I’m angrier than a politician at an empty rally. That’s because, yet again, we have an alleged case of a dirty cop. This time, it’s a police officer in Colonie, New York, a suburb of Albany. Sergeant George Thomaides stands accused of taking guns out of the department’s evidence locker and provided them to local gun shops. He, allegedly, would then get store credits.
First of all, this is a very serious accusation. This is the sort of denunciation that could end a man’s career. In response to the purported incidents, Thomaides retired Saturday rather than stand around and then be fired. He shouldn’t have been allowed to retire, but what can I say? Cops defend cops.
Indeed, two days before he retired, he was handed down disciplinary charges. His retirement, however, will not hinder an investigation that could put him behind bars for a very long time.
The Times Union was able to confirm that a lot of the guns were historic firearms, some from the WWII era. But there were also handguns and assault weapons. Thomadies was apparently summoned to bring the guns, for safety reasons to local gun shops to enable the proper and legal way of disposing of the weapons so, for example, family members of those who voluntarily surrendered their guns could legally purchase them.
Thomaides would allegedly then abuse his position and assignment to intimidate department employees into handing the guns over to him. The guns should have then be destroyed, but he is accused of bringing them to local gun shops and he’d then pocket the store credits.
What Tomaides has allegedly done is under investigation and it’s possible for criminal charges to emerge. We’ll see what happens, but he’ll probably walk away with probation if the investigation goes that way.
I reached out to the police department and, in accordance with the applicable freedom of information law, requested documents pertaining to this matter and pertaining to any and all information regarding Tomaides. A response was not immediately given in time for the publication of this article.
(There is an update to this story. Read here.)