Re: 6/9/00 - Chief keeps his distance from probe
Chief keeps his distance from probe
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff June 09, 2000
NEW HAVEN ? Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing has asked to be removed from overseeing an internal affairs investigation into allegations of misconduct in his department, instructing investigators to forward any findings directly to City Hall.
In a letter Wednesday to Mayor John DeStefano Jr., Wearing requested that oversight of the internal probe be transferred because his name had surfaced in the investigation.
Detectives told internal investigators that Capt. Brian Sullivan, the department?s head of detectives, ordered an investigation halted per order of the chief. Wearing has said he gave no such order.
DeStefano confirmed the letter Thursday and said he had assigned Chief Administrative Officer James Horan and Corporation Thayer "Ted" Baldwin Jr. to oversee the investigation. DeStefano said internal affairs investigators will meet with Horan and Baldwin today.
Wearing convened the internal probe following allegations that Sullivan and his deputy, Sgt. Edward Kendall, hid evidence from North Haven police investigating the 1996 murder of Philip S. Cusick.
On May 30, Wearing placed both men on administrative leave pending the outcome of the probe.
Normally, any internal investigations go directly to the chief.
Union officials had criticized Wearing for overseeing the investigation after he had been named as an alleged participant in halting the murder probe.
DeStefano described Wearing?s request to remove himself as a "bold statement" and "the kind of action that characterizes his leadership in the department."
Wearing could not be reached for comment Thursday. He has not given a statement to internal investigators but has said he will cooperate with the probe in any way possible.
A grand jury is investigating whether members of the New Haven detective bureau withheld potentially key evidence from North Haven detectives investigating the Nov. 5, 1996, murder of Cusick. The police department?s internal probe is running parallel to the grand jury investigation.
Investigators believe Cusick, 23, was a passenger in a car in New Haven when a gang member shot him after a drug deal soured. The driver of the car, William Clark, sped off and later left Cusick?s body outside his parent?s North Haven home. A neighbor found his body early Nov. 6, 1996.
North Haven police led the investigation but never made an arrest.
The allegations of misconduct surround evidence uncovered some 16 months later. Two New Haven detectives interviewed an alleged witness to the slaying on Feb. 27, 1998. The witness named a possible suspect and picked his face out of an array of photographs.
The detectives took the statement to Sullivan who told them to end their investigation per order of the chief.
Sullivan told internal investigators he directed Kendall to forward the information to North Haven.
Kendall told investigators Sullivan never gave such orders.
The police union has filed grievances on behalf of the two supervisors.
¸New Haven Register 2000
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