The ex-cop/ex-con owner of an “attack monkey” who bit a child has a past marked by allegations that his toddler daughter ingested drugs and that he possessed an arsenal of weapons, according to law-enforcement sources and court documents.
The new details about Steve Seidler – who did nine years for dealing cocaine – come one day after The Post reported that authorities are investigating whether he faked his “disabilities.” His condition allows him to keep Darla the macaque monkey as a “service animal” and collect a $1,668.78-a- month police pension.
Seidler joined the NYPD in 1981 and left two years later, claiming a finger injury.
In December 1987, Seidler’s then-wife, Victoria, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment after their 2-year-old daughter, Stephanie, was taken to a hospital with cocaine and heroin in her system, sources told The Post. Victoria pleaded guilty in October 1988 to the first charge and was sentenced to three years probation.
In May 1988, Steve Seidler was arrested by the feds on charges of selling at least at least a “kilogram of cocaine a month” between 1983 and 1987, according to documents obtained by The Post.
He was busted as he drove in Brooklyn with his father-in-law and little Stephanie. The feds say he was wearing a shoulder holster with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol inside. He also was carrying spare magazines, court records show.
Then, when agents searched Seidler’s home in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, they found a fully loaded 12-guage shotgun; a fully loaded Uzi; and three fully loaded .38-caliber handguns containing six hollow-point rounds.
Agents also found a “point-blank” bulletproof vest, a stun gun, boxes of ammunition, various knives, blackjacks and billy clubs, a money counting machine and two triple-beam scales with cocaine residue on them, the records show.
In 1990, Seidler agreed to a plea deal, admitting to a single count of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with five years of probation.
He was released in 1999, and his probation ends this November.
In transcripts of his grand jury indictment and sentencing hearing, Drug Enforcement Administration agents referred to Seidler doing business with Colombian drug suppliers.
Seidler was never charged with weapons possession, because as a former cop he was entitled to legal permits for all the firearms.
In the court papers, Seidler admits to having been a heroin addict, saying that after he injured his hand in 1983 he was given a prescription painkiller called Dilaudid – which later led him to the harder, illegal stuff.
He said that he became so addicted to heroin that eventually he was using $500 worth of smack a day.
The documents also show that while Seidler told prosecutors that he suffered from endocarditis – an inflammation of the heart lining, which causes blood circulation problems – his doctor could not verify that claim.
Seidler and his wife were divorced in the early ’90s, and she has custody of Stephanie.
Meanwhile, the Health Department is still waiting for details on Darla’s whereabouts.
When a member of its Veterinary Unit showed up at his door on Saturday, Seidler, who said he’s an Orthodox Jew, refused to let them in because it was the Sabbath.
He told them he had sent the monkey out of state.
They told him he must come up with documentation from whatever veterinarian is now attending to Darla to prove she is healthy and being taken care of in a safe environment.
There was no sign of Darla at his house yesterday.
Additional reporting by Kati Cornell Smith