Retired New Rochelle cop accused of stealing $24K from charity he founded in honor of autistic son
A retired New Rochelle police detective who also served as the department’s union leader allegedly stole roughly $24,000 from a charity he co-founded for autistic children in honor of his autistic son, according to prosecutors.
Christopher Greco is accused of swiping thousands of dollars from Christopher’s Voice, a non-profit he founded with his wife in 2017, over a period of five years ending in May 2023, the Westchester County District Attorney’s said Tuesday.
Greco retired from the police as a detective in 2021. Christophers Voice
The former detective and his wife have a non-verbal autistic teenage son, according to the charity’s website.
Greco was a police officer with New Rochelle police for 25 years before he retired in 2021.
He was president of the city’s PBA from 2014 until his retirement.
Greco previously blasted Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah after a now-former New Rochelle detective was charged with punching a suspect while off-duty in 2021.
“The Westchester County District Attorney has sent a clear and extremely risky message to all of law enforcement in Westchester County – that the DA will personally decide what is acceptable and what is not, rather than determine what is lawful and what is not,” Greco said at the time, according to The Journal News.
He started the charity with his wife in 2017.
Rocah shot back and called Greco’s rhetoric “inflammatory and irresponsible language … which crosses a dangerous line.”
“I have a long history of working with and strongly supporting law enforcement and work with them every day to keep Westchester safe,” the former federal prosecutor reportedly said.
The detective, Michael Vaccaro, was later found not guilty during a bench trial in 2022 on attempted assault charges, though he was ultimately fired by the police force earlier this month, according to reports. He spent the ill-gotten funds for his “own personal purposes,” a criminal complaint alleges.
Greco, 52, was arraigned Tuesday on a felony charge of third-degree grand larceny in New Rochelle City Court after he was arrested by district attorney investigators last Thursday.
He pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Andrew Quinn, declined to comment.
The charity was started “by parents of an autistic child for autistic children,” according to Christopher’s Voice’s website.