Suspect in fatal overdose nabbed

Patti Michelman sat in a courtroom on Monday, where the man suspected of injecting her brother Robbie with a fatal dose of heroin last year faced second-degree manslaughter and other felony charges. Michelman said she was not just emotional, but angry and still desperate for answers.

“Seeing him today, I just want to know why,” Michelman said of Robert Michalski, 40, of Virginia Beach, Va., a Long Beach native who grew up with Robbie Michelman. “He had a chance to save my brother,” she said of Michalski. “He didn’t even help him; he just took off. He panicked.”

Following a year-long investigation involving the Long Beach and Nassau County police departments, Michalski was arrested last Friday night in Massapequa Park. He was also charged with criminal injection of a narcotic drug and recklessly causing the death of another, and is being held without bail at the Nassau County Correctional Center. He faces a maximum of 19 years in prison.

Police said that Michalski, who was dividing his time between Massapequa Park and Virginia Beach, was apprehended without incident.

“Jointly, and working cooperatively with the Long Beach Police Department, we identified this individual and were finally given the opportunity to arrest him,” said Detective Sgt. John DeMartinis of the NCPD’s Homicide Squad.

According to Long Beach police, Michalski injected heroin into Michelman, 40, at his home on Forester Street on Feb. 3, 2010, causing his death. Michalski’s attorney, Jeff Groder, said he could not comment on the case, other than to say that Michalski had yet to enter a plea and was due in court again on Friday, where Groder would seek “a reasonable bail.”

DeMartinis and LBPD Deputy Inspector Bruce Meyer said that early in the investigation, Long Beach detectives suspected that another person was responsible for delivering the fatal dose. “Long Beach detectives realized that there was more to the situation,” DeMartinis said.

Michalski left for Virginia after the incident, police said. Meyer said that while Michalski may not have intended to kill Michelman, his actions were “reckless.”

“This was a senseless tragedy for everybody,” Meyer said. “I think the case underscores not only the investigative skills of the Long Beach detective division, but their perseverance and tenacity. They looked at the situation and said, something is amiss here.”

The Michelman family praised detectives and Meyer for not giving up on the case, and said that Michalski’s arrest brings closure to a year filled with tragedy, emotional turmoil and uncertainty. Patti Michelman said she was suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her brother’s death, and insisted that, although he battled alcoholism, he was not a drug user and avoided needles.

“Robbie was an alcoholic and fought his demons for many years,” she said. “But there’s one thing I know: He never touched that crap.”

Robbie’s father, Howard Michelman, a well-known Long Beach resident who died of cancer on Dec. 6, lost a daughter to a drug overdose in the early 1970s, Patti said.

Howard and his wife adopted Robbie when he was an infant and Patti when she was 3. Both are of Native American lineage and were born in Alberta, Canada. The Michelmans later adopted a Korean girl, and while Patti said that she grew up with her siblings in a loving family, the death of her stepsister left an indelible mark.

“I remember sadness in the house,” Patti said. “Growing up in that and knowing what had happened, it scared us, and I knew Robbie felt that same way about needles.”

Robbie was an outgoing and generous person, someone who was good at sports and an avid skateboarder who could often be seen weaving in and out of cars along Park Avenue, according to his uncle, Harold Michelman, who owns Surf Glass, an auto glass and glass repair shop.

At the shop, which Patti said Robbie hoped to take over from his father and uncle one day, her brother was known as a hard worker who got along with his co-workers. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Robbie and a group of Surf Glass workers volunteered at ground zero during the reconstruction effort.

“He had his problems,” Harold Michelman said of his nephew, “but he was a likable character and had a great way about him, a very generous guy. When he worked here, I would be busy running around, and he’d get me Gatorade and say, ‘You have to drink this.’”

Over the years, Robbie sought treatment for his struggle with alcohol. “My father tried desperately to help him,” Patti said.

She said that Robbie and Michalski had known each other since they were students at East School, and shared a passion for motorcycles. After Michalski moved, Patti said, the two drifted apart in their early 20s. They reconnected about 10 years ago, she said, which alarmed Robbie’s father because Michalski was known for getting into trouble.

“I remember asking my dad, ‘Is this kid cleaned up?’” she said. “My father realized that in the last few years … he did not want this kid near the house.”

The day Robbie died, Patti said, he called their father, who was in Florida, to say that he going to stop by Surf Glass and later see Michalski. “[My father] said, ‘Don’t do it. I don’t trust that kid,’” she said.

Doctors told her that Robbie was given a deadly, synthetic form of heroin, she said, adding that there were many signs indicating that he was not alone when he died. A 911 call, she said, was made by someone claiming to be their father, who was more than 1,000 miles away. The puncture wound from the needle was on Robbie’s left arm, Patti said, yet he was left-handed. His coat and wallet were missing, no drugs were found and the home smelled of bleach and cleaners, she added.

“I said, ‘Daddy, something is not right here,’” she said.

Patti said she believes that Michalski brought the drugs to Robbie’s home, and that, coupled with Robbie’s trusting nature, resulted in his death, which took an emotional toll on her father and the family.

“It literally killed my father,” she said. “He couldn’t fight anymore after that. I can only hope that we get some sort of closure, and my brother and father are at peace now.”

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