OFFICER HANGS SELF AFTER DRUG TEST

The 24-year police veteran broke the news to his wife Friday afternoon. He
had been among 10 officers chosen for the Atlantic City department's first
random drug testing, and he had flunked.

Sitting at his Galloway Township home on disability since May, in constant
pain from a back injury, unable to run around with his children, Detective
Michael Strehle, 44, was 15 months away from retiring. "He saw everything
he worked for going up in smoke," family lawyer Harry Goldenberg said
yesterday. "He told his wife he was considering killing himself because he
could no longer support his wife and children."

Strehle then locked himself in a second-floor bedroom, police said. With
his wife pleading with him to come out, he stepped onto the balcony and
hanged himself.

Galloway Township police got a call at 4:16 p.m. from Strehle's
brother-in-law, who had broken down the bedroom door and found him.

"The officer was found hanging from a porch attached to the second floor of
his house," said Patrolman Frank Weir, a Galloway Police Department spokesman.

Atlantic City police were conducting an internal investigation yesterday,
and would not comment beyond extending "deepest sympathies" to the family.

Strehle was picked to take a drug test under new guidelines set forth by
the state Attorney General's Office. Last week was the first time officers
were tested at random, according to Anthony Vicciarelli, president of
Atlantic City's Police Benevolent Association. Strehle had been taking
medication after undergoing surgery for a disc herniation, according to
Goldenberg. The drug the test found was not revealed yesterday.

He had planned to support his family after retiring through his pension and
from a recently acquired jitney franchise, according to Vicciarelli.

Goldenberg said Strehle had been despondent about being laid up. "He was in
constant pain," he said, "and home alone."

Atlantic City Police Sgt. Michael Tullio said the department had suspended
two officers in the last year after they flunked drug tests administered
specifically to address "reasonable suspicion." Both had hearings pending,
he said. The new policy allows for veteran officers to be randomly tested
along with newer officers and applicants. Tullio would not comment on the
results of Strehle's drug test, which he said was an internal matter and,
"due to Strehle's untimely death, is now considered to be a moot issue."

Louis Toscano, the mayor's policy director, said the ramifications of
Strehle's death - and whether his family would be entitled to his pension -
were being sorted out.

A viewing for Strehle will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. today at the H.M.
Gormley Funeral Home, 44 N. Albany Ave., Atlantic City, and from 10:30 to
11:30 a.m. tomorrow at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, South Tennessee
and Pacific Avenue. A Funeral Mass will follow at noon.

In addition to his wife, Jeanette, the detective is survived by three
children and two sisters.

Vicciarelli said that the department's honor guard would attend the services.