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Suffolk Cop Arrested For Falsely Claiming He Responded to Calls

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A Suffolk County police officer was arrested Wednesday for allegedly filing false paperwork claiming he responded to six calls to which he failed to show up to over a five-month span last year, prosecutors said.

Matthew Drury, 34, of Lake Grove, was charged in Suffolk County court with felony counts of falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing as well as misdemeanor counts of official misconduct.

“Police Officer Matthew Drury has lived a life devoted to public service by serving our country for nine years as a United States Marine, before becoming a police officer for the NYPD and Suffolk County,” Anthony M. LaPinta, his Hauppauge-based attorney, said. “We will take careful steps to investigate these allegation because they are totally inconsistent with Officer Drury’s honorable history of service as a police officer for over eleven years.”

Prosecutors said Drury was dispatched to and later submitted falsified reports indicating that he had responded to a request for emergency response involving a 75-year-old man, a disturbance at a residence, a request for emergency response involving a 90-year-old woman, a request for emergency response involving a 46-year-old woman, a commercial alarm, and a disturbance in front of a commercial property.

All of the incidents occurred between May and October. Emergency medical services were also dispatched and responded to the three medical cases.

The Suffolk County Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau referred the case prosecutors. Drury was arraigned Tuesday Suffolk County First District Court, where a judge released him without bail. He is due back in court on Oct. 14.

Drury, who has been on the force since 2016 and was assigned to patrol the Fourth Precinct, has been suspended without pay, authorities said. He faces up to four years in prison, if convicted of the top count.

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