Beacon detective
accused of making false burglary report
The case against a
suspended City of Beacon police officer accused of lying to authorities could
soon be handed to a Dutchess County Court jury.
Detective Sgt.
Richard Sassi Jr. is on trial, charged with falsely reporting an incident to
police, a misdemeanor. He’s accused of reporting a false burglary in process on
Aug. 31, 2012, to cover up an affair he had with a police informant.
On Thursday, a mostly
composed, but sometimes frustrated, Sassi offered his side of that night’s
events.
He explained why he
used a false name to report the alleged burglary and why he deleted the
contents of his county Drug Task Force cellphone before giving it to
prosecutors.
“I was concerned that
giving my actual name and having that recorded may be an issue for (the
informant),” Sassi said.
Sassi said he called
police after the informant’s boyfriend broke into her Fishkill apartment,
destroyed property and assaulted him.
“I told him he was in
trouble because he had broken into the apartment and had committed a burglary,”
Sassi said.
He said he restored
his phone’s factory settings because he didn’t want his wife or colleagues to
find his correspondence with the informant. He said he cleared it because he
didn’t want whoever got the phone next to have his contacts.
“At that point, I
didn’t consider it evidence,” Sassi said.
Assistant District
Attorney Matthew Weishaupt argued otherwise.
“You made sure the
government would never know the content of that phone,” Weishaupt said.
Weishaupt said
Sassi’s training as a police officer gave him insight into how to get rid of
evidence on a phone. Sassi disagreed.
“I don’t recall
identifying myself as an expert,” Sassi said.
Weishaupt challenged
Sassi on evidence his attorney, Jonathan Lovett, provided the court. Lovett
gave the court copies of screen shots Sassi took with his phone of
correspondence between Sassi and the informant after the incident.
“You deleted those
things that would have been adverse to what you want people to believe,”
Weishaupt said.
Weishaupt used phone
records to show Sassi had deleted messages in between the ones he provided as
evidence.
The trial is expected
to continue today.
