WILKES-BARRE – Two former police officers were arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges of illegally obtaining Schedule II prescription narcotics for their own personal use.
Attorney General Tom Corbett identified the defendants as Robert Greg Santarelli, 37 of Jessup; and Angela Novack, 23, of Dickson City. Santarelli is a former Jessup Police Officer and Novack is a former part-time Dickson City Police Officer.
“Police officers are in place to uphold the laws of Pennsylvania and ensure that our communities are safe,” Corbett said. “It is extremely disheartening that these two individuals forgot about their promise to serve the people’s best interest and turned to crime to feed their addiction.”
According to the court documents, on Nov. 2, Santarelli was involved in a car accident at Bridge Street and Constitution Avenue, Jessup. Officers on the scene offered medical attention, but all of the parties, including Santarelli, allegedly declined any assistance.
Corbett said that Santarelli allegedly went to the Community Medical Center Hospital the following day for left rib and left hip injuries sustained in the accident and requested that a report be filed.
Corbett said a hospital worker from Moses Taylor Hospital contacted the Jessup Police Department at midnight on Nov. 9 because Santarelli had arrived to be checked for injuries he sustained in a car accident the week before. The hospital worker told police that sign-in sheets showed that Santarelli had been to the hospital at noon on Nov. 7 for the same medical reason.
The court documents state that when the hospital worker asked Santarelli whether he had been to the hospital before, he allegedly stated that he had not and that someone must have taken his medical card.
Corbett said that the investigation revealed that Santarelli had visited 10 different physicians over a two-year period and received prescriptions for the pain relievers Avinza, Oxycodone, and Fentanyl. He used two different home addresses to fill his prescriptions.
Corbett said that a separate investigation into Robert Santarelli revealed unrelated criminal activity by his former girlfriend, Angela Novack.
According to the court documents, Novack was the estranged girlfriend of Santarelli and worked as a part-time Dickson City Police Officer until 2004 and a part-time pharmacy technician at Family Pharmacy in Jessup.
Corbett said that on Jan. 8, Novack met with agents from the Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation in Wilkes-Barre. Agents noticed that her appearance was disheveled, her eyes were bloodshot, she was excessively nervous and fidgety, and appeared to be under the influence of medication.
Corbett said Novack denied abusing prescription pain medication and denied stealing prescription medication from the pharmacy where she worked.
Agents contacted Family Pharmacy and requested a physical audit of their controlled substances. It was discovered that more than 5,964 pills were missing.
Santarelli is charged with nine felony counts of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation or fraud. He was arraigned by Scranton Magisterial District Judge Alice Farrell Hailston, was released on $25,000 on his own recognizance, and is now under house arrest, where he was previously serving for an unrelated crime.
Novack is charged with one count each theft by unlawful taking, possession of a controlled substance, and obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation or fraud. She was arraigned by Dickson City Magisterial District Judge John Pesota and released on $20,000 on her own recognizance.
The case will be prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Cherba of the Attorney General’s Drug Strike Force Section.
Corbett thanked BNI agents, the Jessup Police Department, and the Family Pharmacy for their assistance in the investigation.