New Jersey Cop Pleads Guilty After Overdosing in Patrol Car

An on-duty police officer in New Jersey pleaded guilty Friday after he was found unresponsive earlier this year in his patrol car, overdosed on heroin.

Officer Matthew D. Ellery, 29, will lose his job at the Franklin Township Police Department as he awaits sentencing for possessing a controlled dangerous substance and driving while intoxicated, according to the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office.

On April 7, Ellery failed to respond to a radio call from the police department. Another officer later discovered him in the driver seat of his patrol vehicle, not breathing, and determined he was experiencing an opiate overdose.

The responding officer administered two doses of Naloxone, a medication which can treat narcotic overdose in an emergency situation, to Ellery and performed CPR, prosecutors said. 

Ellery is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 23. He has agreed to apply for the county's five-year drug court program, but if he fails to complete the program, he could face three to five years in prison.

from NBC New York - Top Stories https://ift.tt/2lp6vkn