June 26--A New York City police detective who lives on Long Island was arrested and charged with burglarizing a Lindenhurst home earlier this month, according to law enforcement officials, who said a task force trailed the officer and his accomplices and caught them red-handed.
Rafael Astacio, 39, an 18-year NYPD veteran and detective in the New York Police Department's Special Victims unit, has been suspended without pay, officials said. He was charged with third-degree burglary, a C felony, in the theft of goods from an Oxford Street home on the night of June 3.
"Defendant, acting in concert with others, entered the residence through a rear door and upon fleeing had in their possession property belonging to the victim," said the criminal complaint filed against Astacio in Suffolk County Court.
Astacio posted $2,500 bail when he was arraigned on June 4, but neither he nor his attorney William Eppig of West Islip could be reached for comment.
Astacio is due back in court in August.
With Andrew Smith and Anthony Destefano
Copyright 2012 - Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
