Man charged with impersonating Riverhead officer

A Riverhead police impersonator fooled a job seeker into filling out a phony application, and an emergency room doctor into prescribing narcotic painkillers for injuries supposedly sustained during an undercover operation, Nassau County police said Saturday.

John Calabrese has been charged with misdemeanor criminal impersonation, police said. Calabrese, 41, of 3002 Willowpond Dr., is accused of telling an acquaintance he could get him a civilian police job - a job that a police spokesman said doesn't even exist.

Calabrese drove with the acquaintance near county headquarters promising to introduce the person to officials. Suspicious, the job seeker later called police.

On Feb. 23, Calabrese went to Oceanside's South Nassau Communities Hospital claiming he needed painkillers because he hurt himself wrestling with a suspect, police said.