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Cuomo Ignores Calls For Probe Into Rampant Police Corruption Allegations In Mount Vernon
By
George Joseph
Published Sep 3, 2020
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By
George Joseph
Published Sep 3, 2020
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In mid-June, the Westchester County Legal Aid Society sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo, imploring him to open an investigation into allegations of rampant police corruption and brutality in Mount Vernon, a town of 67,000 just north of the Bronx.
“The people [of] New York, with a heightened sense of urgency, are demanding accountability and transparency regarding allegations of misconduct by officials sworn to uphold the law,” Clare Degnan, the defenders’ executive director, wrote in the June 12th letter.
Degnan was referring to an investigation published by Gothamist/WNYC a few days earlier, based on secretly recorded phone calls by a whistleblower in Mount Vernon’s police department. In the recordings, another officer talked about how his colleagues had planted drugs, falsified search warrants, and purposefully incriminated innocent people following undercover drug operations. The Westchester County DA, Anthony Scarpino, had been in possession of many of the tapes for over a year. But other recordings made by the whistleblower suggest that his office did little to investigate, while continuing to prosecute residents, who were never told about the allegations.
“For this reason, I ask, on behalf of the people of Westchester County, that the Attorney General's office, under the leadership of Letitia James, investigate the Mount Vernon Police Department and the Westchester County District Attorney's Office regarding the taped allegations of malfeasance, including suppression of evidence favorable to persons facing criminal charges,” Degnan wrote.
More than two months later, Cuomo has given the defenders “no response whatsoever,” Degnan said in a phone call.
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office likewise confirmed that the Governor’s office has not sent the agency a referral, granting it jurisdiction to investigate.
The governor’s press office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“Cuomo is a Westchester resident, and he can’t say he don’t watch News 12 and don’t know what’s going on,” said AJ Woodson, a Mount Vernon native and the editor-in-chief of BlackWestchester.com. “I know he depends on Mount Vernon as a strong Democratic voting bloc, but other than that he has never come through on any request for anything when it came to investigating governmental or police corruption.”
On Monday, Gothamist/WNYC published its latest investigation into the tapes, detailing allegations of police assaults of civilians in handcuffs. The story also published footage of officers conducting strip searches of two Black men in an apartment, sparking outrage in the city, which is one of Westchester County’s few majority-Black enclaves.
Cuomo’s silence also follows previous public calls for a state investigation. At a June press conference, Mimi Rocah, then a Democratic primary challenger to Westchester County’s incumbent District Attorney, called for an investigation by the Attorney General, criticizing the DA’s decision to quietly prosecute residents based on the word of the accused officers without disclosing the tapes.
Rocah won the Democratic nomination later that month.
“The most important thing here is to fully investigate these claims to deliver real justice, and restore trust between the MVPD and the community it serves,” Rocah told Gothamist/WNYC in a statement. “If Attorney General James is empowered to take this on, I fully support her. If she wants to wait until next year when I am, hopefully, in office and work together or have my office take the lead, I’m ready to do that also. It’s not about who gets credit. It’s about doing the work that needs to be done.”
Her Republican opponent for the county seat, Bruce Bendish, did not respond to requests for comment.
State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, whose district covers part of Mount Vernon, also called for a state probe.
"The egregious allegations of police brutality and misconduct within the City of Mount Vernon potentially point to a dangerous culture of violence and corruption that seriously threatens the safety of our community,” Biaggi said in a statement.
“While I understand that the City of Mount Vernon and the Westchester County DA's office are currently looking into these allegations, claims as horrific as those that have been reported necessitate immediate action and must be promptly and thoroughly investigated at the highest level of authority.”
The Mount Vernon Police Department declined requests for comment. The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Following the publication of Gothamist/WNYC's first story on the Mount Vernon tapes, federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York reached out to the police whistleblower. His attorney subsequently shared the tapes with the Southern District, which declined to comment on its activities with regard to the recordings.
On the same day that Degnan sent her letter to the governor, Cuomo was holding a press conference to sign a package of criminal justice reforms pushed through the legislature after thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets to protest the police killing of George Floyd.
“We’ve gotten to a place where people think talking is enough. Talking is not enough. Being angry is not enough. Being emotional is not enough,” Cuomo said. "How do you transition that to action and change and results? That’s what we’re doing here today.”
Tagged
westchester
mount vernon
andrew cuomo
George Joseph
George covers Brooklyn for THE CITY with a focus on criminal justice and housing. He previously worked for WNYC and Gothamist, and has published stories with NPR, ProPublica, Esquire, and The Intercept among other outlets.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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