Charges refiled against ex-Allegheny County detective accused of injecting son with testosterone

A former detective for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is once more charged with felony violations, accused of providing his minor son with testosterone and an amphetamine in Murrysville.

Police allege Raymond Bonacci, 58, provided the drugs at the family home to enhance the boy’s athletic performance with the Franklin Regional High School football team in 2019.

Two drug delivery counts against Bonacci were dismissed last year during a preliminary hearing before District Judge Charles Conway. But the case was referred to the state Attorney General’s Office, and state police refiled the charges this week.

Police referenced findings in a statewide grand jury presentment and a related July 30 order of Supervising Judge Bruce R. Beemer.

According to the presentment, during an interview while he was applying to become a state police trooper, Anthony Bonacci said his father injected him with prescription testosterone and forced him to swallow Adderall pills 8-10 times during the fall of 2019 on days before football games.

The younger Bonacci said his father insisted he take the drugs to get an “edge” and to increase his “focus,” the grand jury found.

State Trooper Jason Kinger told the grand jury that Raymond Bonacci admitted to the trooper that he’d provided the drugs to his son. When Kinger asked if Bonacci simply was covering for his son, the father replied, “… absolutely not. I did it,” the grand jury document states.

Kinger said he also interviewed Bonacci’s wife, who “was angry at Bonacci for putting (the son) in harm’s way by giving him these drugs,” according to the presentment.

Attorney Michael DeRiso, who is representing Raymond Bonacci, had not reviewed the new complaint against his client nor the grand jury presentment on Friday. But DeRiso disputed the contention that his client had admitted to providing his son with the drugs.

“My client’s wife was there during the interview” with the trooper, DeRiso said. “I disagree that there’s this confession out there.”

Bonacci was arraigned Friday before District Judge Judith P. Petrush on the renewed charges and was released without bail pending a Sept. 10 preliminary hearing.

When charges previously were brought before Conway, DeRiso maintained that the alleged violations, if they’d occurred, would not have taken place in Murrysville.

Though the complaint lists a Murrysville address for Bonacci, DeRiso said at the time his client was separated from his wife and, for years, had lived in Elizabeth, in Allegheny County, while she lived in Murrysville.

Following dismissal of the initial charges, a spokeswoman for the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office said the office received information after the charges were filed that the case had to be prosecuted in Allegheny County. Because of the conflict of interest that would have resulted with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, the case was referred to the state Attorney General’s Office, the spokeswoman said.

The Attorney General’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Bonacci retired from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office in 2023. He pleaded guilty this year to two summary harassment citations connected to an incident in 2023 at an Export bar.

State police said Bonacci punched two women at Joey’s the Edge bar on Nov. 29 and one of them was knocked unconscious. He was ordered to pay $362 in fines and costs, according to court records.