AFTER FAILING DRUG TEST, ATLANTIC CITY POLICEMAN HANGS HIMSELF

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - A police detective hanged himself after finding
out he had flunked a drug test.

Michael Strehle, 44, a 24-year veteran who was planning to retire, was
suspended Friday after testing positive for an unidentified substance
during a random test.

After returning to his Galloway Township home, he told his wife he feared
losing his job and that by killing himself, he would preserve the financial
benefits she and their three children would be eligible for, friends told
The Press of Atlantic City.

Then Strehle locked the bedroom door and hanged himself from an outside
balcony. He had been scheduled to retire in 15 months.

"When the drug test results came back, he just felt that he failed his
family and that there was only one way he could provide for them
financially. This is the way he felt he could do that," said Harry
Goldenberg, the family's lawyer.

He was one of 10 officers randomly tested for drugs earlier this month. He
was the only one who showed signs of drug use, police said.

Strehle, who was on injury leave from his job in the Juvenile Bureau, had
been taking medication after undergoing surgery for a herniated disc last May.

It wasn't clear Tuesday whether that was why he failed the test. Police
spokesman Sgt. Michael Tullio declined comment on the case.