New York teen overdose spotlights growing heroin problem

Provided by: The Canadian Press
Written by: Frank Eltman, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aug. 3, 2008

In this photo provided by the Ciappa family, Natalie Ciappa is seen in her senior year of high school, less than a month before she died from a suspected heroin overdose. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Ciappa Family

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. - When high-school senior Natalie Ciappa nearly died of a heroin overdose on Memorial Day weekend, she promised her parents she had learned her lesson and was going clean.

She got a job, met a guy and appeared to be getting better. She was even making her curfews again.

But on the first night of summer, Natalie went to a party and never came home.

Her parents called emergency rooms and the police, but they knew nothing about her daughter. They eventually learned where the party had been and headed there.

A woman answering the door led Doreen Ciappa to a side garage door. Natalie was motionless on a couch while MTV blared from a television. Red plastic cups were strewn across a catering table. Natalie's lips and nose were blue: She was already dead.

"I knew it. I looked at her and I knew it," she said. "I yelled, 'Oh my God, someone call 911."'

The death of Natalie Ciappa, a Plainedge High School honours student with a singing voice her mother says was too good for "American Idol," has confirmed what police, prosecutors and federal narcotics agents say has been a growing problem on Long Island: Cheap, potent heroin available for sale in school hallways, malls, parks and just about anywhere young people congregate.

It is not a problem isolated to Long Island. While the federal Drug Enforcement Agency says heroin use has remained fairly consistent across the country in recent years, the highly addictive narcotic goes through vicious phases when it becomes the trendy drug of choice among teenagers. For example, suburban Dallas is among the areas combatting heroin use by kids as young as eight for several years, officials said.

Fernando Cortez Sr. says his 15-year-old son and namesake died the first time he tried so-called "cheese," a concoction of cheap black tar heroin mixed with over-the-counter medications that has killed dozens in the Dallas area. The potent mixture has been blamed in a wave of heroin deaths in recent years in other cities as well, from Chicago to Detroit to Philadelphia.
Cortez said Fernando Jr. was with his sister's boyfriend in March 2007 when he was lured into trying the drug. "They did some, then they went and got more. This guy gave him way too much. He went to sleep and never woke up."

Dave Cannata's 16-year-old son, Nick, died in June 2005, with heroin and diphenhydramine in his system. He blames peer pressure.

"These kids are not going to get out from under peer pressure," Cannata said. "I tell people if heroin is in your neighbourhood, sell your house and get your freaking kid out of there right now. Get out of Dodge."

On Long Island, the scourge of the drug is exacerbated by the fact that dealers are preying on areas with heroin that costs virtually nothing. One heroin ring that included Natalie Ciappa's ex-boyfriend was recently charged with selling the drug at the Hempstead Bus Terminal for as little as $5 a packet.

"Cigarettes are $6 a pack!" exclaimed Patricia Silverman, whose children were all graduates of Plainedge High School. "My heart goes out to the parents. It's just a national tragedy. This is supposed to be a beautiful community."

Many teens using heroin these days snort the drug rather than inject it. "Unfortunately because it can be snorted, kids think the stigma of being a drug addict is removed," said John Gilbride, the DEA's special agent in charge of the New York office. "There's not the same stigma as when a hard-core drug user injects it."

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice says the paradigm of the heroin user has changed. "If you look at Natalie and you hear the description of her, you would never in a million years think that she was a child that would use heroin," the prosecutor said. "You ask 10 out of 10 people what a typical heroin addict looks like and they'll say it's a junkie in the street with a needle hanging out of their arm."

Because most kids are snorting, she said, "You're not going to see the telltale signs like track marks and needle marks."

Lt. Peter Donohue, a veteran narcotics detective, subscribes to a "generational amnesia" theory. "The kids have been told about the detriment of using cocaine, alcohol or marijuana, but heroin was never (discussed) really; that's something from a generation ago," he said.
He said two police officers were recently in a bagel shop at 10 in the morning.
"A kid was asleep at the table next to them and then his buddy comes out of the bathroom with a needle and blood running down his arm. He had heroin in his pocket and he got arrested."

Doreen Ciappa says she tried everything imaginable to get Natalie to stop using heroin.

For more than a year, there were battles at their suburban Long Island home: arguments over rehab, fights when she quit counselling, groundings after car accidents, threats about not going away to college.
In the beginning, Natalie admitted to smoking marijuana, but her parents were sure she was using something worse. She started losing weight and getting sick.

Doreen Ciappa started policing her MySpace page and searching her room for signs of drugs, finding the painkiller OxyContin among her belongings.
"I approached her and she told me she got it in school that day. I said, 'In school?' And she said, 'Don't you get it? At any time of the day in any hallway, if I want something all I have to do is look up and I will see somebody who can give it to me."'

Then came the first overdose. The family was actually grateful because this was supposed to be their wake-up call. But three weeks later, Doreen and her husband Victor woke up on a Saturday morning and found no sign of Natalie.

"When your daughter has had one overdose and they don't come home, we both immediately started crying," Doreen said.
Doreen said she became frustrated with federal privacy laws that restrict the amount of health information she was able to get about Natalie after she turned 18 in March. Natalie was entitled to make her own decisions about rehab after turning 18.

"That's what I don't get," she said, vowing to become an activist in changing privacy laws. "How can we be responsible for someone and not have any authority?"

At Natalie's wake, Doreen Ciappa had a strange reaction when other parents greeted her with condolences, saying they seemed relieved that it wasn't their child who was dead. Don't assume it's not your kid, she wanted to tell them.

"They look at their good, healthy, beautiful kid and they feel secure. I don't want them to feel secure. And that's what got to me at the wake - I saw these mothers."

Charlie Bowman sympathizes with the plight the Ciappas faced with their daughter.

"Even with a 15-year-old, what do you do?" the grandfather asked outside the Plainedge Public Library. "Tie them down and take them to a doctor or to a rehab? I'm not sure what the answer is and I'm not sure the officials know what the answer is either; otherwise they would be doing more about it. It's just alarming."

This is not the first time that drugs and death intersected in Plainedge.
An archway entering Plainedge High School's athletic field pays tribute to Edward Byrne, a 1984 alumnus.

Byrne was a 22-year-old NYPD rookie on Feb. 26, 1988, guarding the twice-firebombed home of a drug case witness in his patrol car when he was shot to death on orders from a violent Queens drug lord. The case attracted national headlines amid the city's murderous, crack-driven crime wave; Byrne's father gave his son's NYPD shield to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, who was running for the White House.

A faded photograph of the rookie cop in uniform appears on one of two plaques.

A generation later, another Plainedge High School student is dead. Natalie Ciappa sang the national anthem before football games there, but it's difficult to know if she ever read the inscription on a second plaque honouring Officer Byrne:
"His death is leading the way to a true all-out war in the problem of drugs and cowardly acts of violence.

"Let us hope that out of his ultimate sacrifice will come positive developments in defeating the drug problem."

DA, Police Department Smash Heroin Distribution Ring

Tapped phones, surveillance leads to 10 arrests, including the ex-boyfriend of a Massapequa girl who was the victim of a heroin-related death last month

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey announced Wednesday morning the results of a sweeping investigation into heroin distribution in Nassau County. The investigation led authorities across county lines and into Queens, where seven weeks of wiretaps and surveillance uncovered a large scale operation that Rice says has resulted in 10 arrests, including the ex-boyfriend of 18-year-old Natalie Ciappa, who was found to be the victim of a heroin-related death at a Seaford house party last month.

Rice and Mulvey were joined at Wednesday’s press conference by the Ciappa family, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and members of both the NCPD and NCDA’s narcotics divisions.

In addition to the arrest of Ciappa’s ex-boyfriend, the investigation led authorities to the ringleaders of the network, brothers Alexander and Edward Fontanet of Queens.

Rice said that the investigation began in February 2008, with Nassau County Police Department detectives uncovering widespread heroin dealing at the Hempstead Bus Terminal. Intelligence uncovered during the initial investigation led detectives to a Roosevelt home which is believed to be a Nassau County distribution point being used by the Queens ring. A search warrant executed at the Roosevelt house resulted in the seizure of 804 glassine envelopes of heroin. Each glassine envelope of heroin is considered a dose of the deadly drug. As a result of the search warrant, detectives obtained significant intelligence regarding the network’s suspected primary source, the Fontanet brothers, and their Nassau County counterparts, Donald Kurth of Merrick, and Patrick Graf of Massapequa.

In May, District Attorney Kathleen Rice applied to the Court for an eavesdropping warrant on two cellular phones used by the Fontanet brothers. Nassau County Judge Frank A. Gulotta signed the warrant and eventually allowed the District Attorney to expand the scope of the warrant to include cellular phones used by Kurth and Graf.

As a result of the DA’s wiretaps and the police department’s surveillance of the network, significant additional evidence was obtained against Alexander Fontanet’s wife, Lorraine Cianciulli, his Queens colleague Jose Demenech, the girlfriend of Kurth, Heather Wahl, and the wife of Graf, Melissa Graf. Evidence was also obtained against Damon Marinacci of Syosset, and Phillip Ordaya of Seaford.

On June 17, 2008, the Fontanet brothers, Lorraine Cianciulli, Jose Demenech, Donald Kurth, Heather Whal, Patrick and Melissa Graff and Damon Marinacci were arrested.

Phillip Ordaya is the ex-boyfriend of Natalie Ciappa, an 18-year-old Massapequa girl found to be the victim of a heroin-related death June 21 at a Seaford house party.

Rice said that after the Ciappa tragedy, detectives investigating the incident obtained information regarding an old boyfriend of Natalie’s, Phillip Ordaya. Detectives quickly determined that Ordaya was a previously unidentified subject involved in the wiretapped telephone conversations of the investigation into the Queens-Nassau ring. As a result of the connection, Ordaya was placed under surveillance and eventually arrested on a drug conspiracy charge July 7.

Rice said that authorities now know definitively that heroin played a role in the death of Ciappa, though the final toxicology results are not expected to be complete for another few weeks. The investigation into any possible direct linkage between Ciappa’s overdose and Ordaya’s alleged heroin dealing is ongoing.

Two additional heroin possession arrests were made pursuant to this investigation and Rice said that more are expected. Rice also said that she expects to upgrade the charges against several of the defendants involved based on the continuing investigation.

Search warrants executed at the Fontanet homes following their arrests resulted in the seizure of more than 1,000 glassine envelopes of heroin and extensive paraphernalia and equipment used to package and sell heroin.
A warrant executed at Graf’s Massapequa home and car resulted in the seizure of nearly 500 packages of heroin.

A search of Marinacci pursuant to his arrest resulted in the seizure of 15 individually packaged doses of heroin.

A search of Kurth’s Massapequa home resulted in the seizure of 106 glassine envelopes of heroin.

A search of Ordaya pursuant to his arrest resulted in the seizure of glassine envelopes distinctively marked with terms and known brands discussed frequently by the distribution network during their recorded communications.
Rice said that heroin arrests have steadily increased since 2000, culminating with the arrest of 151 people for sale or possession of the drug in 2007. Since 2007, there have been 37 suspected heroin overdoses in Nassau County.
Rice and Mulvey praised the work of Nassau County Police Department detectives from the newly created Heroin Investigation Team (HIT) within the Narcotics & Vice Squad of the police department. Rice also commended the work of Assistant District Attorney Irene Angelakis and Assistant District Attorney and Deputy Bureau Chief of Narcotics Kristen Fexas, along with Investigators James Whiston and Warren Hacke.
Rice and Mulvey also thanked the Long Island office of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency for their assistance in this investigation.
The charges against the defendants are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

Parents find daughter, 18, dead in friend's home

A Massapequa couple's search for their teenage daughter after she failed to come home from a party ended in tragedy when they found her unconscious in the recreation room of a friend's Seaford home, they said.

She was later pronounced dead at a local hospital

Police released few details about the death, which they are investigating as a homicide. They did confirm that Natalie Ciappa, 18, a Plainedge High School senior who was bound for SUNY Old Westbury in the fall, was found unresponsive shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday at a house on South Street in Seaford.

She was pronounced dead at 11:39 a.m. at New Island Hospital in Bethpage, police said. The Friday night party came near the end of Natalie Ciappa's final year at Plainedge, where she had been a cheerleader and often sang the national anthem at school basketball games, her parents said.

The Ciappas began searching for her in the morning when they discovered she had not come home from a get-together with friends, said Natalie's mother, Doreen Ciappa.

A few hours later, they found their daughter lying facedown on a couch in her friend's rec room, she said.

"It was a horrible nightmare, a parent's worst nightmare," Doreen Ciappa said. "We tried to resuscitate her, but we couldn't."

The body was taken to the Nassau County medical examiner's office for an autopsy, police said.

Yesterday, her parents recalled her as a bright, sensitive young woman who was planning to study criminal psychology.

They said she doted on her younger brothers, Nicholas, 13, and Logan, 11, and had an older brother, Jesse, 20. She cared for two pets: a rescued cat, Salem, which she adopted in the sixth grade, and her dog Buster, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel.

A gifted singer, she was invited to join Nassau's All-County Women's Chorus four years in a row, her parents said.

She loved cheerleading, which she started in kindergarten and continued until the 11th grade.

The Ciappas said they don't know how their daughter died. On Saturday morning, they called her friends to find out where she had been. When they obtained the address, they drove to the house.

Doreen Ciappa said a woman answered the door, and took them to the rec room, which had been converted from a garage attached to the house.

There they found their daughter, who was clothed and lying facedown on the couch.

"I don't know what to think, to tell you the truth," said Doreen Ciappa, 50. "I'm not going to jump to any conclusions.

Natalie Ciappa died on her father's birthday, her parents said. The family had been planning to celebrate the birthday with a trip to a horror movie convention in New Jersey.

"We're all big horror movie fans," said Victor Ciappa, who turned 49 on Saturday.

"I used to like to sing her to sleep when she was young. I used to like to read to her. I'm overwhelmed right now."
Posted by Miss Pearl
http://www.pearlswindow.com/2008/06/parents-find-daughter-18-dead-in.html

LI TEEN DEATH A HEROIN OD

By KIERAN CROWLEY
Last updated: 8:05 am
July 10, 2008
Posted: 3:23 am
July 10, 2008

A teen found dead after a booze-soaked Long Island party overdosed on heroin, police and prosecutors said yesterday.
Nassau County cops also announced the arrest of her ex-boyfriend and 11 other people in a suspected heroin ring.
College-bound Natalie Ciappa, 18, died at a June 21 house party in Seaford, said police, who were investigating whether there was a direct link between her death and ex-boyfriend Phillip Ordaya, one of a dozen dealers arrested after a seven-week investigation.
Ciappa's mom, Doreen, said at a news conference: "We thought [Ordaya] was decent . . . We discovered later that he was a drug dealer."