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Mount Vernon Suspends Officer Who Discussed Safeguarding Drugs for Suspect On Secretly Recorded Tape
By
George Joseph
Published Nov 4, 2020
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Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard's Facebook Page
By
George Joseph
Published Nov 4, 2020
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A Mount Vernon police officer has been suspended after admitting on a secret recording that he helped safeguard crack cocaine for a known drug dealer, Gothamist/WNYC has learned.
The recording was one of several published by Gothamist/WNYC as part of its ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in the police department. The officer, John Campo, described holding the crack for the drug dealer who was friendly with the department’s now-disbanded narcotics unit in a phone call recorded by a department whistleblower, Murashea Bovell.
Bovell shared that recording and others exclusively with Gothamist/WNYC earlier this year. Three sources confirmed the news of Campo’s suspension. Gothamist/WNYC knows their identities but agreed to conceal them due to fears that their jobs could be jeopardized if they were named.
In the recording, Campo says that police arrested a well-known drug dealer on suspicion of a minor violation and found him to be in possession of crack cocaine. Instead of seizing the evidence in support of a drug charge, however, Campo says on the tape that a colleague, Detective Robert Puff, told him to hide the contraband. In the recording, Campo admits to stashing the drugs in his own sneaker. Campo then says that after the arrest, police released the man with a ticket and that Campo returned the drugs to the dealer.
Campo also says on tape that his supervisor, Sgt. Sean Fegan, subsequently commended him for holding the drugs for the dealer. The officer suggests such leniency was part of a larger strategy of the narcotics unit to allow favored drug dealers to operate with impunity in exchange for help with low level drug arrests.
Campo, Puff, and Fegan did not respond to Gothamist/WNYC’s requests for comment. In a previous interview, Fegan denied Campo’s allegations.
The recordings sparked outrage in the city, which is one of Westchester County’s few majority Black enclaves. Local police reform activists have been calling on the city to discipline the officers implicated in the whistleblower’s tapes since this summer when Gothamist/WNYC first published them.
Damon Jones is the publisher of Black Westchester Magazine and a leader in Blacks in Law Enforcement of America, a group that advocates for police reform. He said the suspension shows the city is now taking its investigation into the whistleblower’s tapes seriously, following protests and months of scrutiny from the press.
“I think it's from the rallies, and the people being outspoken on social media,” Jones said. “We want accountability of our police department, and I think it was the people of Mount Vernon who should get all the credit.”
Sources within the police department had mixed reactions to Campo’s suspension, which went into effect Monday.
“A lot of the guys in the department feel that justice is not being handed out fairly,” said one current member of the Mount Vernon Police Department, who requested anonymity citing concerns over reprisal. “The promise that was made to move the police department in the right direction is not happening. Here the guy in the narcotics unit who was one of the least experienced and probably the least culpable is getting the worst punishment — not his supervisor or the senior detectives that were leading him in the field.”
A patrol officer who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press was less sympathetic.
“I heard that some people were upset, but I don’t see why they should be because there was corruption within the department and he didn’t come forward,” the officer said. “But the department should be applying this standard to all the guys who were in the narcotics unit. Everyone who was working there should be suspended.”
In another phone call recorded by the whistleblower, Campo said that in 2018 he submitted a memo to department supervisors outlining numerous allegations of police misconduct and corruption within the narcotics unit. Campo says that the department referred him to the FBI, but that he refused to move forward with them on an investigation.
Over the last year, Gothamist/WNYC has reported on numerous allegations made in the whistleblower’s trove of secretly recorded phone calls. In addition to Campo’s claims about an inappropriate alliance with key drug dealers in the city, other officers caught on tape describe their colleagues framing and assaulting defenseless residents.
The news of Campo’s suspension follows Mount Vernon’s benching of Camilo Antonini, a detective who was put on desk duty after Gothamist/WNYC’s published a video showing him conducting a strip search of a suspect, an apparent violation of longstanding department rules.
Earlier this year, Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Glenn Scott dissolved the department’s narcotics unit, following Gothamist/WNYC’s initial stories on misconduct complaints by the whistleblower and civilians.
The department currently has several former narcotics officers under active investigation.
This piece is part of an ongoing series on police corruption allegations in Mount Vernon, New York, and Westchester County. If you have a tip about a prosecutor's office, a law enforcement agency or the courts, email reporter George Joseph at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, Twitter @georgejoseph94, and Instagram @georgejoseph81. You can also text or call him with tips at (929) 486-4865. He is also on the encrypted phone app Signal with the same phone number.
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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