The criminal case against a Long Island dentist found with 20 illegal guns in his home was dropped Tuesday due to police misconduct.
Paul Carey, 65, was facing up to 25 years behind bars but instead will walk free, Newsday initially reported. A judge ruled the police raid that uncovered the guns was illegal.
“We respect the court’s decision,” Nassau County district attorney spokeswoman Nicole Turso told the Daily News.
New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Schwartz ruled police illegally raided Carey’s home during a Feb. 16, 2022, incident, according to Newsday. That was when investigators found all the guns, ammunition and weaponry that led to 73 charges against the dentist.
Carey’s then-secretary called the cops and told them Carey had pointed a gun at her inside the Massapequa home that doubled as his dentist office. She fled from the building.
When officers responded to the scene, Carey barricaded himself inside alone. Cops responded by calling Carey’s estranged wife, Darlene, to the home.
Initially, authorities said Darlene Carey simply granted them access to the residence, thus justifying the raid that uncovered the guns.
However, police and Darlene Carey later admitted she was intensely pressured into allowing the cops into the home, which she no longer lived in and didn’t own, Newsday reported. By the time Darlene Carey signed official papers, cops had already knocked down the door and searched the residence.
Inside, officers found 20 firearms, 18 of which were “ghost guns” with no serial numbers. Carey is not allowed to own any guns following a 2012 incident in which he fired multiple shots in his backyard.
But because Judge Schwartz ruled the raid was illegal, prosecutors were left without any evidence to pursue the case, according to Newsday. The judge dismissed and sealed the case.
