BY BILL SAN ANTONIO
Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale
resigned Thursday amid an investigation by the county district attorney’s
office into allegations that Dale ordered the arrest of a worker for a third-party
candidate for county executive for political purposes.
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said in a
statement issued by his office that he met with Dale Thursday morning to
discuss the investigation, whereupon Dale, who was hired as commissioner in
January 2012 after more than 40 years with the New York City Police Department,
resigned.
Mangano said the county’s executive for public
safety, Victor Politi, will serve as acting police commissioner while he
considers Dale’s replacement.
“District Attorney Rice today brought a troubling
matter to my attention regarding questionable influence within the Nassau
County Police Department. Upon further investigation, the District Attorney
found no evidence to indicate criminality but the investigation itself indicates
a fresh look at internal procedures is warranted,” Mangano said in a statement.
“This approach is necessary to maintain the highest standards of police
internal administration. New leadership sends a clear message that stringent
administrative review and application is underway.”
The district attorney’s investigation also resulted
in the resignation of Sgt. Sal Mistretta and the retirement of Chief of
Detectives John Capece. Narcotics Vice Squad Inspector Kevin Smith has been
appointed to fill Capece’s position.
Mangano said in an interview with Newsday on
Saturday that he is seeking a disciplinarian like Dale to be the department’s
next commissioner.
The investigation, detailed in a four-page letter
to Mangano by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, describes the
arrest of Roosevelt resident Randy White, 29, who in early October had
testified in a civil proceeding in state Supreme Court to being paid for each
signature he collected for former Freeport Mayor Andrew Hardwick, who was seeking
to run on the “We Count” party line against Mangano and Democratic candidate
Tom Suozzi.
Petitioners in New York State may not be paid by
signature, though payment by hour is legal. Hardwick has denied paying White
per signature.
On Oct. 5, White was arrested while on a N41 bus
that was boarded by officers at a bus stop in Roosevelt for failing to pay $250
in fines stemming from an outstanding arrest warrant for a misdemeanor
counterfeiting conviction.
The warrant for White’s arrest was brought to
Dale’s attention a day prior, after Huntington resident Gary Melius, the owner
of the Oheka Castle catering hall and a financial supporter of Hardwick’s
campaign, called the former commissioner to inform him of the campaign’s desire
to file a perjury charge against White based on an audiotape allegedly
implicating him for lying during his testimony.
According to Rice’s letter, Dale directed Melius to
report the allegations to the First Precinct in Baldwin and sent Capece and a
lawyer for the police department to meet with a Hardwick attorney and other
campaign members, who reviewed the complaint against White and the audiotape,
which was deemed inaudible.
Though White was not arrested or charged with
perjury as a result of the meeting, First Precinct officers drafted an Unusual
Occurrence Report, which requires a standard criminal background check of the
people named in the report.
When information of White’s arrest warrant was
found and brought to Dale’s attention, the former commissioner ordered that
White to be apprehended.
While in police custody, White was served with a
civil subpoena drafted by Hardwick’s attorney by Mistretta, a Nassau County
Police Department sergeant who was off-duty at the time, requiring White to
appear in court on Oct. 7.
Rice wrote that Dale denied being aware of the
subpoena until a few days after White was served and that her office’s
investigation has “uncovered nothing to call Commissioner Dale’s claim
concerning the service of that subpoena into question.”
Rice added that “Commissioner Dale claimed it is
not unusual for the Department to go to such great lengths to apprehend the
subject of a ‘failure-to-pay’ warrant” and found Dale’s actions were not
criminal.
She also wrote that her investigation uncovered
nothing to suggest that either Mangano or members of his administration were
involved in the case.
“Given the case’s political overtones and given the
motivations of the complaint - to gain ballot access for a candidate running in
a race that involved the re-election effort of an administration that serves as
Commissioner Dale’s direct supervisor - this was a judgment potentially fraught
with peril,” Rice wrote. “But while Commissioner Dale’s personal involvement in
this case was unusual, and while the public is right to be concerned with
politically-interested civilian influence over its police department,
Commissioner Dale’s mere involvement in this case is not evidence of a crime.”
Democratic lawmakers on Monday said Rice’s
investigation into White’s arrest did not probe deeply enough into the
political undertones of the case.
“I’m astonished that something like this can happen
today in Nassau County and no one sees anything wrong with it,” said Democratic
Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams [D-Hempstead]. “We believe Commissioner Dale
completely abused his authority and used his entire weight of the police force
to arrest and intimidate a witness.”
In a news release, Democratic legislators called
for Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves [R-East Meadow] to schedule a hearing of
the county Legislature for Dale, Mangano and members of the county executive’s
administration to testify and answer questions regarding their role in the
events leading to the district attorney’s investigation.
They also called for a prosecutor without
connection to either Nassau County or the case to conduct an outside
investigation that would provide a “fresh look” to see if Dale committed a
crime through his actions regarding White’s arrest.
“The buck stops with the County Executive and
Mangano has to answer to the people of Nassau through legislative hearings for
the actions of his top level appointments,” said Nassau County Legislator Dave
Denenberg [D-Merrick] in a statement. “Furthermore, it is naive to believe that
Dale intervened in this type of matter, with the implications of his boss’s
re-election, without the approval and knowledge of his direct boss, Mangano,
and/or others in the administration.”
“It is ironic that Mangano says he wants his next
commissioner to be a disciplinarian from outside the NCPD, when that is exactly
what Dale was supposed to be,” Denenberg continued.
Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said Monday that “the
actions of the county executive have been unequivocal,” and that Mangano’s lack
of involvement in White’s arrest has already been proven by Rice’s
investigation.
“The integrity of this administration will not be
harmed by any action, person or agency,” Nevin said in an e-mail. “We will have
no response to those who now seek to engage in cheap partisan politics.”
