County’s top cop resigns over arrest



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.”