NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A New York state trooper who had claimed he was shot by a motorist on Long Island’s Southern State Parkway last October has turned himself in to face charges, along with his parents.
Thomas Mascia, 27, and his parents, Dorothy and Thomas, surrendered around 5:40 a.m. Monday at the state police barracks in Farmingdale and were set to be arraigned later in the day in Hempstead.
Mascia faces charges of official misconduct, tampering with evidence and falsifying documents.
His mother and father were each charged with criminal possession of a firearm.
At a court appearance later in the day, all three pleaded not guilty to the charges and didn't speak with reporters.
Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer for the family, declined to comment other than to confirm the family had surrendered to face the charges.
According to prosecutors, Mascia shot himself in the leg on his first shift patrolling the overnights on Oct. 30 and then made up the whole story.
“The shooter that we were all looking for only existed in Mascia’s head,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said at a press conference Monday.
The district attorney said there are no answers as to why he allegedly lied to police.
“My assumption could only be it would take someone with a wounded ego to think this would get him the attention he needs,” Donnelly said.
“He knew the fear it would create,” she said, “but he did it anyway, whether for sympathy, attention, to ease a wounded ego.”
Donnelly said Mascia had “failed his brothers and sisters in law enforcement,” who she said had made great efforts to find the non-existent shooter.
“His selfish act wasted extraordinary resources across several police departments,” Donnelly said.
Mascia became a trooper in 2019 but was suspended without pay last November after state police launched a criminal probe into his account of the shooting. He resigned from the job on Jan. 24.
Mascia claimed he was shot in the leg around 11:45 p.m. that night as he tried to help the driver of a black sedan who was parked on the left-hand shoulder of the westbound Southern State Parkway, near Exit 17 in West Hempstead.
The trooper claimed the driver shot him and then fled in the direction of New York City in a car with temporary New Jersey registration, prompting authorities to launch a manhunt that lasted days.
State police said in November that there was no video footage of the episode since the trooper’s body camera was not activated at the time and that “we have reason to believe that the incident did not occur the way it was reported.”
Mascia underwent surgery for the gunshot wound and was hospitalized for two days before he was released.
The shooting happened about a mile from the home Mascia shares with his parents in West Hempstead. The home was searched for days as police suspected his account of the shooting was not true.
Decades ago, Thomas Mascia was fired from the NYPD in 1993 after he pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.