By Jane Kwiatkowski Radlich |
News Staff Reporter , Lou Michel | News Staff Reporter
A Buffalo police officer has
been charged with taking $130 from a woman’s pocketbook while on duty this
summer outside an Elmwood Avenue cafe.
Northwest District Officer
Michael R. Missana, 42, was arraigned Thursday before acting State Supreme
Court Justice M. William Boller on a sealed indictment charging him with petit
larceny and official misconduct, Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita
III said.
The alleged theft occurred Aug.
21, after a woman’s pocketbook was found at Caffe Aroma, 957 Elmwood, Sedita
said.
“Someone obviously left behind
her pocketbook,” Sedita said. “A Good Samaritan discovered it and did what
you’re supposed to do, turned it over to a police officer and asked the officer
to find the owner and return the property.”
Missana, who was outside the
cafe at Elmwood and Bidwell Parkway, agreed to return the property, Sedita
said.
He returned the pocketbook but
allegedly had lifted $130 out of a wallet that it contained, Sedita said.
Missana has been on the force
for less than two years and only recently completed his probation, police
sources added.
Police officers disturbed about
the theft interrogated Missana, who confessed, sources confirmed.
Investigators with the District
Attorney’s Office met with Missana, who admitted to them, too, that he had
stolen the money, authorities said.
Police Commissioner Daniel
Derenda initially suspended Missana without pay for 30 days. Missana remains
suspended but now is back on the payroll, according to the department. Missana
could face up to a year in the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden.
