Memo: Borough cops were tipped to officer's drug use

Chief: Allegations were 'substantiated'
BY AL MALIK REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
NAUGATUCK Ct. -- Five days before former borough police officer Thomas Grant was arrested on domestic violence charges, borough police began receiving tips that he was abusing prescription medications, heroin and cocaine, sometimes while on duty.
In an April memo, released Friday after The Sunday Republican filed a Freedom of Information Act request, Chief Christopher Edson wrote that he found the allegations of drug use "substantiated."
Grant's fellow officers arrested him Jan. 25 after his girlfriend reported that he punched her, pulled a chunk of her hair out, used racial slurs and threatened to kill her and himself while drunk. Having already violated the department's alcohol policies twice, Grant was working under a last-chance agreement with Edson and was facing a termination hearing when he resigned earlier this month to pursue a disability pension.