By:Jonann Brady
Police say that on May 5, Dolan, who lives at 650 Barnes Ave. in Baldwin, was at J.P. McGeevers Bar in Garden City South, where he identified himself as a police officer and began talking to off-duty New York City Police Detective Brian O'Toole, who was there with friends. According to Nassau County Fifth Precinct Det. Philip Greco, O'Toole found Dolan's behavior "odd."
"[Dolan] was doing things a police officer wouldn't normally do, like showing his badge and gun," said Greco.
Suspicious of Dolan's behavior, O'Toole, who works with the Brooklyn Cold Case Squad, conducted a background check on him and found out that he had been arrested before for impersonating a police officer. O'Toole informed the Internal Affairs Unit of his squad, and on Tuesday, May 11, O'Toole and other investigators returned to McGeevers, where they again saw Dolan. Once more, Dolan identified himself as a police officer and flashed a phony badge.
The officers placed Dolan under arrest and searched his truck, where they found three gravity knives, a police scanner and fire department emergency lights. During a search of Dolan's home, police found a cache of more police paraphernalia, including a loaded six-shot .38 revolver, three sets of handcuffs, a speed loader, a BB gun and a traffic light key.
Greco could not comment on where Dolan got the equipment, as the investigation is ongoing. The badge Dolan carried was a duplicate of a New York City police shield, with the number of an active officer, said Greco. The officer in question, who was not identified, has his real badge.
The Herald reported that Dolan was arrested on Sept. 15, 2001, at a Red Cross office in Mineola. At the time, Dolan was wearing paratrooper pants, a bulletproof vest, a New York City police shirt and a gun belt with an imitation 9mm pistol in the holster. He was also carrying handcuffs and a police radio and was accompanied by a German shepherd that he claimed was a police canine dog.
When asked for identification by a police officer, he could not produce any, and later admitted he took the gun belt from a New York City police officer's home without his knowledge. The day before, on Sept. 14, 2001, Dolan, dressed as a paramedic, had accompanied a group of volunteers to the World Trade Center site from the same Mineola Red Cross office. He was subsequently charged with petty larceny, possession of a dangerous weapon and criminal impersonation. He could face up to seven years in prison on the charges.
Dolan was arraigned in First District Court on May 5. As of Monday, Dolan was still being held in Nassau County jail, pending $200,000 bail.
