Crime Watch

Former police detective pleads guilty

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A former Nassau County Police detective who faced criminal charges for his role in preventing the arrest of a Merrick teenager whose father was a personal friend and financial benefactor of a police foundation pleaded guilty to official misconduct on Monday.

Alan Sharpe, 54, a former detective sergeant and Huntington Station resident, pleaded guilty to one count of official misconduct on Feb. 24, according to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. Acting Supreme Court Judge Mark Cohen sentenced the now-retired officer to 150 hours of community service, a $1,000 fine and two years of probation.

Sharpe was one of three commanding officers in the department charged in the alleged cover-up of a 2009 robbery at Kennedy High School in south Bellmore. Rice said the robbery was committed by Merokean Zachary Parker, a former student at the school and son of an influential South Shore accountant with deep ties to the department.

“After the third and final conviction in this case, our prosecution has shown once again that there shouldn’t be one set of rules for public officials and another set of rules for everyone else,” Rice said. “These defendants betrayed the public and the hard-working members of the Nassau County Police Department who put their lives on the line every day, and we’re grateful for today’s sentence.”

Rice said that on June 15, 2009, NCPD Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter directed Sharpe to have more than $10,000 in electronic equipment stolen by Parker during 2008-09 academic year returned to the school in order to prevent his arrest. Parker’s father, Gary, was a personal friend of William Flanagan, former second deputy commissioner, and John Hunter, former deputy chief inspector. Rice said Gary Parker also donated large sums of money to the Nassau County Police Department Foundation.

On June 18, 2009, Gary Parker reached out to Flanagan to ask for his assistance, according to Rice. In July and August, she said, Flanagan worked with Sharpe to coordinate the return of the stolen property to the school administrator and prevent Parker's arrest, with Flanagan assuring Gary Parker in an email that he had “no doubt about the outcome.”

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