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Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has fired NYPD anti-terrorism cop Anthony Chiofalo, who claimed he flunked a drug test because his wife spiked his meatballs with marijuana, sources told The Post.

Chiofalo was able to convince an administrative judge in his departmental hearing last November that his wife Christine used pot instead of oregano in her meatball recipe, so he'd be forced to retire from the force.

Although the judge bought into the meatball defense, Kelly had the final say.

Police prosecutors had strongly recommended the commissioner overturn the verdict and Kelly decided last week to send Chiofalo's career up in smoke, the sources said.

The fired cop still has the right to sue the NYPD in civil court to try to get his job back.

Christine Chiofalo claimed she feared her husband would die in the line of duty like his firefighter brother Nicholas, who lost his life on 9/11.

"I was afraid he was going to be killed," she told an Internal Affairs Bureau investigator, a police source said.

Two of Chiofalo's former partners from his days in the 75th Precinct, Michael Curtin and Joseph Vigiano, also died in the terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

The 22-year veteran had been assigned to the joint terrorism task force when he flunked the drug test in 2005. He was suspended without pay, and requested the departmental trial.

His wife passed a polygraph test and said she thought her husband would be allowed to retire with a full pension if the pot was detected. A defense expert testified that marijuana ingested with food could turn up on a drug test.

The now ex-cop declined comment on his firing saying, "I don't want to talk about it."



News Hawk- User http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: NEWYORKPOST.COM
Author: LARRY CELONA
Contact: larry.celona@nypost.com
Copyright: 2007 NYP Holdings
Website: COMMISH FIRES MEATBALL MARIJUANA COP