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Thursday, May 19, 2011

MORE HPD FALLOUT: ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LAWSUIT?

As more layers get peeled back regarding the Administration at the Hartford Police Department, one thing is becoming very clear, the "independent outside investigators" will definitely have their hands full.

Looking at the problems from the outside, it seems that many decisions are being made without any regard for the City's liability or even the rights of individual employees. Below are the details of one recent incident that will eventually be landing in Court, unless the City uses some common sense first.

The details laid out below probably would never be tolerated in the "real" corporate world. I would venture to say that if any administrator or even a Human Resources director opened a private employer up to potential liability by ill advised or vindictive decisions, they would be on the unemployment line quickly.

In the case of a police officer, their biggest asset is their reputation and their integrity. Any attempt to question that had better be made based on solid information, and only after a thorough investigation has been conducted. Every effort should be made to ensure the highest level of confidentiality to protect the individuals reputation.

Whether it is an employee of the Aetna or a Hartford Police officer, professionalism should be the number one requirement when it comes to investigating allegations.That was not the case below.

Based on anonymous allegations, which eventually turned out to be not so anonymous but were actually unsubstantiated allegations made by one HPD Sergeant to another Sergeant, this incident began to snowball.

I normally don't redact names from documents, but in this case since the allegations were purely hearsay and gossip, I have chosen to redact the officer's name to avoid further damage to their reputation. The names of a Lieutenant and the two Sergeants have also been redacted until an outside investigation is complete.

The officer in question had been called into the office of Assistant Chief John Horvath and was advised that there was "hearsay" information that they were using narcotics.This is according to the officers attorney, Hugh Keefe, in a letter sent to Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts on March 30, 2011.

The officer volunteered to comply with an immediate drug test, hardly the logical behavior of a drug user. The department refused to provide a drug test and never followed through with subsequent offers to submit to a drug test. The officer has apparently had several drug tests done on their own. at their own personal expense.All of those reports have been negative for cocaine and marijuana as well as several other drugs. One of the reports can be seen after the PDF file of Attorney Keefe's letter below.

This matter may be directly linked to the removal of Internal Affairs Division Commander Lieutenant Neville Brooks. The officer apparently requested an Internal investigation into the way the matter was handled and whether Assistant Chief Horvath overstepped his boundaries in the way he handled unsubstantiated allegations and "hearsay" rumors. That investigation was apparently in the beginning stages when Brook's was removed.

At no time was the officer afforded his rights under the HPD Union Contract such as having a Union steward or Union representative present nor was he advised of his Miranda rights or his Garrity rights, basic labor law regulations that Assistant Chief Horvath or anyone else at his level of management should have been well aware of.

According to Attorney Keefe's letter, the original Sergeant contended that the information was coming to him through a "confidential source". It was later learned that the information was actually coming from another Sergeant in the Patrol Division who denied making the statement when he was confronted.

Keefe's letter claims that the Department and Assistant Chief Horvath's actions "failed to maintain confidentiality causing severe and irreparable damage to "redacted officers"reputation. If that doesn't scream out "large jury award", I don't know what does.

This is only the beginning. If you wonder about the degrees of discipline at HPD, read the letter below and make your own conclusions. Then over the next couple of weeks I will be posting about clearly documented and verified incidents that took a much different direction. Even incidents clearly documented, some actually caught by video, were hardly even noticed.

It promises to be a very interesting "immediate independent investigation".

In the mean time Assistant Chief Horvath has been informed that his last day at HPD will be July 1,2011 due to budget cuts. The money might come in handy to pay future legal settlements. As a side note, I'm being told there was an "abruptly" scheduled meeting between Chief Roberts and Mayor Segarra for tomorrow at 4:00PM, that could prove very interesting.

Atty Keefe Horvath Letter

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow..wow life is trully a circle and once it's complete it's all over. DKR deserves what he get's for allowing Horvath to run HPD. Just look at how he promoted his boy Cpt. Sansom. Are you kidding me?That is an insult to all the men and woman who have really earned that promotion.

Horvath and Sansom seem to forget all the minorities they unjustly fired by fabricating information and manipulating DKR. They thought they were untouchable...no..no..no.. what goes around comes around. Now Horvath knows how it feels. Maybe Sansom can support him until he get's fired too.
It's about time a real Mayor sees thru the eyes of corruption.

There will be so many more worms coming out of that can.

Anonymous said...

One Sergeant told another Sergeant, thinking that he was a friend of the detective in question. Instead of that Sergeant talking to the detective in question (his former partner) he ran to the Chiefs Complex and "ratted" his former partner out. Let this be a lesson to you "Young Sergeant." All that butt kissing didn't do you any good. Unless you want to continue kissing butt on the unemployment line with that Chief.

Anonymous said...

Any one who knows Hugh Keefe's reputation knows that he doesn't take cases to lose. This will most likely be a large settlement in the end.

Anonymous said...

The "Sergeant in Patrol" has never denied making the statement when confronted by anyone, including IAD. As a matter of fact, the "Sergeant in Patrol" advised and told the Detective in question exactly what was said and how it came about, and the Detective knows that.

Anonymous said...

A certain Sgt. In Zone 3 had a high school nickname of Screwdriver Boy. Ask him how he got it.

Anonymous said...

Let's hope tomorrow's "abruptly" scheduled 4pm meeting is Pedro's office is to accept DKR's (willing or not) resignation.

Anonymous said...

What type of hate or loathing must you have in your life? What type of sour grapes do you need to swallow to turn on your former partner and supposed friend? To spout false rumors and hatred. Were you so clueless to think that your statements would not be passed on? Did you think that you were casting a harmless spell upon him ?

I commend the Sgt. who was told of this information (by the alleged friend and former partner) for bringing these charges forward to be properly investigated. You're the police your job is to find the facts and bring the truth forward. Too bad the ball was fumbled on that portion of this matter by the front office. Policies and procedures are in place to handle these sorts of things. When you go outside of the policies and go rogue you pay the price.

You only have your good name and your reputation in the field of law enforcement. I commend the detective for standing up for his good name and defending it.

I find it hard to believe that all the good deeds accomplished on a daily basis by the over 450 men and women of the Hartford Police have been overshadowed by the actions of a select few. Every officer who has ever cared to wear the uniform of a Hartford Police Officer has looked down to his shoulder to that simple blue and gold patch and to the motto "Post Nubila Phoebus" or after the clouds the sun!" I truly hope that the sun shines bright on the Hartford Police Department after this hurricane passes.

Anonymous said...

I worked with this detective in MCD, based on factual information I know about him which I won't smear on this blog, I'll bet you he can't have a hair follicle tested for drugs! Ask him that, he can't and won't do it.

Anonymous said...

The sergeants did not do anything wrong. They didn’t wrong the detective. It was mishandled upstairs, typical of a Roberts run investigation- take aim- point & shoot.


The detective/plaintiff had already done more than enough to destroy his own character, integrity and reputation. He was sliding down a slippery slope, and something needed to be done. Ecstasy or no ecstasy, coke or no coke, he already started this ball rolling himself. He basically stopped doing any work for approximately a year. He caused a double homicide to go unsolved and have the wrong person to be arrested and incarcerated. Every case assigned to him had to be reassigned to other working detectives. He became a fool and a joke of a detective. His personal businesses took precedence over his career. Something needed to be done to protect his open cases and protect his career. His reputation was already in the toilet before any of this. BUT ALL OF THIS IS IRRELVEVANT. It was screwed up by DKR’. Another targeted attack. Forget about policy and procedure, code of conduct or labor law. Forget about handling it the right way, forget about liability. What about the detective’s immediate supervisor, why wasn’t the detective supervised for over a year? Why was he allowed to go unsupervised, unchecked and not close a case for this long? Lt. Brooks was looking into all this when he was removed. Hmmmm.

Anonymous said...

Wow!!!!! Very well put Anonymous@806am, it couldn't have been laid out any better than that. That is 100% the truth, you obviously speak from first hand knowledge. You don't transfer the problem, you address the problem. It's sad a sergeant other than his own supervisor had to initiate something.

Anonymous said...

Isn't McKoy incharge of random drug testing. (oop's, McKrash) He was supposed to be working on it, like 3 years ago....

Malcom/Che 2K said...

Anonymous 9:14 you made some very valid points. Those guys feel that they can cloak their racist actions behind the fact that DKR is African-American. Their favorite quote is "How can that be racist? The chief is black." But every Black officer/person over the age of 30 knows that having a Black boss is the PERFECT cover for a racist or racist activity. And when you have a guy that just rubber stamps everything, it makes it that much easier. There's no way a competent African-American chief would have allowed for this foolishness to occur for so long. What a travesty. But now it all is coming out in the wash little by little. Let's just hope when this is all over the damage is not irreparable.

Anonymous said...

First off, everyone enjoys to see other people fall and then be kicked. No one is perfect at HPD. There are many more major problems then if a detective di something off duty. I can only imagine what would happen if someone was to follow around Mc Coy, or some of these other ''Good Ole Boys''.....

Anonymous said...

Kevin, anon. 8:06 nailed it. Right on the money. The only reason keefe is taking his case is because was sold a bag of goods from the detective. Be cautious of jumping on this band wagon. Now the problem is when the detective gets disciplined he's going to cry that Horvath and DKR are after him. Who knows what happened in that meeting, the only person running around talking about it is that detective. He's the one who has destroyed his own reputation and it occurred long before that meeting.

Anonymous said...

in regards to the condon thing, people including others in major crimes have done far worse. there always seems to be missing money every now and then. But i guess stealing is worse then relaxing youself off duty...

Anonymous said...

Well this one got put to rest. Looks like the front office made out. Either they drove the pore kid to it or it affirms their suspicions of drug use all along.

I hear the detective had some drug testing done after he was accused and it came back negative. Maybe the pressure of it all was too much. Will know in a few weeks when the OCME releases the report. Till then we will mourn and bury and move one.

Sad no matter how you look at it. Saddest for his son who will only know his father through pictures and stories from those who are still here.

I hope the Sergeant who started this is satisfied with the end result. Looks like the front office took care of him too.

Anonymous said...

Chief Horvath and the two sergeants were the only one's that tried to help this man, and look what he did, he got a lawyer and tried to sue everyone. Do you still think this is "heresay" information? There's only one person to blame for this, and unfortunately he didn't take the help offered to him by good people. At one time, he was a good officer. The " two" sergeants were the only one's that tried to get him help. And Johnny Z, you need to stop already, enough is enough. This is tragic Kevin, he should've taken the help offered to him, he'd probably still be alive. You should be careful the conclusions you jump to. You already know the next one coming.