A federal security officer at Newark Liberty International Airport has been charged with stealing cash out of the purse of a wheel-chair bound woman after it passed through an X-ray screening device in February, authorities said today.

Leroy Ray, 44, of Newark has been suspended by the Transportation Security Administration, which employed him as a passenger screener since August 2002.

Ray’s search of the purse was caught on video cameras, according to a criminal complaint. When the woman returned to the security checkpoint to complain that $300 in a white envelope was missing from her purse, as well as $195 from an inside zippered pocket, Ray abruptly walked over to a supervisor’s office and placed a white object from his back pocket into the “lost and found” tray, the complaint said..

He then returned to the checkpoint and volunteered that he had found the missing envelope on the floor.

Ray was charged with theft and making false statements to investigators. He is expected to make an initial appearance before a federal judge in Newark this afternoon.