Three Employees at Buffalo Federal Detention Facility Indicted for Steroid Trafficking
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 17, 2011 |
BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that a federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Richard Lazzaro, 39, and Michael Trautmann, 48, both of Cheektowaga, New York, and Richard Eldridge, 35, of West Seneca, New York, with distributing anabolic steroids. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of $500,000 or both.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. McCabe, who is handling the case, stated that the defendants are all employees at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, New York. Eldrige is an Immigration Enforcement agent with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations. Trautmann and Lazzaro were detention officers working as federal contract employees.
The indictment is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson; and the Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory Null.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.