Press Release - 7-24-08
COMMISSION ON PUBLIC INTEGRITY ISSUES NOTICE OF REASONABLE CAUSE CHARGING FOUR WITH VIOLATING LAW REGARDING USE OF STATE POLICE RESOURCES FOR PURPOSES OTHER THAN LAW ENFORCEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 24, 2008
CONTACT: Walter C. Ayres
518-408-3976
ALBANY - The New York State Commission on Public Integrity today released a Notice of Reasonable Cause against three former employees of the Executive Chamber and the former acting superintendent of the State Police regarding the Executive Chamber’s creation of records and transmission of information regarding Senator Joseph L. Bruno’s whereabouts in New York City in May and June 2007.
Richard Baum, Darren Dopp, William Howard and Preston Felton were charged with violations of the State’s Code of Ethics, found in Public Officers Law §74. Settlements were reached with Mr. Baum and Mr. Howard.
The Commission alleges in the Notice that Dopp and Felton “caused the State Police to serve the Governor’s and their own non-governmental interests in a manner that compromised the State Police.”
“Such misconduct erodes public confidence in the integrity and independence of the State Police,” the Notice stated. Commission members noted that the law requires them to rely on reliable evidence, not “suspicion, conjecture, speculation or rumor,” and that there “presently is insufficient record evidence to support a charge that any person, other than Baum, Dopp, Howard and Felton, violated the Public Officers Law.”
Nevertheless, the Notice stated, “if warranted by additional reliable evidence, including evidence adduced in the course of a hearing on the charges set forth herein, the Commission will pursue additional Public Officers Law violations that may have been committed by any person not named in this NORC, including any individual who may have previously received or may in the future receive a ‘fifteen-day letter’ pursuant to Executive Law §94(12)(a).”
The Commission was critical of the Executive Chamber for failing to deliver many documents in a timely manner and withholding important documents. “The Executive Chamber’s piecemeal document production and its spurious claims of privilege unnecessarily and improperly delayed the Commission’s investigation” and were “flatly at odds with its duty to assist the Commission’s investigation and the promises of Governor Spitzer that the Administration was cooperating fully with the Commission’s investigation.”
The Executive Chamber sporadically produced documents on 19 separate occasions in 2007 into 2008, which affected the timing of the investigation and the scope of planned interviews.
The Notice stems from an investigation that began ten months ago, in which Commission staff thus far collected thousands of documents and more than 3,000 pages of sworn testimony. The Notice concludes that although members of the Executive Chamber stated on numerous occasions that they had provided the Commission with all relevant documents, time and time again the Commission discovered that that was not the case.
The twelve members of the Commission who unanimously approved the issuance of the Notice of Reasonable Cause are John D. Feerick, Daniel R. Alonso, Virginia M. Apuzzo, John M. Brickman, Richard D. Emery, Daniel J. French, Robert J. Giuffra, Jr., David L. Gruenberg, Hon. James P. King, Hon. Howard A. Levine, Loretta E. Lynch, and John T. Mitchell.
Commissioner Andrew Celli recused himself from the investigation because of his friendship with former-Governor Spitzer.
The Notice and supporting documents, including transcripts of sworn testimony, are available at www.nyintegrity.org.