Something rotten in state police
EDITORIAL - The New York Daily News - May 10th 2008
The investigation into an alleged dirty-tricks operation within the state police has triggered what appears to be a potentially criminal coverup. If anyone has obstructed justice - which seems likely - there must be hell to pay.At the request of Gov. Paterson, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is probing whether rogue officials in and around the state police have been abusing their law enforcement powers to conduct political hit jobs. Paterson has said he admitted his extramarital affairs because he feared the state police had the information and might use it against him.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno sees evidence of a rogue operation in the Troopergate scandal, in which embarrassing details of his travels on state police helicopters became public. There were also damaging leaks about former Rep. John Sweeney. A central figure in the suspected conspiracy is the shadowy Dan Wiese, a former state police colonel who headed Gov. Pataki's security detail and serves as inspector general of the New York Power Authority. Cuomo's office subpoenaed Wiese's e-mails and other records from the authority, only to discover that his computer files had been deliberately wiped clean April 1 - the very day Cuomo's probe was announced. The obvious conclusion is that someone with access to Wiese's computer records tried to destroy incriminating evidence, a serious matter, regardless of whatever else Cuomo finds. That it happened in the office of someone paid $181,000 a year to keep the Power Authority honest compounds the outrage. All those implicated should immediately lose their jobs and, quite possibly, face jail time.
It's now incumbent on Power Authority Chairman Roger Kelley - a Pataki administration holdover - to earn his $246,750 salary by cleaning house. His decision Wednesday to stop paying a salary to Wiese, who has been on paid suspension for a month, was a good start. Now, Kelley must ensure his agency fully cooperates with Cuomo's probe, including doing everything possible to recover the lost records. And Cuomo must spare no effort in getting to the bottom of the reeking affair. The smoke is undeniable. Let's find the fire.
All of this sounds a little like what those Germans did a few years back. State Sponsored thugs in our state in this day and age is very frightening, but that's what has been going on in New York for a very long time. I have faith in Andrew Cuomo; he's one of the few with the courage and ability to fight the old and dirty machine.
ReplyDeleteHERE'S THE NY POST EDITORIAL ON THE SAME SUBJECT:
ReplyDeleteCUOMO'S QUESTION
Andrew Cuomo May 10, 2008 --
It is no small matter to destroy evidence yet that is precisely what state At torney General Andrew Cuomo says someone at the New York Power Authority did.
Question is: Why?
What, exactly, were those responsible trying to hide by erasing e-mail messages from the Blackberry and computer of a top Power Authority official, Dan Wiese, as Cuomo says happened? Surely, nothing better suggests guilt and attempted coverup than the deliberate destruction of evidence, if that's what it was. Feeding this suspicion is the fact that NYPA officials hired a pricey private lawyer to represent them, as Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker reported yesterday. "Undoubtedly, you appreciate the seriousness of this extremely troubling conduct," a steamed Cuomo wrote NYPA President Roger Kelly. He charged that "steps were taken by NYPA personnel to purposefully destroy" information. What's it all about? Who knows? It could be nothing. (Right.) It could tie in to a State Police operation that, perhaps, has run amok.
Or to something worse . . .
Cuomo says the e-mail deletions came on the very day that news outlets reported about his probe of the State Police. Wiese had previously been a top State Police official, and he's said to have maintained great influence over the troopers.
Gov. Paterson requested the probe, fearing the existence of a renegade State Police unit engaged in political dirty tricks. And the Albany DA recently linked Wiese to then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer's Troopergate operation, with its leaks of supposedly damaging material about Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. But the intentional destruction of evidence is more than just "serious" it's criminal.
Was there something so damaging in those e-mails, perhaps having to do with matters far beyond Troopergate, that prompted someone to take such action? Again, that remains to be seen.
For the public, thoughts of what might have been going on are truly scary. If troopers have been abusing their powers, for political or any other reasons, it would be bad enough. Who'll be able to trust them going forward? But if it's even worse, well . . .
The public needs answers. And if, at the least, Cuomo's charges about destroyed evidence hold up, folks need to go to jail. For a long time.
In New York State, "business as usual" means bullying, threatening and destroying people to get your way. And it doesn't matter who is hurt or destroyed.
ReplyDeleteAnd destroying evidence has been just one of the usual dirty tricks. It's nothing new.
The NY OFFICE OF COURT ADMINISTRATION is just as guilty of this as the troopers..maybe the troopers got the idea from them..but whatever..the courts should be included also!
ReplyDeleteThe biggest difference between the COURTS and the TROOPERS is that the TROOPERS appear to be a group of rogue individuals, as with the COURTS...... THE GROUP IS THE RULING AND ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF!
I know all this for a fact and I am sure they are concerned that someone knows. What they must understand, besides the ABUSE OF POWER AND FEDERAL CRIMINAL CHARGES, is that the information is not just with myself, but in the hands of several individuals and law enforcement..just in case they want to destroy it or me!
So Andrew Cuomo, look at all those in the "State" that have this tremendous power and open the investigation, no matter who is may be guilty!
I couldn't agree more with Anonymous(above), the OCA and our state judges need to be investigated.
ReplyDeleteI have written to OCA pleading for them to open an investigation into the [il]legal kidnapping and possible exploitation of my children, under the guise of "child custody" due to my estranged husbands political and catholic youth org connections and thus far those pleas have led to them telling me to get an attorney. Which I finally did, only to have the attorney throw me under the bus.
NY and those with power, have been abusing that power for many years, and it appears to be coming to a head FINALLY (Thank You Gov. Paterson).
Why not dig deeper, and help those not in power get justice.
For more details go to my web page DisgustedWithTheSystem.BlogSpot.com
To Louise Uccio, there is a case out of Orange County Goshen New York. Where evidence has been collected of the rigging of a child custody case. The Father's attorney falsify court orders, tampered with court records and same was not working alone. To top the criminal activities after determining that the mother could not have contact with her children for exposing child abuse and the law guardian relationship with the father. Pictures and information were discovered online showing the child been sexually exploited, in child pornography, possible child prostitution, drugs and alcohol. I guess this is why the father, his attorney and the law guardian fought so hard to illegally seized the children from another state and terminate the mother's parental rights. The truth always comes out I wonder what the sitting judge is going to do since he got the documents and pictures of the crime against these children.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteI would give a right arm ok maybe not an arm but at least a lunch, to find the players in that story you mentioned above and speak to them.
There are allegations in writing in my case by an innocent third party of my estranged husbands girlfriend being a child pornographer.
She (his live in girlfriend) also happens to share the same last name as my estranged husbands catholic charities connection the Director of CYO and his (the director of the CYOs) wife, a sitting judge in Richmond County.
Imagine this, they have kept me from my children for YEARS with a critically precluded false ACS case, which was overturned as soon as I found out about it TWO years ago, still NOT ONE visit.
My aol address is HaveUmistakenMe@aol.com if anyone could send me that story.