When two Nassau County correction officers were arrested for lying to a grand jury last week, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice made it clear where she stands when it comes to misconduct by public officials:
“We expect to hold law enforcement officers to the highest standards of honesty and discipline,” she said. “When that trust is broken, it unfairly taints the vast majority of law enforcement officers who serve honorably and we must act to correct it.”
This is the same district attorney who two weeks earlier “found no evidence to indicate criminality” when then-Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale ordered police officers to board a bus and arrest a man who had failed to pay a $250 fine.
Rice wrote that although Dale’s “personal involvement in this case was unusual, and while the public is right to be concerned …Dale’s mere involvement in this case is not evidence of a crime.”
Perhaps it was mere coincidence that the man who was arrested had worked for the campaign of a third-party candidate who ran against Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano. Dale resigned without explanation after meeting with Mangano.
The correction officers, John Andujar, 55, and Joseph Donlon, 48, were arrested on numerous perjury-related charges. Inmate David Page had been arrested and charged with assaulting Andujar. After an investigation, the charges against Page were dropped. Investigators concluded that Andujar and Donlon were lying.
Rice is correct in holding police and correction officers to a high standard. Any abuse of an inmate or suspect cannot be tolerated, nor should lying to cover up brutality.
But the police commissioner should be held to an even higher standard.
