Washington, DC—The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) has announced the selection of Detective Sergeant Timothy Braun and Detective Daniel Baldwin as the Officers of the Month for July 2004. Together they have more than 35 years of law enforcement service and sacrifice to the citizens of Somerset County, New Jersey.
Any case investigated by a Major Crimes unit has the potential of revealing man’s true inhumanity to man. In October 2003 the Somerset Medical Center contacted the county prosecutor’s office concerning several unexplained deaths. As the lead homicide detectives, Detective Sergeant Timothy Braun and Detective Daniel Baldwin learned that hospital administrators had long suspected that a staff member was responsible for the deaths as all the victims had been killed by lethal injection of prescription medications. Unfortunately, an internal hospital investigation failed to identify a suspect.

Two cases in particular caught the attention of the Sergeant Braun and Detective Baldwin. Jin Kyung Han, a 43 year-old cancer victim and Father Florian Gall, an elderly Roman Catholic priest, were both injected with a lethal dose of Digoxin, a medication used to decrease the heart rate. While Mrs. Han survived the attack, Father Gall died within hours of being injected.
Shortly after beginning their investigation, Sergeant Braun and Detective Baldwin began to suspect a 43 year-old registered nurse who had worked at nine different medical facilities throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania, never at one for any significant length of time. The case against Charles Cullen grew as the detectives discovered that at each facility an inordinate number of unexplained deaths had been recorded. Furthermore, 67% of the deaths occurred in the Critical Care units during the midnight shift when Charles Cullen was on duty.
Sergeant Braun and Detective Baldwin learned that Cullen had skirted previous law enforcement investigations on at least three other occasions. Utilizing the automated medication system, they were able to confirm that he had been removing unauthorized medications at an alarming rate, one of which was Digoxin, the same drug which had killed Father Gall.
Based on the evidence these skilled investigators compiled, an arrest warrant was issued in early December 2003. Once Cullen was in custody, the detectives utilized innovative, unique and legally acceptable investigative techniques to gain his trust and respect. Eventually Cullen confessed to killing more than 40 patients, 15 at the Somerset Medical Center alone.