Deputy Jason Cooke was arrested last week on charges of burglary and grand theft with a firearm for allegedly stealing from 85-year-old Moe Rosoff.
The Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy reportedly found Rosoff's garage code in a dispatch log and used it to enter Rosoff's home 90 minutes after paramedics took the elderly man, who had fallen and hurt himself, to the hospital, where he died.
Rosoff's son turned in a video recorded by the home's motion detection system showing Cooke taking items from the home. According to Rosoff's family, Cooke stole money, jewelry and medications.
The family also accuses the Palm Beach police of dragging out the case and withholding important documents pertinent to Cooke's arrest. The family reported the sheriff's deputy to the police eight days after he broke into the home, but Cooke was only arrested five weeks later.
Rosoff's relatives also claim that Cooke took a pill as he left the home. Medications were found in Cooke's patrol car by investigators, but these were not Rosoff's medications, they claim. Rather, they say, this shows Cooke is on duty while impaired.
"If Officer Cooke was operating in his official capacity under these medications," the family said in a statement, "it is our belief that he may have posed a significant threat to the public's safety since just a few of the noted side effects of these medications include confusion, impaired thinking, impaired reactions, abnormal behavior, tremors, drowsiness, altered state of consciousness and anger."
"In our opinion, had we not had this video, this cop would still be out there posing a threat of danger to the community he swore to protect and committing more crimes."
