Ex-Long Branch Cop Pleads Guilty To Making Meth In His Home

LONG BRANCH, NJ — A former Long Branch police officer accused of making methamphetamine in his home pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, with two years of parole ineligibility.

The former officer is Christopher Walls, 50, who had been on the force for 19 years when he was arrested in May of this year. He was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine out of the basement of his home on West End Avenue in Long Branch.

When he first appeared in court in May, the Asbury Park Press reported that Walls had discussed having family and money problems with a fellow Long Branch police officer, and told him he was inspired by the character of Walter White on the hit TV show "Breaking Bad," which is about a high school chemistry teacher who starts making meth out of his home.

"(He) made a statement (to the officer) indicating that Walter White made a lot of money making meth," Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Melanie Falco said, reported APP.com.

Walls pled guilty Tuesday in Monmouth County Superior Court to charges of second-degree causing a risk of widespread injury and third-degree manufacturing CDS (methamphetamine). Under a plea deal he reached with county prosecutors, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison with a 2-year-period of parole ineligibility. That means he must serve a minimum of two years and will then be eligible for parole.

As part of his plea, Walls also permanently forfeited his right to hold a taxpayer-funded job, as well as his firearms and firearms ID card. During his plea, Walls admitted to making methamphetamine at his home in Long Branch and to endangering his family and neighbors in doing so.

Walls was a 19-year veteran of the Long Branch police force. His neighbors told CBS they were "stunned" to hear he was operating a methamphetamine lab out of his home.

“When he was off duty, I would say he was always in the garage and working alone,” neighbor Joao DosSantos told CBS News when he was first arrested. “Sometimes there were boxes going in and coming out."

Long Branch Police were first called to Walls’ home on the 300 block of West End Avenue at about 10:36 p.m. on May 15 of this year for a 911 call of a domestic disturbance.

While officers were on the scene, another resident in the home alleged Walls was involved in suspicious narcotics activity. The New Jersey State Police Hazmat unit was then called in and located materials, chemicals and instruments consistent with a methamphetamine laboratory in both the home's basement and in a shed on the property.

State Police confirmed Walls was in possession of all the ingredients necessary to manufacture methamphetamine and said they also found methamphetamine residue in chemistry-related glassware on site.

A further investigation found Walls owned books related to making methamphetamine, explosives and poison. Laboratory tests later confirmed that methamphetamine was in fact made in the home.

Additionally, a large open and unsecured gun safe was in the home, which was accessible to a child living in the home. Inside the gun safe were two long guns, four handguns, eight high-capacity magazines, and a large quantity of ammunition.

Walls was criminally charged and taken into custody that same night, May 15. When he was first arrested, the Long Branch Police Department immediately suspended Walls without pay. The department said on May 17, two days after he was arrested, that it had begun the process to terminate him.

“A very serious risk to public safety has been averted," said then Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni when Walls was first arrested, referring to his meth lab being dismantled. "We dismantled a very dangerous situation. It is particularly distressing that this hazard was caused by a sworn law enforcement officer.”

"It is disappointing beyond measure that one of our officers could have risked the safety of his family and neighbors by engaging in such dangerous conduct," said Long Branch acting Police Chief Frank Rizzuto.

The case was prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Melanie Falco, Director of the Office’s Professional Responsibilities and Bias Crime Unit.

Walls was represented by Mitchell Ansell, Esq., of Ocean Township, a well-known criminal defense lawyer in Monmouth County.

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Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com