By Albert Amateau
The 10th Precinct last week gave its Cop of the Year Award to Officer Louis Scala, a member of the Chelsea precinct for the past 13 years, for making more than 40 arrests over the past 12 months in connection with crimes ranging from robberies and burglaries to assaults and grand larcenies.
Scala, a member of the precinct’s plainclothes anticrime unit, was one of 15 officers honored at a June 22 10th Precinct Community Council event.
Officer Michael Gilligan, in the precinct for 17 years, won the Arrest of the Year Award for apprehending two men in March charged with transporting large quantities of marijuana through the FedEx depot in Chelsea. The defendants had more than 300 pounds of marijuana stashed in a car near the depot.
Detective Joseph Barbera, an officer in the precinct for 10 years and a member of the precinct detective squad since 2003, won the Detective of the Year Award for his work in the arrest of three defendants charged with the beating death in January 2005 of William Gillis near the Robert Fulton Houses. The award also credits Barbera with apprehending the suspect in the April 2005 murder of Lisa Eatmon, whose body was found in the Hudson River off Chelsea.
The precinct also gave 12 Cop of the Month Awards for June 2005 to May of this year. Eric Rivera was the June Cop of the Month; Corey Gresko was Cop of the Month for July; John McGrail was Cop of the Month for August; Ryan Habermehl was September Cop of the Month; Robert McGee was Cop of the Month for October; George Ricker was November Cop of the Month; Cop of the Year Scala was also Cop of the Month for December; Sean Conlon was Cop of the Month for January 2006; Christopher Shaughnessy was February Cop of the Month; Kevin Cannon was Cop of the Month for March; Delia Beplat was the April Cop of the Month; and Jaydee Taveras was Cop of the Month in May 2006.
