Judges: Pot Meatball Cop Cannot Return To His NYPD Job

A court has ruled against a police officer who claims he was wrongfully fired from the NYPD after he unknowingly ate marijuana-laced meatballs. A state appeals court upheld the dismissal of Anthony Chiofalo, a 22-year veteran of the NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, who says he only failed a random drug test because his wife had laced his meatballs with weed in an attempt to get him fired so he wouldn't be killed at work.

Chiofalo contested the original verdict and sued in December 2007, but a panel of judges agreed that the high levels of marijuana found in his hair samples couldn't have been caused by accidental ingestion or second-hand smoke, the Daily News reports. They also dismissed his claims that the NYPD's contract with the police union doesn't allow the use of hair-sample drug tests.

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By Ben Muessig in News on February 4, 2010 4:27 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

"Mama Mia those are some-a spicy meatballs!"

MrManhattan

She's going to have to do something to make up for the lost pension.

I hope she publishes a cookbook!

LaLuneEstMorte

She didn't want him to get killed...and did this after 22 years?

eat vegans

I guess you cant have a badge and pot meatballs and eat them too

Rocknrope

22 years? Shouldn't he be collecting an awesome pension by now and not on the job?

ProcedureTurn

A Continental Airlines pilot faild a drug test too for MJ. Said he unknowingly ate a laced brownie. He got his job back.

valeriob

Was she also responsible for (read:banging) the FDNY bar brawl hooligans?

Jackie Curtis

JOINT terrorism task force!!!!????

Wooooooohaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaa..

nicemarmot

Yeah, if he had pot all down his hair strands, it wasn't a one time thing.

That being said, we should encourage more marijuana cooking. Those meatballs were probably yummy.

jaycjay

The only links here are to old Gothamist posts. While perhaps you're trying to imply that this is some of the "dash of original reporting" that Gothamist supposedly does, a quick news search finds the matching language in the source article that should have been linked to:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/02/04/2010-02-04_court_upholds_firing_of_nypd_officer_who_says_wife_spiked_meatballs_with_marijua.html