Re: 12/7/00 - NH Advocate: A Whistleblower Feels the Heat
A Whistleblower Feels the Heat
By PAUL BASS
New Haven Advocate
December 07, 2000
NEW HAVEN - Keith Wortz learned this week what happens to cops who expose corruption--they become targets themselves.
Wortz, a New Haven detective, said he'd already had his life threatened by fellow cops the first time he revealed that his department covered up crucial evidence in an unsolved 1996 murder.
Now, this week, Police Chief Mel Wearing ordered an internal investigation into Wortz's outspokenness on a cover-up of another 1996 killing. Mayor John DeStefano Monday night came to Wortz's defense. He called Wearing to a City Hall meeting to "discuss" the internal investigation--then offered public comments aimed at reassuring New Haven cops who come forward with evidence of wrongdoing.
The chain of events began last week, when the Advocate reported on the police department's failure to follow up crucial leads in the 1996 death of 20-year-old Michael Tricaso.
Tricaso fell to his death from an upper deck of the Crown Street parking garage in downtown New Haven. The police had the name of a suspect who, according to an eyewitness, threatened to kill Tricaso that evening. But the department's file on the case showed no evidence that the police pursued that lead. Instead, they swiftly deemed the death "accidental." And they kept the case closed even though another eyewitness came forward who claimed to have helped chase Tricaso into the garage and watched him fall.
The Advocate article, based largely on a review of the police file and interviews with other figures in the case, quoted Wortz as confirming that last fact. He said he'd brought that information to superiors, who covered it up.
Likewise, Wortz had told his superiors about similar information covered up in another 1996 New Haven death, the shooting of a North Haven man named Philip Cusick. Wortz brought that information to the state's attorney's office when his superiors ignored it. That led to a grand jury investigation and the suspension of two top detectives. Its findings are due out any day.
The Cusick case revealed deep problems in Wearing's department. The Tricaso case intensified the heat on Wearing, even though both killings occurred before he became chief. The New Haven Register reported late last week that Wearing had ordered a new investigation this summer into the Tricaso case, but it proved short-lived and inconclusive.
Then, on Monday, Lt. Joanne Peterson of the department's internal affairs division called reporters who covered the story for the Advocate and the Register. Peterson said she wanted the reporters to come to the police station for an interview as part of an internal investigation. (The papers declined the request.)
What kind of investigation?
"An investigation into Keith Wortz speaking to you and having his name in the paper," Peterson said.
She said Chief Wearing had personally ordered the investigation.
Wearing later confirmed her account. "We just want to take a look and see if there's a violation of department rules" on speaking to the press, he said. He said that if Wortz had concerns about an investigation, he should bring them to the chief or to others in law enforcement. "He shouldn't go off talking to a whole lot of people."
Officials say that department rules prohibit cops from revealing information about active cases.
The department had declared the Tricaso case closed, not open, when Wortz made his comment in response to an Advocate inquiry. Since the article appeared, Wearing has re-re-opened the Tricaso case.
Wortz has said that in both cases he brought his concerns to his bosses, who actively ignored them.
Wearing's decision to investigate Wortz brought immediate denunciation from Wortz's attorney. Jim Newton and state Sen. Martin Looney, two likely challengers to Mayor DeStefano in next year's Democratic primary, also criticized the investigation for having a potential chilling effect on cops who expose corruption.
Wortz's attorney, Karen Lee Torre, also represents Greg Dillon, the inspector who won a $2.7 million lawsuit against Chief State's Attorney John Bailey in 1998 for retaliating against him for exposing FBI misconduct. (The state later settled the case for $1.5 million.)
Wearing's investigation of Wortz is the same kind of case, Torre said. She pointed out that U.S. District Judge Janet Arterton ruled Bailey's gag order unconstitutional, and that police departments have lost "several" other federal Second Circuit cases in the Second U.S. District after trying to silence whistleblowers.
"By all means," Torre said, the courts have recognized the police's right to require cops to stay silent about ongoing cases--unless cops have brought important information to superiors and seen superiors cover up that information. Then, she said, cops have the right to bring that information to light for the public good, as well as for their own safety.
"If you don't get a sympathetic ear, you should go to the press," Torre said.
In the end, Mayor DeStefano expressed his support for Wortz--as well as for Chief Wearing.
After meeting with Wearing, DeStefano "clarified" the investigation as an effort to "make clear" the department's "expectations" of officers' public speech. He said those expectations include cops having options if they're "uncomfortable" with behavior of superiors. He said the expectations do not include a "broad gag order that is not enforceable." DeStefano claimed that both he and Wearing "had the sense that Keith [Wortz] acted out of concern. My sense is this investigation is not aimed at a disciplinary action."
"Keith Wortz in some way needs to be recognized positively for having spoken up," DeStefano said.
Wortz himself couldn't be reached for comment as of press time. He was out of town on vacation.
E-mail: pbass@newhavenadvocate.com
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