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By: Ellen Cans
A Sergeant with the New York Police Department was arrested on Saturday for allegedly shoplifting cough medicine. As reported by the NY Daily News, Sgt. Rayna Madho, listed as a detective squad commander, was arrested Saturday in Nassau County, and later that night was suspended from the NYPD without pay, per NYPD records. Madho, 41, a resident of Queens, is said to have earned over $200,000 last year including nearly $55,000 in overtime pay, officials said.
Her duties with the force have included arranging photo arrays for detectives who are investigating cases and handling photos for official identification cards at Police Headquarters, as part of the SIU photographic squad. Madho was previously assigned to the 7th and 13th Precincts and two commands in Brooklyn.
She had joined that unit in March of 2022, and had originally joined the NYPD in January 2006. She was promoted to detective and sergeant back in 2013 and to detective squad commander in 2021.
Per the NY Daily News, Madho is being 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, on Long Island. In the second incident, which occurred on Saturday, Madho is accused of stealing Zarbee’s Cough Syrup, which retails for $9.99 at Target, and Ricola Cough Drops, which sells for $4.99, per a law enforcement source. She has been ordered to return to court on Dec. 27, per Nassau police sources.
In fiscal year 2024, Madho earned a total salary of $201,625, which includes a base pay of $126,211, plus $54,939 for 555 hours of overtime, as well as $20,475 in other pay, as per city payroll records.
Madho served as the vice president of the influential Desi Society, an umbrella NYPD fraternal group which represents officers with South Asian heritage. In March, she had been featured in a social media post for Women’s History Month by the Sergeants Benevolent Association. The post had said Madho, an immigrant, was born in Trinidad, and moved to the U.S. at the age of 12, going on to graduate from York College.
Madho was involved with other lawsuits in the past. She has been a defendant in five civil lawsuits – which in total have settled for $161,000. One of those lawsuits, filed in 2019, allegedly showed a video of Madho dropping a pill bottle in a car while her police partner arrested motorist Abdul Pullium back in 2015, Gothamist reported. The defendant’s lawyer had alleged that the officers planting the bottle of weed in the Brooklyn man’s car.
That suit settled for just $7,500. The largest of the settlements, involving Madho, was $80,000— for a case filed in 2017 by Chaka Virgil. Per 50-a.org, the defendant sued the city for having been arrested, thrown against a car and taken to Brooklyn’s 83rd precinct by Madho and a partner in May 2015. The defendant had alleged that he was strip searched there and then detained for two days, despite not having committed a crime, and not having any narcotics found on him.
When called for comment by the Daily News, Madho initially said “No” when asked if she was arrested and then hung up the call.
