Ex-Melrose Park cop given 11 years in prison for selling stolen narcotics

What Salvi became, according to federal prosecutors, was a cop moonlighting as a drug dealer. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a host of brazen schemes, including selling narcotics he'd stolen from an evidence room

July 26, 2017

Minutes before he was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison, former Melrose Park police Detective Gregory Salvi stood in a federal courtroom struggling to explain what led him down a path of corruption.

"I am ... I don't really know what happened," Salvi stammered at the outset of remarks to U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve. "I don't know how I lost my way. ... I tried to be something that I wasn't. It's not who I was."

What Salvi became, according to federal prosecutors, was a cop moonlighting as a drug dealer. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a host of brazen schemes, including selling narcotics he'd stolen from an evidence room and transporting what he thought was a 5-kilogram load of drugs for local dealers in his unmarked squad car.

In handing down the lengthy prison term, St. Eve told Salvi his "egregious conduct" has ripple effects that go far beyond his own community.

"It undermines the public's confidence in not only the Melrose Park Police Department but in law enforcement in general, and all driven by your greed," the judge said.

Dressed in a dark gray suit and striped tie, Salvi, 44, showed no reaction as the sentence was announced. In the back row of the courtroom gallery, his family, including his wife and teenage son and daughter, wiped tears from their eyes.

After the hourlong hearing, prosecutors asked that Salvi be taken into custody. He has been free on bond working as a car salesman while the case was pending.

But St. Eve allowed him to remain free until Aug. 16 so he can see his children off to college. Both his 19-year-old daughter, Taylor, and son, Joseph, 17, gave emotional statements to the court earlier in the proceedings.

"If I could right now, I would trade places with him so he didn't have to go through this," Taylor Salvi said, pausing to stifle sobs as her father put an arm around her waist. "I just love him so much. I don't want to lose him."

Salvi faced a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in April to one count each of possession of drugs with intent to deliver and using a gun in a drug trafficking crime.

In asking for a 14-year sentence, prosecutors said the veteran police officer's corrupt acts weren't a one-time mistake but a repeated pattern motivated by his desire to "get that big payday" and set himself up financially before his pending retirement.

In his remarks to the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Otlewski said that as a father and police officer, Salvi knew the damage that drugs do to families — particularly children — yet he "didn't bat an eye" when it came to selling narcotics.

Otlewski also noted that even Salvi's own sister's lengthy battle with drug addiction didn't give him pause.

"If I could right now, I would trade places with him so he didn't have to go through this," Taylor Salvi said, pausing to stifle sobs as her father put an arm around her waist. "I just love him so much. I don't want to lose him."

Salvi faced a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in April to one count each of possession of drugs with intent to deliver and using a gun in a drug trafficking crime.

In asking for a 14-year sentence, prosecutors said the veteran police officer's corrupt acts weren't a one-time mistake but a repeated pattern motivated by his desire to "get that big payday" and set himself up financially before his pending retirement.

In his remarks to the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Otlewski said that as a father and police officer, Salvi knew the damage that drugs do to families — particularly children — yet he "didn't bat an eye" when it came to selling narcotics.

Otlewski also noted that even Salvi's own sister's lengthy battle with drug addiction didn't give him pause.