Ex-NYPD Officer Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter, Drug Charges: DA

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — A former New York Police Department officer from West Islip pleaded guilty Friday to manslaughter and other charges for selling fentanyl that caused a fatal overdose in 2019, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said.

Joseph Recca, 28, faced charges including second-degree manslaughter, third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, and second-degree conspiracy, the DA said. Recca worked as an NYPD officer from 2017 until he resigned after his arrest in July 2020, according to Sini.

In 2019, while investigating a fatal overdose in Copiague, Suffolk police did an analysis of the victim's cell phone and found evidence that Recca had sold the victim fentanyl pills, according to the DA.

Further investigation along with the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau found that Recca was working with two others to sell narcotics, the DA said.

In addition, during the investigation, police found that Recca used official NYPD resources to run the license plate numbers of cars he thought were following him, according to the DA.

"For a police officer to be selling fentanyl — a drug we are acutely aware can be fatal — he is not just breaking the law he is sworn to uphold, but knowingly gambling with people’s lives," Sini said. "This goes beyond criminality; it was irresponsible and morally corrupt."

Last July, Recca was arrested and found with 100 pressed fentanyl pills marketed as Oxycodone, according to the DA. During a search warrant, officials recovered $10,000 in cash, the DA said.

"This was an incredibly in-depth investigation that first utilized a wiretap to prove Recca’s involvement in dealing drugs, but we didn’t stop there," Sini said. "We were able to piece together evidence and connect the dots to prove beyond a doubt that Recca had dealt that fatal blow to the victim."

Recca will be sentenced before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro on May 3. As part of the plea deal, he is expected to be sentenced to five years in prison with two years of post-release supervision.