Crime Scene

The Stephen P. Driscoll Memorial Lodge of the New York State Fraternal Order of Police recently held its annual awards ceremony in Southeast in Putnam County.
The lodge was formed in honor of Driscoll, a Lake Carmel resident and New York City police officer who died on Sept. 11, 2001 while saving others at the World Trade Center.
Since its inception, the lodge has grown to one of the largest in the state, boasting several hundred members who are current and retired police officers living and/or working in Putnam and northern Westchester counties.
Among the awards given out at the May 22 ceremony were: – The Driscoll Memorial Medal of Valor to the family of Senior Investigator Thomas M. O’Neill of the New York State Police. He died in the line of duty in 2005. Receiving the medal on his behalf were his sister, Kathleen O’Neill Flood of Carmel, her daughter Hannah and husband Brian Flood. – The first Detective Investigator Stu Cohen Memorial Scholarship was presented in honor of Cohen, a lodge member and investigator with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. He died this year from an unknown ailment he apparently got after raiding a drug den. His death was classified as in the line of duty. – Several lodge members were honored for their fund-raising and volunteer efforts on behalf of the New York State Special Olympics of the Hudson Valley, including retired NYPD detectives Tom Gervasi, Henry Primus, FBI Special Agent Barbara McArdle and business associate Edward Scheck. – The boxing teams of the FDNY and NYPD were honored for their charitable work on behalf of the lodge, including participating in the lodge’s annual boxing event. – Scholarships were presented in honor of several local police officers who died in the line of duty. Among them were: Westchester Deputy Sheriff Kieran Grant, killed in 1979; NYPD Officer George Werdann, 1982; Officer James McNaughton, 2005, the first NYPD member killed while serving in Iraq; New York State Police Investigator Thomas O’Neill, 2005. Winners of these scholarships included Thomas Flynn and Samantha Scheck of Carmel High School, Kaitlin Beirne of Mahopac High School and Caitlin McDonald of George Fisher Middle School.