By Dan Murphy
On August 5, Harrison Police officer Sokol Biberaj stole a Velux deck-mounted laminated skylight worth from a loading dock in Greenburgh. Biberaj, was later caught on video driving off with the light, valued at $550, and was arrested by Greenburgh police on August 19 and charged with Petty Larceny, a misdemeanor.
On August 25, Biberaj wrote to Harrison Police Chief John Vasta announcing his retirement, effective Sept. 8. Biberaj served for 15 years with the Harrison Police Department, and seven years with the NYPD prior to his service in Harrison, giving him the 20 years for a pension.
According to Govsalaries.com Biberaj earned a salary of $226,253 in 2020. Other reports had his current salary at $243,000. That salary would include a massive amount of overtime, according to sources in Harrison we spoke to.
People in Harrison, and in the law enforcement community in Westchester, are shocked at Biberaj’s behavior for several reasons. First and foremost, why did he decide to steal a light from a warehouse that he should have known had video security.
“Why risk your career and do such a stupid thing? When we see cases like this, is the reward worth the risk?” said one Westchester official.
The second question that we are trying to find an answer to is why did Biberaj retire? The reason is that you cannot be convicted of a crime and keep your job on the Harrison Police Department. But that policy doesn’t jive with the criminal record of another Harrison Police officer who remains on the force. In May we wrote about Officer Frank Corvino, who landed on the front page of the Journal News for a two-year old domestic violence incident. In April 2021, Corvino pled guilty to second degree harassment, with no jail time and anger management and parenting classes required. But Corvino remains on the force on desk duty.
Others believe there is another reason that Biberaj retired so quickly. “He ran as fast as he could to secure that pension, and the reason is not about stealing a skylight. If he got caught stealing from this warehouse in Greenburgh, how many other times did he steal, or commit other crimes?”
Biberaj lives in Dobbs Ferry, so the theft in Greenburgh was nearby his home. Perhaps he scoped out the business, New Castle Building Products, or drove by it frequently, before committing the crime.
Some are connecting Biberaj’s retirement with another former Harrison Police Officer; former Chief Anthony Marraccini. In 2019, Marraccini was sentenced by Federal Judge Kenneth Karas to 18 months in prison for tax evasion.
First it’s clear that Marraccini did not pay his taxes, and he has given the J Pirro defense, that his accountant and his wife did the bookkeeping and filed the taxes and he just signed the return. But some close to the Harrison police department tell us that Marraccini was “just trying to expose wrongdoing in the department and ended up getting tied up with the IRS.”
Biberaj was also a real estate agent and a landlord, with some estimating his income from real estate to be close to or more than his police salary. Others questioned how he landed the job with the HPD in the frist place. The last rumor is that the Department of Justice is investigating things in Harrison.
Connecting the dots to everything going on in the HPD will take some time. Email us if you can help, to dmurphy@risingmediagroup.com
