By Michael Amon
Newsday
SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. — A Suffolk County police officer and two civilians face new charges of possessing contraband cigarettes and will be arraigned in Suffolk County Court Monday, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.
Officer Michael Beam of Ridge, evidence control clerk Daniel Murphy of Shirley, and Marino Lodespoto of Mastic, will appear sometime Monday before Suffolk County Court Judge James Hudson, who will unseal a grand jury indictment against them, prosecutors said.
The men were arrested by police on May 16 and charged with grand larceny, transport of untaxed cigarettes and evading cigarette taxes. The grand jury indictment was handed up more recently, though district attorney officials said they could not reveal the new charges until the judge unseals the indictment in court.
The cigarettes were taken en route from the Suffolk police property unit to an incinerator, where they were to be destroyed, the district attorney’s office said.
Beam, 46, worked in the property division and has been a Suffolk police officer since 1987. Murphy, 52, is a civilian employee who worked with Beam as an evidence control clerk. Lodespoto does not work for the police.
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