Thread: Questions hover over death of Brooklyn steroid suspect

What pharmacist knew could have implicated many

What pharmacist knew could have implicated many


By ALISON GENDAR, WILLIAM SHERMAN and LARRY McSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Tuesday, January 29th 2008, 4:06 PM

Murray/News John Rossi was found shot dead in the family pharmacy he owned. Cororners ruled his death a suicide today.

Murray/News Rossi was a suspect in a nationwide steroid ring, and could have fingered others in the scandal.

A Brooklyn pharmacy owner who committed suicide went to the grave with damning information about a multi-million dollar steroid ring linked to his business, a law enforcement source said Tuesday.
John Rossi, 56, was found dead in the second-floor office at Lowen's Pharmacy in Bay Ridge about 7 p.m. Monday night. He left behind a note reading "Please forgive me" after pumping a fatal bullet into his head, the medical examiner said today.
Rossi was found dead at the desk of his son-in-law, near a bottle of Jack Daniel's and an open bottle of pills. A .380 automatic Baretta was found in his hand when investigators arrived.
Although two bullets were fired in the office, the fatal shot to the head led to a suicide finding, said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the medical examiner. Rossi’s first shot, to the chest, missed his vital organs — and the wounded man then fired a second time.
No one doubts that Rossi could have been helpful to authorities probing the snowballing steroid scandal involving city cops.
"Rossi had information that could take down a lot of people," the law enforcement source said. "With what he knew, he could have flipped a few people and not faced a lot of prison time."
Rossi, a partial owner of the pharmacy, had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the nationwide probe into the illegal sale and use of steroids.
When police raided Lowen's in October, they found $8.2 million worth of performance-enhancing drugs.
At least 27 cops showed up on Lowen's client lists, sources said. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said six officers have failed drug tests for steroids. Five cops were eventually suspended for failing the tests, police said yesterday.
Rossi's death will not impact the Brooklyn district attorney's investigation of the steroid case, another law enforcement source said.
A Brooklyn grand jury is expected to hear evidence in the case in the coming months.
Maryann Wenz, 65, a life-long friend of Rossi's, said the night before he was found dead he had been in a neighborhood hospital with his daughter for the birth of his grandson.

Mobbed-up failed movie producer Julius Nasso remains a business partner in a Brooklyn pharmacy at the heart of a multimillion-dollar steroid scandal, his son said yesterday.
Julius Nasso Jr. told the Daily News his dad still has a piece of the business at Lowen's Pharmacy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
"You must be looking for my dad, my father," the younger Nasso said when asked about its operations.
Nasso Sr.'s partner John Rossi, 56, shot and killed himself in the drug store Monday night before investigators could question him on the hundreds of prescriptions the business allegedly filled each day from online clinics and doctors across the country.
"He was a good man," the younger Nasso, 27, said of Rossi at his Staten Island home. He declined to comment on the on-going probe.
His 55-year-old father's pharmacy has been raided twice since Albany County District Attorney David Soares exposed an alleged multistate scheme to sell steroids and human growth hormone over the Internet.
Doctors from the Internet clinics would fax perscriptions to Lowen's and in most cases pharmacy employees did not know the medics.
"They should have asked questions about the prescriptions, but they were making buckets of money and looked the other way. That is apparent," a law enforcement source said.
More than two dozen city cops turned up on its client lists, prompting the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau to open its own probe. Five cops were suspended after they failed drug tests, police said.
No one had been indicted so far and most criminal charges would have fallen on the doctors if it could be proven they wrote the prescriptions without meeting the patients, sources said.
After the pharmacy was raided last May, Nasso, Sr. denied involvement in the business.
"Jules has nothing to do with the pharmacy," the family's spokesman Richard Rubenstein said at the time. "And his son has just a nominal interest."
The elder Nasso, who is out of town according to an aide, could not be reached for comment yesterday at his gated waterfront Staten Island estate.
He spent nearly a year in prison after admitting in 2003 he conspired with Gambino gangsters to extort $3 million from movie star Steven Seagal.
Nasso, Sr. produced Seagal flicks such as "Out for Justice," "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory," "The Patriot" and "The Glimmer Man."
His relationship with Seagal soured in the late '90s, and he sued the action star for $60 million, claiming he reneged on a deal to appear in four films.
At a sit-down at Brooklyn's Gage & Tollner eatery in 2001, mobsters told Seagal he would have kick back $150,000 a flick if he didn't keep making movies with his estranged partner - or else, prosecutors charged.
Nasso was indicted and pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2003. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, but released two months early for good behavior.