Re: 5/24/00 - City cop who blew whistle given leave
City cop who blew whistle given leave
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff May 24, 2000
NEW HAVEN ? The police officer whose whistle-blowing complaints mushroomed into a state grand jury probe of his department has been given a paid leave of absence, police sources said.
Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing confirmed Tuesday he granted Officer Keith Wortz, a 14-year veteran, an indefinite leave with pay from the department?s patrol division.
"I thought it was best for him to go off on leave for a while," said Wearing, who would not confirm that Wortz was the whistle-blower. "He had requested a leave of absence a little while back. I tried to mediate the situation (with a transfer of assignments) and apparently that didn?t work out that well."
The leave took effect Friday. A confrontation between Wortz and a department detective last Thursday at police headquarters reportedly prompted the action, sources said.
In that dispute, Detective Edwin Rodriguez and Wortz allegedly got into a heated argument at the front desk. The desk sergeant intervened, but the next day Wearing granted the leave.
In February, Wortz brought allegations of misconduct inside the police detective bureau to State?s Attorney Michael Dearington. Wortz alleged members of the bureau withheld evidence from North Haven detectives investigating the 1996 murder of Philip S. Cusick.
A state grand jury was convened in April to investigate whether high-ranking members of the department acted criminally in the case by withholding information about a possible suspect.
Meanwhile, Wearing declined Tuesday to comment on reports that New Haven police may have protected the potential murder suspect in the Cusick case because of the suspect?s ties with a New Haven police lieutenant.
The suspect?s half-brother, Arosmo Diaz, was murdered in 1994 in Bridgeport in what police describe as a gang-related shooting, reports state. According to police, he was shot to death by fellow members of the Latin Kings drug gang along with a friend, Tyler White, 22.
Tyler White was the son of New Haven Lt. William White.
Sources in the department said they?ve known of the relationship between the alleged suspect and Diaz.
But they said they believed it was "sheer speculation" that that relationship offered the suspect protection in the Cusick murder.
Cusick?s body was found outside his mother?s North Haven home Nov. 6, 1996, but police believe he was shot in New Haven after a drug deal soured.
Police say an acquaintance, William Clark, dumped Cusick?s body in North Haven.
Contacted Tuesday, Dearington declined comment on either a potential motive for suppressing evidence in the case or Wortz?s leave.
Wortz declined comment, referring questions to his attorney, Karen Lee Torre. She did not return phone calls.
In addition to the Rodriguez complaint last week, Wortz also filed an internal affairs complaint about a recent confrontation with another officer, William Coppola.
Rodriguez and Coppola?s brother, New Haven police Detective Stephen Coppola, are central figures in the grand jury investigation. They are not suspects.
In 1998, Rodriguez and Stephen Coppola interviewed an informant who named a suspect in the Cusick case.
According to sources close to the case, the detectives allegedly took the information to supervisors in the detective bureau, who instructed them to end the investigation.
The information wasn?t forwarded to North Haven detectives investigating the murder, sources said. The audio tape of the interview with the informant is now missing. A written transcript of the tape resurfaced after Dearington launched his investigation and has been given to the state?s attorney?s office.
Sgt. Edward Kendall, then second-in-command of the bureau, told internal affairs investigators that he inadvertently forgot to give the information to North Haven because he got involved investigating other murders and then was away from work because of an injury.
The tape?s transcript sat in his drawer for nearly two years until Dearington asked him about it, sources said.
Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said Tuesday he is confident the internal affairs probe will get to the bottom of the allegations.
He said he met with Wearing, several police commissioners and other city officials to discuss the internal affairs probe and grand jury.
"What I am aware of from the internal affairs investigation leads me to have no doubts in the leadership of Chief Wearing and the leadership of the Police Department," DeStefano said.
"I?m concerned about the grand jury investigation obviously, and I certainly look to a thorough airing and review," the mayor said.
He said he told the chief he had concerns about the explanation that the transcript was forgotten in a drawer "I related to the chief that I found that, all things being equal, a difficult explanation to accept," DeStefano said.
Officials in the department have said the allegations were little more than a long-standing vendetta by Wortz against certain police officials.
In 1999, Capt. Brian Sullivan transferred Wortz from the statewide gang task force, considered a plum assignment, when Wortz filed a labor grievance over the unit?s failure to pay overtime. Sullivan heads the detective unit.
¸New Haven Register 2000
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Name: SOMEONE CONCERNED
THIS HAS BEEN THE PROBLEM OF THE NEW HAVEN P.D. AND MANY OTHER P.D. ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THE SAD THING ABOUT IT, IS HOW THEY STICK TOGATHER AND LIE! LIKE A DOG JUST TO PRESENT THEMSELVES HONORABLE. HOW MANY VICTIMS WILL BE KICK TO THE CRUVE DUE TO THIS TYPE OF MANNER.
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