MINEOLA, N.Y. -- Former New York Rangers' hockey player Peter Stemkowski was accused Wednesday of offering $20,000 to a police undercover agent to beat up a man who owed him a large sum of money from a failed business deal.
The 38-year-old Stemkowski was arrested at his home in Atlantic Beach, N.Y. and charged with attempted grand larceny by extortion and criminal solicitation of the undercover agent.
If he is convicted, Stemkowski, who is currently a hockey game announcer for ESPN cable television, could get up to four years imprisonment.
'Stemkowski told the agent he wanted the man wrists and ankles broken and some stitches put in his head if he did not get his money,' Nassau Assistant District Attorney Phil Grella said.
The target of the proposed beating was not identified, but Grella said he and Stemkowski were involved in 'a business that went sour.'
According to Grella, the original amount of the debt was $35,000, but because of the long delay in repayment of the debt, Stemkowski was demanding $70,000.
Grella declined to discuss the nature of the business.
He said Stemkowski was introduced to the undercover agent by his brother-in-law, Brian Teetz of Island Park, N.Y.
Teetz, along with four other men and three women, were arrested on charges of selling guns and drugs to the undercover agent and conducting a gambling operation. But Grella said Stemkowski had no involvement in any of these activities.
All the arrests were the culmination of a five months investigation which started when Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon's Rackets Bureau got a tip concerning an operation involving bets on sports events.
Many of the bets were taken in the Wine Cellar, a tavern on Austin Boulevard in Island Park owned by Teetz's wife, Jane, Detective Sgt. Richard McGuire said. Stemkowski's wife is the sister of Jane Teetz.
During the course of the investigation, the undercover agent noticed that one of the male suspects was carrying a .22-calibre revolver. The man offered to sell the gun to the agent and said there were more weapons available if he wanted them.
The agent said he was interested, and he ultimately bought 13 weapons including two automatic machine guns, two sawed-off shotguns, and nine handguns, McGuire said.
The sales then spread to narcotics, and the undercover man purchased small amounts of cocaine and heroin. The agent told the suspects that he intended to re-sell the weapons and drugs.
Some of the buys were videotaped in an apartment in Long Beach, set up by police. The suspects were told that the undercover agent lived in the apartment, McGuire stated.
Dillon said the investigation was abruptly terminated when police learned that the agent was under suspicion and his life was possibly in danger.
During a press conference to announce the arrests, the agent was seated in another room and answered newsmen's questions on an intercom.
