NEW YORK — A counterterrorism detective who says his failed drug test came because his wife had spiked his meatballs with marijuana has filed a lawsuit to get his job back.
Anthony Chiofalo, a 22-year veteran assigned to the New York Police Department’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, was suspended without pay in November 2005 after a random drug test found marijuana in his system. He denied using drugs.
During an investigation, Chiofalo’s wife said she secretly put enough marijuana for about six cigarettes in her meatball recipe in July 2005, hoping a failed blood test would force him to retire, court papers say. Catherine Chiofalo, according to court papers, testified at the hearing that she “just wanted my husband not to die of a heart attack or get killed. I wanted him to be around to help raise my son.” The couple later took and passed lie-detector tests about how the marijuana was ingested, Anthony Chiofalo’s court papers say.
The Associated Press
