Text size:

DA had sought late pharmacist's testimony in probe

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

January 30, 2008

A Bay Ridge pharmacy owner who committed suicide after getting caught up in the ongoing steroid scandal involving the New York Police Department and others could have been a key witness in any upcoming grand jury proceeding or criminal trial, law enforcement sources familiar with the probe said Tuesday.

John Rossi, 56, owner of Lowen's, a pharmacy in Bay Ridge that has emerged as a central location in the investigation, was found shot to death in an office above the long-standing establishment Monday. Sources said Brooklyn prosecutors were seeking Rossi's cooperation in the probe and could have brought criminal charges against him if he refused.

The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide yesterday. Rossi left a brief note in which he asked his wife, Justine, to forgive him, an investigator said.

Rossi, the sources said, had not decided whether he would cooperate or testify. But the Brooklyn district attorney's office, which has been investigating doctors suspected of prescribing steroids without medical cause, is going forward with plans to present the case to a grand jury.

If Rossi did agree, sources said, he would have provided prosecutors an insider's view of the alleged crimes, answering critical questions such as where the steroids came from and who referred users to doctors willing to prescribe them.

"He wasn't any kind of mastermind," one source said of Rossi. "He kind of went along with what was going on, but he knew everything that was going on there. He knew the whole operation. You need someone like that to explain how things worked."

Still, the sources said, there is more than enough other evidence to present the case to a grand jury.

There is also, the sources noted, a number of names and files from seized records already in the hands of investigators. They include lists of customers, including five NYPD officers who have been suspended for alleged steroid use, which violates department policy.

Those officers are not suspected of dealing steroids and thus only face departmental penalties -- including dismissal -- but not criminal charges.

The multistate case, spearheaded by the Albany County district attorney's office, branched into Brooklyn in May when state narcotics officers raided Lowen's and seized more than $100,000 in steroids. A subsequent raid in September uncovered about $8 million worth of steroids and human growth hormone, or HGH.

No one from Lowen's has been charged in the case.

The Brooklyn and Albany district attorney's offices refused comment Tuesday, as did Rossi's co-workers. Paul Aufrichtig, the pharmacy's lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.

But one customer, Debbie Stevens, 49, said she had recently noticed how stressed Rossi seemed to be.

"He seemed, a little in his face, strained, like anybody in his situation would be," Stevens said after leaving a bouquet of red silk flowers outside the pharmacy. "It's pressure like that when something happens."

Still, she said she'll remember Rossi for the service he provided. "Lowen's is kind of a staple in the community," she said. "He was more like a family member than a pharmacist. You look at him like a friend."

Sarah Portlock contributed to this report.