What happened back in 1995? Sept. 30, 2012

 

What exactly happened back in 1995 depends on who you talk to.

Tom claims RR is essentially right about the congressman.

The bag man was getting money to a number of prominent political figures in North Hudson when he got caught.

“Only he (the bagman) couldn’t give anybody up or the Cuban mafia would have killed him in jail,” Tom said. “So, he kept quiet, did his time and when he got out, he got back into the game.”

A New York Times article from 2001 filled in the details, about a police department loaded with corrupt cops, although this was before the congressman got elected mayor, so it is difficult to know if he knew about the corruption in the department or not.

When elected mayor in 1995, the congressman said he did not know about any of the details until the feds informed him in 1997. He said there were rumors, but that’s all. In the book “The Soprano State,” the congressman said he inherited a corrupt police chief from the previous administration. Once made aware of the situation, the congressman hired a prosecutor to investigate the department.

RR’s arrest prompted a federal investigation in which eventually led to the arrest of more than 30 police officers, including the chief of police.

Although RR had almost nothing to do with the arrest of the police chief but said he did.

The police chief became the star witness in the trial, and claimed the congressman, then mayor, had been given bribes, even though the congressman/mayor was never charged with any crime, supposedly collaborated by another witness, although the assistant U.S. Attorney said no such testimony came out of the Grand Jury, and claimed the collaborating witness was simply trying to shift blame onto the congressman/mayor.

The congressman claims the police chief’s accusation was revenge for his not allowing the police chief to college more than $300,000 in unused sick time.

RR, who had retained his job as a result of his cooperating with the feds in the investigation, was fired in 1996 for what town officials called “Rules violations and psychological and disciplinary problems” including the drawing a swastika on the back of a police exam sheet. (another version of this tale said he was caught drawing the swastika on a wall.)

RR filed suit claiming he was fired because he had exposed corruption.

The congressman/mayor, who was not a defendant in the suit, said the city would fight the suit anyway.

His firing, city officials said, came because he refused to take the psychological test (one account said he took it and failed it). There may be a little truth to his claim of harassment since none of the cops trusted him after his turning in so many. He attempted and failed to get hired as a state trooper. Then in 1999, a court ruled against reinstating him as a town cop, although in 2003 the town settled the suit by giving him $675,000 in accumulated back pay. At some point, RR began plotting against the Congressman/mayor, when he started to claim he had proof that the congressman had taken bribes after all. RR simply couldn’t produce the proof whenever anybody asked for it.

But he apparently had shown it to her or promised to produce it, and she had taken this information to our owner, who then asked me if I thought any of it was true.

 

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