicion Drug Test and during the course of the investigation,
police allegedly found the drugs in his possession.
The release didn’t give any
further details, saying the criminal and internal affairs investigations are
continuing.
Police Chief Michael Coppola
said the department didn’t release information about the arrest sooner because
they don’t publicize every drug arrest. He said it is being given out now
because the department received a request for it.
Frazzano worked as a dispatcher
in the Paramus police department from January 2008 to December 2011, police
Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said. “We never had any issues with him.”
He also served as a Westwood
firefighter for more than five years before taking the Palisades Interstate
Parkway police job, fire Chief James Mawdsley said. “We never had a problem
with him as a firefighter.”
