An NYPD sergeant who made more than $200,000 last year including nearly $55,000 in overtime assigned to a headquarters unit was arrested Saturday for allegedly shoplifting cough medicine, according to officials, records and police sources.
Sgt. Rayna Madho, listed as a detective squad commander, was suspended without pay at about 10 p.m. Saturday after her arrest in Nassau County, NYPD records show.
A Nassau County police spokesman said Madho, 41, of Queens, was charged with two counts of petty larceny for two separate incidents on Dec. 7 and Nov. 24 at the Target store on Sunrise Highway in Valley Stream, L.I. She was issued a desk appearance ticket and ordered to return to court on Dec. 27, Nassau police said.
Madho was accused in the Dec. 7 incident of stealing Zarbee’s Cough Syrup, which retails for $9.99 at Target, and Ricola Cough Drops, selling for $4.99 at the store, a law enforcement source said.
Madho is assigned to the SIU photographic squad, where her job includes arranging photo arrays for detectives who are investigating cases and handling photos for official identification cards at Police Headquarters. She joined the unit in March 25, 2022.
In total, Madho made $201,625 in fiscal 2024, the most recently available figure, including $126,211 in base pay, $54,939 for 555 hours of overtime and $20,475 in other pay, city payroll records show.
Madho is the vice president of the influential Desi Society, an umbrella NYPD fraternal group that represents cops of South Asian heritage.
Reached by phone, Madho initially said “No” when asked by a reporter with the Daily News if she was arrested and then ended the call.
An NYPD spokesman declined comment except to confirm she was suspended without pay.
She previously was assigned to the photo unit, detective squads in the 7th and 13th Precincts and two commands in Brooklyn, according to 50-a.org.
She has been a defendant in five civil lawsuits that settled for a total of $161,000. In one of those suits filed in 2019, video allegedly showed Madho dropping a pill bottle in a car while her police partner arrested motorist Abdul Pullium back in 2015, Gothamist reported.
Pulliam’s lawyer alleged the video showed officers planting the bottle, Gothamist reported. The suit settled for $7,500, a relative drop in the bucket when compared with other police settlements.
Madho joined the force in January 2006. She was promoted to detective and sergeant in 2013 and to detective squad commander in 2021.
In a March social media post for Women’s History Month, the Sergeants Benevolent Association said Madho was born in Trinidad, moved to the U.S. at age 12 and graduated from York College.
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