Youth Football Coach Who Got Player to Toss Heroin during Cop Chase Pleads Guilty

District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe today announced the guilty plea of a Rockland County Pop Warner youth football coach, Theodore Holmes of Middletown, New York.

Holmes, 50, pled guilty to one count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, a class “B” Felony.

"This defendant is the last person you would want coaching young athletes," Zugibe said in the announcement. "When we encounter a case such as this, we will make it a priority to prosecute it to the fullest. Our community is yearning for solid role models and it’s a real tragedy when this trust is violated."

As part of undercover intelligence gathered during the 2015 Rockland County Drug Task Force investigation dubbed “Operation Money Mike,” Holmes was heard on several intercepted telephone calls detailing efforts to distribute heroin in Rockland and Orange counties, law enforcement officials said.

On July 25, officials said, a conversation under surveillance captured Holmes talking with heroin supplier Michael McMullin. During the phone call, Holmes was overheard placing an order for heroin for resale to his own customers.

After purchasing .25 ounce of heroin from McMullin in Spring Valley, Holmes drove to Orange County, in the company of a 13-year-old football player from his Valley Cottage-based Pop Warner team.

During an ensuing vehicle pursuit with law enforcement, he ordered the young athlete to throw the heroin from the moving car, law enforcement officials said.

The heroin was later recovered by police.

Holmes was remanded to the Rockland County Jail. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 9.