Swampscott cop suspended

SWAMPSCOTT – Swampscott police officer Thomas C. Wrenn has been suspended without pay following his arrest by the Drug Enforcement Agency.Wrenn, 37, 17 Prospect St., Nahant was arrested late Thursday night in Lynn and was charged in a criminal complaint with possession with intent to distribute oxycodone.Police Chief Ronald Madigan said the investigation is still ongoing and confirmed Wrenn has been suspended without pay.Madigan said Wrenn, a Swampscott Police officer since 1998, is still a member of the police department, but he declined to comment further.Madigan declined to answer questions about whether Wrenn was on restricted duty or regular duty during the investigation, which has been going on for more than a year.”I cannot comment on personnel matters,” he said.DEA agents working with Swampscott police arrested Wrenn Thursday night after he allegedly purchased a quantity of Percocet pills from one of his regular suppliers.According to a press release from U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan’s Office, federal agents knew of the planned transaction and took Wrenn into custody shortly after he took possession of 50 tabs of Percocet from a dealer.During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston on Friday, Wrenn pleaded innocent and was released on a $15,000 bond. He was also ordered to surrender his passport and weapons. He is also required to submit to random drug testing and he was ordered not to leave eastern Massachusetts or sail more than a mile offshore. He was also instructed not to have any contact with any witnesses in the case.Wrenn, who earned $97,000 last year, was given a court appointed attorney. Wrenn told the court he and his wife are paying a $634,000 mortgage.Wrenn is scheduled to return to court on March 24 for a probable cause hearing.According to the complaint, Wrenn, who is married and has two children, used a Pez dispenser belonging to one of his children to dispense the drugs at a party in the Wrenn home.”Wrenn jokingly loaded his child’s candy Pez dispenser with Percocet or Vicodin pills and then dispensed the pills from the toy Pez dispenser,” the complaint states.A search of his police locker turned up a Batman Pez dispenser and a second Pez dispenser was found in a bag in his bedroom.In a criminal complaint filed in federal court last week, the government alleges that Wrenn purchased Percocet pills over a period of months beginning in the fall of 2006 and he routinely consumed Percocet pills and cocaine and, in some instances, he did so while in uniform.According to the affidavit from DEA Special Agent Dennis A. Barton, allegations of Wrenn’s drug use and distribution first came to light in January 2007 when a confidential informant reported Wrenn’s drug habits to the Swampscott Police Department.Madigan confronted Wrenn a few days after being contacted by the informant and asked him to submit to a drug test “in order to dispel the allegation” but he refused to submit to a drug test, the affidavit states.According to the affidavit, Wrenn also distributed a quantity of Percocet pills to a former Nahant Police Officer and a young woman in connection with a romantic liaison.The former Nahant Police Officer referred to in the affidavit is Paul English Jr.U.S. Attorney’s Office Spokesman Christina D’Orio Sterling said English pleaded guilty in October 2007 to federal drug charges and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison followed by three years supervised release.