More than two years after he shot an unarmed cab driver, a Nassau County police officer is still on the job, still carrying a gun, despite evidence that the he was inebriated and the shooting was completely unjustified.
If the facts presented in a report by the Nassau County Internal Affairs Unit are to be believed, officer Anthony DiLeonardo should have been stripped of his badge. Instead he continues to disgrace the uniform that he wears.
According to the Internal Affairs report, DiLeonardo was driving in Huntington Station on Feb. 27, 2011 after a night of drinking with his buddy, officer Edward Bienz, when a verbal dispute with cabdriver Thomas Moroughan escalated into violence. The off-duty officer then fired his .38-caliber Smith & Wesson five times at unarmed cabdriver.
Moroughan, who was with his girlfriend at the time, was struck twice, once in the arm and once in the chest. Not only did he shoot the cabdriver, DiLeonardo admitted that he broke the man’s nose with the butt of his gun.
According to the report, a doctor at Huntington Hospital said DiLeonardo was “slurring his words, smelled of alcohol and was hostile.”
Suffolk County officers investigating the shooting chose not to perform a sobriety test on their fellow officer, who had refused the doctor’s request for blood and urine tests.
DiLeonardo told the police officers investigating the incident that he had eight to 10 mixed drinks that night before the altercation. Under the same circumstances any ordinary citizen would have been arrested and at least charged with driving while intoxicated.
It gets worse. The Suffolk County police actually arrested Moroughan on charges of felony assault and misdemeanor reckless endangerment.
Three months later a judge granted a motion by the Suffolk district attorney’s office to drop the charges, based on reports that the officers had been drinking.
For reasons that have not been explained, the Nassau County Internal Affairs Unit did not even begin its investigation until 100 days after the incident.
The unit, which reported its findings on July 31, 2012 to Police Commissioner Thomas Dale, recommended that the two officers be brought up on charges for 11 unlawful acts and eight departmental violations.
A year later nothing has happened. Well, not exactly nothing, Bienz was given pay raises in each of the two years after the shooting.
Asked about the foot-dragging, Dale replied, “As Commissioner I am committed to holding Nassau County Police officers to the highest standards of conduct.”
When Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano was questioned about the incident by News 12, he said the charge that there is a double standard in Nassau County for police and ordinary citizens is “ridiculous.”
“We expect our police commissioner to do a full and thorough investigation and apply the appropriate discipline as he deems fit in the police department,” he said.
Mangano and his police commissioner have shown an incredible lack of courage and integrity in the handling of this case. By not holding these officers to a reasonable standard, they have reinforced the belief held by many have that police officers can get away with just about anything.
The same is true for the Suffolk County District Attorney and the police officers who arrested the cab driver and not DiLeonardo and his drinking buddy.
At the very least Internal Affairs should have been involved the day after the shooting and, based on his admission that he drew and fired his weapon on an unarmed man after a night of heavy drinking, DiLeonardo should have been suspended without pay until the investigation was closed.
Nothing that DiLeonardo told Internal Affairs and the Suffolk County Police after the incident justified his opening fire on the taxi driver.
The Internal Affairs report, which can be read in its entirety online, is damning not only of the two Nassau County officers, but also of Dale and Mangano.
This is a shameful day for Nassau County.
