2 IN POLICE DEPARTMENT ACCUSED OF COCAINE PURCHASES AND USE

MANCHESTER, Conn. -- A police officer and a records supervisor
allegedly bought cocaine and used it for more than a year before they
left the department under pressure in the spring of 2005, police found
during a criminal investigation.

Investigators said they also found that Dawn Cushman, a former records
supervisor, obtained access to computer records of the narcotics probe
and tipped off the officer, Susan Lowry, that she was being watched,
according to a police report released Friday.

Neither Cushman nor Lowry has been criminally charged and both deny
the reports' findings.

Cushman also improperly gave a pistol permit to Jose Padilla, a local
man from whom she purchased her cocaine, according to the report.
Padilla earlier this month began serving a one-year prison sentence
for possession of narcotics with intent to sell.

In an interview with The Hartford Courant before going to prison,
Padilla said he once sold cocaine to Lowry while she was in uniform,
the newspaper reported in editions prepared for Saturday. He estimated
he sold cocaine to Lowry 65 times and to Cushman about 70 times over
the previous year and a half, the report says.

Cushman, 43, and Lowry, 44, deny the drug allegations.

"I can sit here, right hand to God, and say, this is ludicrous," Lowry
said Monday.

Cushman said she did not know Padilla was a cocaine
dealer.

Hartford State's Attorney James Thomas said Friday that the women were
not arrested because the criminal cases "were problematic." He did not
elaborate.

Police Chief James Berry said authorities did not have sufficient
evidence for drug arrests, and that town officials decided instead
that the women should no longer work for the police department.

"The conduct is offensive," he said. "The conduct is unbecoming. So,
the best thing is to get them out of the system."

The Police Department now requires random drug testing of its
personnel. Also, its computer system has been reprogrammed to limit
access to certain files and Berry signs all pistol permit
applications.

Narcotics officers began investigating Lowry in November 2004 after
being tipped that a female police officer had gotten high with a
bartender the weekend before, according to the report.

A computer audit showed that Cushman had repeatedly gotten access to
reports of narcotics investigations in February and March of 2005.

At the end of March 2005, an alleged drug dealer in Hartford picked
Lowry's photo out of eight pictures of female Manchester officers. He
told narcotics officers that he had bought cocaine for Lowry and used
cocaine with her at her house.

He led investigators to Padilla, who was arrested on April 15, 2005.
Padilla told police that Cushman filled out a pistol permit
application for him and got him the permit for free. Padilla's
signature is not on the application or fingerprint card, the report
states.