Cops: Brookville nose and throat doc bought cocaine
January 26, 2010
By MATTHEW CHAYES
An ear, nose and throat doctor from Brookville allegedly caught buying cocaine from a nursing assistant begged Nassau police to free him, court records show.
"Please, officer," the doctor, Eliot J. Danziger of Brookville, pleaded Monday, according to the records. "Let me go. I'm a doctor. This is going to destroy my life. My wife died three years ago. I'm depressed. That's why I bought the cocaine."
Danziger and the nursing assistant, Kelly Coleman of North Babylon, who police said sold him the cocaine, were arraigned Tuesday in First District Court in Hempstead, where a judge released them without bail.
Danziger, 53, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree. Coleman, 45, is charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree.
Police say Coleman sold about an eighth of an ounce of cocaine to Danziger for $380 during a rendezvous at a Getty gas station parking lot at 975 N. Broadway in Massapequa. It was unclear whether the two knew each other from their health care careers, police said.
Police in an unmarked patrol car moved in after seeing "telltale signs that occur when a street-level narcotics transaction takes place - the quick exchange of money for what appeared to be a small plastic bag," said a police department spokesman, Det. Lt. Kevin Smith.
Eric Orzick, the defense attorney listed in court records for Danziger, did not return a call seeking comment. Coleman was represented at arraignment by an attorney for the Legal Aid Society, who would not comment.
Ear, Nose and Throat Associates Inc. operates branches in Queens, the Bronx, and on Long Island, according to the group's Web site. Danziger practices in Flushing, one of the two Queens locations, and at two of the eight Long Island locations, Levittown and Massapequa.
Coleman, 45, is a nursing assistant at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, police said.
In a confession to police contained in court documents, Coleman said she had been asleep Monday afternoon when she got a call from someone she knew to "meet a guy that we call 'Doc' " to do a cocaine deal.
The doctor and the nursing assistant then coordinated by text message.
Her cut was to be $200, according to the confession.
With John Valenti
Posted Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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