A Massapequa man was sentenced on Tuesday, Feb. 10, to 15 years in prison after being convicted of multiple counts of weapons possession and impersonating a police officer, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced. Officers pulled over Andrew Denton’s Chevrolet Impala in October 2023 and found a loaded, operable illegal handgun and police paraphernalia, including handcuffs, police shields and an imposter police tactical vest, the DA said.
Denton, 27, was convicted on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, of three counts of criminal possession of a weapon, criminal impersonation, operating a motor vehicle with no license plate or a single license plate and unauthorized colored lights on a vehicle.
Donnelly said that on Oct. 11, 2023, two officers were on patrol in an unmarked car on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway and attempting to merge onto the highway.
They stopped to let a car go ahead of them, which was Denton’s Chevrolet Impala, the DA said.
While driving on the expressway, Denton brake-checked the officers’ car and then turned on blue, amber, and white rear emergency lights on his Impala, she said.
Officers recognized that the car had characteristics that did not match an actual Nassau County unmarked police vehicle, making them suspicious, Donnelly said.
The officers followed Denton off the highway and activated their own emergency lights to pull him over, but Denton didn’t stop the car immediately. Instead, he drove slowly and rummaged around in the front passenger seat, the DA said.
Donnelly said Denton stopped the car once he realized he could not evade the officers.
After approaching the car, officers spotted an orange flare gun inside the glovebox and a gun light, an accessory designed to be mounted to the bottom of a gun barrel, the DA said.
Denton and his unidentified passenger were asked to step out of the car, which was then searched by the officers who recovered a knife, a New York City Police Department shield, handcuffs, flares for the flare gun and bore brushes used to clean a .40 or .45 caliber firearm as well as small gray backpack that contained a loaded .45 caliber gun with two magazines filled with 17 bullets, Donnelly said.
Denton’s car was impounded, and another search of the trunk recovered a black tactical police vest with wooden pieces instead of armored plates inside the vest, covered in patches that read “Police DEA Task Force” and “Polic,” a shield, handcuffs, a fake imitation taser, a baton and a shoulder-mounted radio, according to the DA.
The investigation also determined that Denton was the major contributor of the DNA recovered from the firearm, Donnelly said.
