Sunday, August 3, 2014

A cop, drug dealers and questions


GROSS
In the days following the arrest of a 10-year police officer for tipping off drug dealers, some common questions heard around town are: Why? What was his motive? Did he even do it?
Officer Brian Gross is, by all accounts, a well-respected and well-liked cop. He was a member of the highly trained elite Emergency Response Team, similar to SWAT, and a member of the Special Operations Section, which conducts in-depth drug investigations. He is often called upon to train rookie cops. He has a construction related business on the side and is known to have an unimpeachable work ethic. He is married with two children and they all live in a nice home in Brunswick. A storybook life.
So, why?
One thing everyone agrees on is the proof presented in the felony complaint filed by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman – based on an investigation by the State Police - is pretty weak. Gross set up a meeting with someone and that someone told investigators that Gross told him to tell someone else about the raid. That’s a he said/she said scenario with an extra “he” thrown in.
If Gross is innocent, I hope Schneiderman had something more than a text and a statement from a guy in the drug world before he brought charges. If Gross is guilty, I hope the same thing.
Before I get into the more common scuttlebutt themes of why Gross is in this most unenviable spot, remember that he is a 10-year veteran of a pretty busy department so he should know the ropes a little bit. Now, without further ado:
-He’s a fall guy for State Police investigators on the Community Narcotics Enforcement Team, who spent who knows how much time, energy and effort – not to mention money – to set up a raid of five houses only to come up empty. Gross reached out to someone for whatever reason and that someone reached out to someone else and no drugs were found. In the minds of some, 2 + 2 = 5 and he was arrested for tipping off the drug dealers.
-Gross knew the guy he texted from his time on the SOS and tried to set up a routine meeting and the guy is making the rest of it up to save his own ass. Drug dealers are not pillars of the community and I’m fairly certain it wouldn’t be the first time one told a lie, especially when you have the State Police and the AG offering you a deal.   
-On the flip side of that, Gross, through SOS or just by being a cop, could have become friendly with the guy he was texting and the guy who the guy ended up talking to and was doing them an ill-advised favor. Cops, by the nature of the job, spend half their time with people on the “good” side and half with those on the “bad.” Cops and criminals are people too so I’m sure some cops and criminals get along just fine. I’m fairly certain there is a line somewhere that shouldn’t be crossed, and if Gross did what he’s accused I’m even more certain that it constitutes crossing the line.
-Gross was getting paid off by the drug dealers. I guess it’s always a possibility. But people are finding it hard to believe he is even a little dirty, and it doesn’t get much dirtier than putting your colleagues’ lives at risk by tipping off drug dealers. The pay off, too, just can’t be worth it. Then again, greed is one of the seven deadlies.
-He’s on drugs. I find this one hard to believe too because if someone is using drugs to the point of putting everything at risk by tipping off a dealer then someone is going to know and it would have leaked out by now.
-A family member got jammed up somehow and if Gross didn’t help out the drug dealers then that family member was in danger. I’m not sure if I buy this one, but I guess it’s a possibility.

-Or, it could be a combination of any of the above or something completely different.
I guess we won’t know until the case works its way through the court system – if it even gets that far.

45 comments:

  1. You gotta love Troy, PBA president calls for the resignation of a Councilman for representing his people and emotional help for a cop tipping off drug dealers putting the lives of cops and residents at risk.
    You can't make this stuff up!

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    1. No you can't and it's about high time the City said NO to the police and actually start taking their perks back because it obviously hasn't done the city any good by increasing their salaries living outside city limits and unlimited sick leave that is completely abused from a STATE level ....

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    2. I'm failing to see how one has anything to do with the other. Keep at it, little buddy! You're almost thinking now!

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    3. What your failing to see is the MORE the City agrees to give the police the LESS they do and they've become even more crooked...I only see crime rising and more police on vacation,using sick time to work at their side jobs(hint hint)

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  2. These are fair comments Mr. Franco. Things are usually much simpler than they appear.
    Gross was a drug cop so he necessarily had to deal with people in the drug world as part of his assigned mission. That's what good drug cops do.
    Gross texting and meeting with this person is not indicative of anything other than routine work functions let alone criminal activity.
    There are a million reasons this guy ( #1) would try to make a false accusation against Gross. Think about it.
    Could everyone have been wrong about a Gross after working with him all these years? Probably not, something dark would have been noticed.

    NYSP CNET had to explain spending so much resources including a healthy dose of pension fattening overtime on five failed search warrants. By stitching together a few innocuous threads they took license to weave an imaginative movie of the week style tale of corruption.
    I encourage all to actually read the Felony Complaint. This case is barely clinging to life, it should open with " Once upon a time ...."
    Did anyone notice that they shopped this case to the AG's Office? Strange. Why didn't the NYSP CNET arrest him? Politics. That was a rather large media blast / press conference for little old Brian Gross. They did everything other than drag him out into the street and execute him at 1MSQ.

    It's going to take around a year , but you watch. Gross will be fully acquitted at trial. It will cost him about 100k so I hope the PBA immediately plans fundraisers for him.

    For all the haters who will slice and dice this kid, try to remember that if they can do it to him , they can do it to you very easily.

    GROSS NOT GUILTY 2015

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    1. FYI he does have a dirty side and he will be found guilty...there are all sorts of little things that are stacked up against him that add up to his true character and please stop saying everyone believes him because they dont

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    2. Funny I don't see any support for him on the we support the dedicated officers of Troy Facebook page ...lol

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    3. He is fully supported by the members. A PBA press conference and fundraisers will be announced in a few days.

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    4. A press conference without Fitzy? Feeling a little sentimental. It just won't be the same without his special blend of twitchy arrogance and sanctimonious bullshit.

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    5. Thought PBA couldn't support criminal offenses? Didn't see it done for other officers that were on the other side of the law again there is the favoritism....didn't see fundraisers for comitale, Johnson,rosney to name a few

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    6. The PBA leadership has changed, we can and will support innocent members charged with criminal offenses.
      Beyond a relatively small amount of financial assistance we could not publicly support those three you listed for obvious reasons.

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    7. How do you know he is innocent?

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    8. It seems that almost every time CNET comes out of a situation with egg on their faces they try to blame it on the local force or forces involved in the operation. The ELITE NYSP never make mistakes, right? Give me a break. The felony complaint is somewhat off center of accuracy if you study it closely. There seems to be a lot of room for conjecture. If they fought crime as much as they fight for air time and publicity, the jails would be twice as overcrowded as they are now.

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    9. PBA press conference and fundraisers will be announced..............STILL WAITING FOR THAT ANNOUNCEMENT

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  3. MICE: Money, Ideology, Conscience, Ego..... The motivation will fall into one or more of thee categories. Hard to believe all of that investigatory effort was THAT poorly conducted that all five locations came up dry? I would think that by the second stop on the raid list that they were all looking at one another wondering who's the dirty cop, right?????

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    1. Someone texts ALOT that's how

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  4. Sometimes the staple of the stomach can't fix ugly

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    1. Either can braces, tanning excessively, push up bras and hand jobs given under the desk

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  5. Let's believe a drug dealer who lives in his mothers house where she has a daycare and his sister works at cops .. Over a good man/father/cop. Something is wrong here

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    1. Good cops don't put remarks s in situations like this

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    2. Hey, what ever happened to that panel they formed to discuss crime and situations in Troy I think one of the TPD officers was on it, it was something mayor conjured up last year....

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  6. Let'sbelieve a drug dealer who lives in his mothers house where she has a daycare and his sister works at cops .. Over a good man/father/cop. Something is wrong here

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  7. Ask the treasurer about that certainly didn't fix her

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    Replies
    1. Or brother or their father...and their law enforcement too....getting to be a pattern here!

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  8. We drive my dune buggy around and we expose everything in Troy!~~! We find the real truths and put it on the Troy Facebook page. Me and Coop get the job done good!~~!
    Nephew get big story about playing cards and prostitution. Pictures of Smith Ave and River St hookers on playing cards. Good game for cops and council people to learn who's who and meet them eyeball to eyeball!~~!

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    1. Harry your days are numbered your going to go down the tubes pal

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    2. Thanks commissioner dunne

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  9. They are NOT nice people

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  10. Brian Gross is a super hero.The new Batman, he catches drug dealers not by arresting them but by tipping them off. All those phone calls and texts message to the drug dealer, those were meant to give the druggie a false sense of security. Brian was bringing justice to the street on his terms !
    You go dark knight !

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  11. You people make no sense especially you 828

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  12. Is everyone missing the point? Someone tipped off the drug dealers. Period.

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    1. Not necessarily. Why couldn't this be just plain bad work by the State Police?

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    2. Most of us get the point. The Gross supporters are having trouble.

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  13. The Troy Record needs to bring back Jim Franco. In today's paper, not one story about anything in Troy, even the column about what happened 100 years ago was barely about Troy. Just call the stupid paper the Saratogian and get it over with.

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    1. 100% agree. The Record is a joke! This blog has twice the readership and one tenth of the typos.

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    2. Not according to snookie

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    3. What's on paper has no typos and that's what counts. What is on electronic communications (phone and texting) no errors and that's what counts. If he was innocent the Chief wouldn't state his career was done.End of story.

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  14. Some kid that works in sanitation

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    1. I see more city employees involved,but Chamberlain will get them off,seems to be a pattern with him.anyone else would be arrested but these thugs get to go Scott free and still get paid by city taxpayers

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  15. This is a very dangerous situation. When the cops are actually criminals and allow poison to be sold to citizens and ruin peoples lives. Throw this guy to the lions. He is worse than a criminal .. He is a loser with a badge and a gun...

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  16. This is a very dangerous situation. When the cops are actually criminals and allow poison to be sold to citizens and ruin peoples lives. Throw this guy to the lions. He is worse than a criminal .. He is a loser with a badge and a gun...

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  17. This guy is like the bad cops out in Schenectady in and around 1999. They were taking crack and giving it to prostitutes and stuff like that

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