Officials will hold a swearing-in ceremony at police headquarters in Mineola on Friday before the class of cadets spend the next seven months of physical, technical and legal training at the department’s academy in Massapequa.

“I am very excited about hiring police officers,” First Deputy Police Commission Tom Krumpter said at an East Meadow community meeting last month. “We haven’t hired a police officer in Nassau County since September of 2008… New blood is going to be welcomed.”

Krumpter said the new class is the first of three, possibly four, that will result in the hiring of between 150 and 200 new police officers by the end of the year, depending upon the attrition rate.

An average of between 100 and 120 members of the department retire or separate annually, meaning there is an expected net gain of about 100 officers with the new hires, he told a crowd of residents. The department had 2,223 members as of April 24.

James Carver, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association—the union that represents the department’s rank-and-file patrol officers—questioned Krumpter’s math since most cadets won’t graduate until next year, when there will be more attrition.

“They’re behind the eight ball as it is already,” Carver said, noting that the department has lost 500 members since January of 2009 and will need another three classes next year to reverse the tide. “It’s going to be two years before they catch up.”

The new recruits are the first class to be hired off of a four-year-old list of candidates, which is good through September. If there is a fourth class—Krumpter estimated possibly in December—those recruits would be from list generated by than 15,000 applicants projected to have passed the Nassau police exam offered last summer.

The physical, mental and background investigation into selected applicants can take up to six months, but only about half of those the department has called on for follow up interviews have responded, Carver said.

And up to 45 percent of applicants fail the physical agility test, said Krumpter, who issued an open call to the public: “If you know anybody on that list, make sure they’re in shape.”

Starting salary for Nassau police officers is $34,000, which increases to $107,319 after nine years, not including overtime, shift differential, holiday pay, uniform allowance, health benefits and a pension after 20 years of service.

Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President James Carver, lower left corner, was flanked by fellow officers during a news conference about an alleged cop killer Wednesday, April 10, 2013.

An Oakdale man has been indicted on upgraded charges in the alleged drunken-driving crash that led to the death of a Nassau County police officer on the Long Island Expressway last fall.

James Ryan pleaded not guilty Wednesday at Nassau County court to vehicular homicide, second-degree manslaughter, vehicular assault, assault and criminally negligent homicide.

The 26-year-old had initially pleaded not guilty after his arrest to charges of vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, leaving the scene an accident and traffic violations.

“He’s been, was and continues to be devastated by all of the circumstances,” said Ryan’s Garden City-based attorney, Marc Gann, noting that Ryan’s father is a police officer.

James Carver, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, said the family of Highway Patrolman Joseph Olivieri—the third of four Nassau officers killed in the line of duty in a 20-month span—is also “devastated.”

Prosecutors said Ryan, who is free on $120,000 bail, was driving his Toyota Camry eastbound on the LIE after leaving a Manhattan club when he struck a cab and fled the scene despite his car being damaged on Oct. 18. Shortly later he slammed on his brakes, when an off-duty New York City police detective rear-ended him, causing both vehicles to spin out, according to investigators.

Officer Olivieri was first on the scene, parked his patrol car behind the detective’s and walked across the road to check on Ryan, whose car was blocking the HOV lane, when an SUV hit Olivieri and Ryan’s car, authorities said. The 13-year police veteran died shortly later.

The detective, Ed Wilson, suffered a fractured sternum, multiple fractured ribs and heart palpitations. Ryan’s blood-alcohol content was between .13 and .14 percent at the scene, prosecutors said.

“This defendant had every opportunity to prevent this tragedy, from not driving drunk in the first place to pulling over after the initial crash,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. “Yet his selfishness dictated every decision, and now a dedicated police officer and family man is dead.”

But, Gann said it is “weird” that the SUV driver who struck Olivieri was not charged and his client, who’s facing up to 25 years in prison, was. “I believe that there’s a very, very significant causation issue here,” Gann said.

Carver disagreed. “He caused those series of events to happen that ultimately resulted in Joseph’s death,” the patrol officers’ union head said. “He should be held responsible.”

The PBA is hosting a benefit honoring Olivieri and Officer Arthur Lopez, a member of the elite Emergency Services Unit who was gunned down a week after Olivieri’s death. The benefit will be held 3-9 p.m. Saturday at The Sands in Atlantic Beach.

CROOKED IN HQ: Former Second Deputy Nassau Police Commissioner William Flanagan, convicted of conspiring to cover up a burglary, faced a press swarm after his arrest in March 2012.
(Photo by Rashed Mian/Long Island Press)

After about five frustrated days of jury deliberations, Judge Mark Cohen was preparing to declare a mistrial in the cover-up case against an ex-Nassau County police brass member when a court officer handed him a note: The jurors had reached a verdict.

With the clock running out, two jurors and Cohen—a Suffolk judge brought in after two Nassau judges had recused themselves last year—were about to go on vacation, threatening to nullify the month-long trial. Shortly before 8 p.m. a hush fell over the small crowd at Nassau court in Mineola on Feb. 15 as the jury foreman read the verdict. William Flanagan, the retired second deputy Nassau police commissioner, readily looked on.

He was found guilty of conspiracy, a misdemeanor, and not guilty of receiving reward for official misconduct, a felony, after being convicted of two misdemeanor official misconduct counts on Valentine’s Day.

“This isn’t over,” Flanagan calmly told reporters outside the courtroom.

It was his first public statement since he’d given a round of interviews following his March 2012 arrest—prosecutors had unsuccessfully tried to use those quotes as evidence since he never took the stand.

“We’re very disappointed that the jury mistakenly convicted him of the misdemeanor,” said Bruce Barket, Flanagan’s Garden City-based attorney, who vowed to appeal. “They exonerated him of the most serious charge. The appellate court will take care of the rest.”

District Attorney Kathleen Rice, the top-elected Democrat seeking re-election in Republican-controlled Nassau, now faces strained relations with the police agency her prosecutors work closest with after she took down its disgraced ex-third top cop, sources in both departments say. As two of Flanagan’s alleged co-conspirators await trial—the highest-ranking of the brass to do so after an especially scandalous year for Nassau cops—Rice echoed a Press expose that had sparked Flanagan’s arrest and conviction.

“This case has always been about making sure that there isn’t one set of rules for the wealthy and connected, and another set for everyone else,” Rice said in a statement. “The jury validated our belief in that important principle.”

The scandal erupted five months after Bronx prosecutors accused 15 NYPD officers of fixing tickets in what some described as New York City’s biggest police favoritism case in a half-century. Those cops pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

As far as Long Island law enforcement cover-up scandals go, Flanagan’s conviction may be the most serious case since a New York State commission investigated widespread allegations of Suffolk County police corruption in the 1980s—assuming that discrepancies revealed at the now-shuttered Nassau police crime lab were just mistakes and not acts intended to sway cases.

UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR:
Gary Parker, a CPA from Merrick who asked his police friends’ for help quashing the arrest of his son, Zachary, was a star witness at Flanagan’s trial (Photo by Rashed Mian/Long Island Press)

Nassau jurors unanimously agreed that Flanagan had joined a conspiracy to return electronics stolen from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore in May 2009 by then-17-year-old student Zachary Parker as a favor to Parker’s father, Gary, a donor to a nonprofit Nassau police foundation, who wanted to avoid Zach’s arrest. But, by acquitting Flanagan of taking three $100 Morton’s steakhouse gift cards from the Parkers as a reward for misconduct, jurors had doubted that there was a quid pro quo, apparently buying the defense argument that the two were friends who’d exchanged gifts before.

“We realized that it was a conspiracy from day one,” one juror told the Press the night of the verdict. “They did what they did. They can’t undo that.”

Now that the first of the conspiracy cases have wrapped, one nagging question persists: Why should a jaded public care?

CALLING SERPICO

For a case that required jurors to listen to 18 witnesses, hear dozens of emails read aloud and watch what observers estimated was a record number of sidebars over 12 days of testimony, there was at least some star appeal to spice things up.

Those who sat with Flanagan supporters were high-ranking current and former officials, including his old boss, retired Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey, and Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who told the Press: “Bill’s a good friend.” Gary Parker testified that Bill O’Reilly of Fox News Channel billed the Nassau County Police Foundation—a group fundraising for a new police academy the two donated to—for $600 worth of his Pinheads and Patriots books. Parker also testified he’d asked for Flanagan’s help while the ex-cop was securing the 2009 U.S. Golf Open at Bethpage State Park.

But, beyond the splashy celebrity lure, such cases can have a real chilling effect.

“There’s an old saying: Everybody does it,” says Peter Cardalena, a St. John’s University criminal justice professor, Floral Park-based attorney and retired NYPD officer. “We just let it roll off our backs. The public should be concerned.”

He recalls students telling him when they think they’ve been improperly stopped by police but rarely report the allegations to internal affairs investigators because they feel “nothing can be done.” Cardalena counters that police retraining is routinely ordered after misconduct claims are made—a sign such allegations are taken seriously.

Police Commissioner Thomas Dale—whose first task was closing half of eight precincts—was hired halfway through a 20-month period in which four cops died in the line of duty and oversaw a year in which a half dozen police employees were arrested. Last May he had the Nassau County Legislature grant him the power to fire officers as he sees fit without arbitration, although the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association is fighting that move in court.

Still, by all accounts, 2012 was the department’s worst year in recent memory. Aside from Flanagan’s two alleged co-conspirators—former Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter and retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe—ex-Nassau Police Officer Michael Tedesco pleaded not guilty in December to 109 charges alleging he spent shifts at his mistress’ house, police aide Frances Colvin pleaded not guilty to harassing a romantic rival, and another cop was sentenced in June to community service after admitting to shoplifting $40 of baby food. Inspector Thomas DePaola was also demoted for downgrading crime statistics in July.

Justin Hopson, a former New Jersey State Trooper who blew the whistle on corrupt cops and is the author of Breaking the Blue Wall: One Man’s War Against Police Corruption, says Dale will have to do more than fire bad apples to restore public trust in the department.

“Every act of police corruption needs to be unearthed, investigated properly and prosecuted,” he tells the Press, adding that Dale needs to “create a cultural sea change, one where the police police one another.”

Inspector Kenneth Lack, the department’s chief spokesman, declined to comment for this story. Rice’s office referred questions back to her statement.

From left: Retired Det. Sgt. Alan Sharpe, ex-Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan and former Deputy Chief of Patrol John Hunter. Sharpe and Hunter had their cases severed from Flanagan’s and are awaiting trial.

OFFICE POLITICS

The difference in opinion between police and prosecutors over whether Flanagan should have ever been charged could be measured in the distance separating his supporters and the district attorney staffers seated on opposite sides of the courtroom during the trial.

How much that rift carries over into everyday inter-agency cooperation—or lack thereof—is open to debate, although observers agree that the internal politics is more an issue than the case’s potential impact when Rice’s re-election campaign ramps up later this year.

“My gut says the verdict has its own implications but it’s going to be like a tree falling in the forest—it’s not going to have any political implications,” says Jerry Kremer, a former state Assemblyman turned LI Democratic strategist.

Although representatives for the police and the prosecution declined to discuss the rift on the record, those close to the situation agree that there are fences in need of mending.

“I think there’s relationships that should be developed and made stronger…for the continued success of policing and prosecuting in Nassau County,” says James Carver, president of the Nassau PBA, which has supported Rice’s past campaigns.

Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli is confident that both sides will eventually bury the handcuffs.

“This is not the first person in a police force who’s been charged with a crime,” says Ciampoli. “This comes up in the course of business. It’s come up before; it’ll come up again. The professionals on both ends are working through it.”

In her statement the night of the verdict, Rice acknowledged that the case is a black eye for the beleaguered police department.

“This is a huge win for the public, but it’s also a sad day for an awful lot of incredibly hard-working Nassau cops who do their brave jobs honestly every day,” Rice’s statement reads. “This case is a reminder that to safeguard the public’s trust and the integrity of our honest officers, we must be vigilant in our fight against corruption and misconduct.”

Still, don’t expect the issue to spark any action in the halls of county government.

A spokesman for Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) says there are no proposals or public hearings in the county legislature stemming from the case. A spokeswoman for County Executive Ed Mangano did not respond to a request for comment.

The March 31, 2011 Press cover story “Membership Has Its Privileges” sparked an investigation by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office that resulted in the felony conviction of Zachary Parker and the indictments of three ex-top cops.

JAIL CELL DOORS

Flanagan, who resigned following a year in which he was ranked LI’s highest-paid cop, is scheduled to be sentenced May 1. Misdemeanor convictions are punishable by up to a year in jail, although it’s doubtful he’ll serve much time—if any.

His co-defendants, Hunter and Sharpe, had their cases severed from Flanagan’s and they are due back in court March 15. Their attorneys declined to comment.

Zachary Parker, the burglar who was never arrested by police, pleaded guilty to charges in a grand jury indictment after prosecutors investigated the cover-up allegations in the Press. He’s serving up to three years in prison.

How many others like him whose cover-ups were never exposed we may never know.

Nassau County PBA President James Carver discusses Nassau wage freeze during press conference Friday, Feb. 15.

Fresh off a victory in federal court Thursday, Nassau County police officer’s top union official called on the county to move forward for the sake of taxpayers after a federal judge reversed a wage freeze established by a state watchdog two years ago.

But the fight for union workers’ wages is far from over, with the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) expected to appeal the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Wexler, who stayed his ruling pending an appeal. The wage freeze will continue until the case is resolved.

“Let’s move forward, no appeal, no wasting of anymore taxpayer money on the legal process here, the language is plain and simple—they lost,” Nassau County PBA President James Carver said at the union’s Mineola headquarters Friday, flanked by other union heads.

The ruling could cost the county millions of dollars if it has to increase wages.

“NIFA’s Directors respectfully disagree with Judge Wexler’s decision and will appeal the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals, where they are confident that the continuing validity of its wage freeze power will be upheld,” NIFA Chairman Ronald Stack said in a statement.

Union leaders filed a lawsuit soon after Nassau County asked the finance authority in March 2011 to implement the pay freeze for all county workers.

Through the end of 2012, the wage freeze has saved the county $80 million, according to Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos’ office.

Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli said in brief a statement, “The County is reviewing the decision.”

Carver said he received a phone call from Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano following the judge’s decision but has yet to hear from NIFA. He declined to disclose the specifics about his conversation with the county executive.

The judge ruled that NIFA’s wage freeze authority had already expired before it was implemented.

Carver criticized NIFA for declining to discuss a settlement throughout the court process, but didn’t rule out sitting down with the agency if they decide they’re open to a settlement during the appeal process.

“Now that they know the score they can’t turn around and say let’s play this all over again,” Carver said. “We’re always open to discussions and we’ll never close our doors like NIFA did with us.”

The PBA president noted that Wexler’s decision could have far greater implications across the country as cash-strapped municipalities continue to seek concessions from unions.

“If we would’ve lost this case,” he said, “every municipality would’ve turned around and tried to freeze everybody’s wages.”

Jerry Laricchitua, president of CSEA Local 830, said the union filed the same motion as the PBA and they “fully expect the same decision to come for the 6,000 Nassau County employees that we represent.”