Bethlehem police officer Christopher Hughes says he is being targeted for disciplinary action after talking to Town Supervisor Jack Cunningham about alleged racist remarks made by Police Chief Louis Corsi.
Hughes said he spoke with Cunningham at the supervisor’s home on Sunday, May 17, about a taped audio conversation in which Corsi used a racial slur. Days later, Hughes said, he received a notice of intent to conduct interrogation about the conversation. In a formal complaint filed with the Albany County District Attorney Public Integrity Unit on May 27, Hughes said, `Town Attorney Michael Smith stated the town was seeking my termination, and I could be facing possible criminal charges based on my conversation with Cunningham.`
District Attorney David Soares spokeswoman Heather Orth confirmed there is an investigation into the alleged comments and the resulting fallout, but could say little else.
`We don’t comment on ongoing cases in the public integrity unit,` she told The Spotlight on Saturday, May 30.
The police department’s deputy chief, Timothy Beebe, said he, too, couldn’t comment.
`Because this is being handled as a personnel matter, all comments are being directed to our town attorney,` Beebe said.
Town Attorney James Potter said the alleged tapes were from three years ago and that to his knowledge, no tapes on file at the police department have ever been purposely erased.
`This alleged tape would be roughly three years old to the best of our knowledge,` he said. `Everyone who had access or authority over the tapes has been interviewed.`
The department currently records over audiotape after 30 days, according to Potter, but that system `wasn’t in place back then.`
Under a Civil Rights law, police personnel records are confidential and not privy to Freedom of Information Law requests.
Hughes is also claiming that the department brass is targeting him for suspension and possible termination for being vocal about contractual issues, making complaints about a detective and for taking sick leave.
`I find the timing suspicious,` he said of his back-to-back 30-day suspension notices, received within the past month. `I am not paranoid, I am not a conspiracy theorist and I can read the writing on the wall. I’m a thorn in their side, I’m starting to be vocal and I’m starting to get agitated.
`What they’re trying to do is terminate me,` Hughes concluded.
Cunningham told The Spotlight during a Friday night telephone interview that he couldn’t comment specifically on the matter because it is currently under investigation, but did confirm he spoke with Hughes about the matter.
`The content of what we talked about is consistent,` he said of an internal police investigation. `I can confirm that. … Until the investigation is completed, I cannot comment on it.`
He said he contacted counsel after speaking with Hughes.
`After I spoke with Officer Hughes I immediately called our Town Attorney James Potter,` Cunningham said. `As soon as I learned of this, I took action with the town.`
Cunningham added that the two town attorneys have been conducting an investigation for `some time now,` and that they could conclude their findings by next week.
Hughes said he received the intent of interrogation letter two days after speaking with Cunningham and contacted attorney Steve Coffey.
`Two days later I get a letter of notice to interrogate me based on comments that I made to Jack Cunningham,` Hughes said.
The Spotlight has obtained copies of the original `notice of intent to conduct interrogation` sent to Hughes by Beebe on May 19. The notice states the police department wanted to question Hughes `in relation to its investigation of certain claims made by you to Supervisor John Cunningham … in relation to the alleged conduct of Chief Corsi during a phone conversation with a representative of the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.Since this investigation will also involve an inquiry as to how you obtained the tape, or how it is this information came into your possession, and what town or other systems were accessed by you or on your behalf, and your use of your claimed possession of this tape during your conversation with the town supervisor, and otherwise, your answers and the conduct which will be the subject of this investigation may give rise to disciplinary charges against you for misconduct.`
`I never threatened him and I never coerced him.` Hughes said of his conversation with Cunningham. He added, `At no time did I ever say that I had a copy of the tape.`
Hughes then hired Coffey and did not attend the `interrogation,` and had his attorney explain to the town he was not in possession of the tape.
The conversation in which Corsi allegedly uses a racial epithet is said to be taped off the police department’s main telephone line, and allegedly records Corsi describing another administrative officer as a racial epithet `in the wood pile,` according to a compliant sent to District Attorney David Soares’ office.
Cunningham said he had never spoken to Hughes before May 17 and he had not heard about the alleged audiotape before that conversation. Hughes said he made his first attempt at using the chain of command to report Corsi on April 17.
Hughes also said he hand-delivered five copies of a letter describing problems within the police department to Cunningham’s office ` one for each member of the Town Board ` but that those letters were never disseminated by the supervisor.
Cunningham acknowledged he received the letters, saying Friday night, `On advice of counsel, I did not distribute the letter to the Town Board.`
Hughes said he contacted Councilman Sam Messina to see if he had received the letter.
`Chris called me, I knew the name but didn’t know the person,` Messina said. `He told me he had submitted a letter to the supervisor and the Town Board, and I told him I didn’t believe I had received it.`
Hughes then asked Messina if he wanted the letter.
`He asked me if I was willing to receive the documents, and I said to him that I would never discourage someone from sending me a letter as a town official,` Messina said. `Two days later I went out to my mailbox and there was a letter folded up with several attachments. It wasn’t in an envelope.`
Aside from the letter to the Town Board concerning strife in the police department, Messina said, `Nothing else was discussed.`
The councilman said he isn’t aware of the allegations against the chief, but added he understood the reasoning if Cunningham was advised not to deliver the letter.
`For personnel matters, we are not allowed to comment on an ongoing situation,` Messina said. `But in this case, I don’t have any comment because I really don’t know.`
Hughes said he went to the supervisor and then the DA’s office because the regular chain of command was `getting me nowhere.`
In June of 2005 the Public Integrity Unit was established by the district attorney’s office, and it is designed to report directly to the district attorney. It actively investigates cases and tips from constituents with information on possible corruption.
The unit’s mission is `To ensure that public officials, law enforcement, white collar criminals, and cyber criminals are held to the same standard of justice as any other.`
`We will have only one system of justice here in Albany County,` Soares’ stated at the unit’s inception. `We will prosecute based on the evidence, issues of who you are and who you know will no longer be factored into the decision-making process as to who we indict and eventually who we prosecute.`
Hughes, a 13-year veteran of the force, has filed grievances through his union against the two 30-day suspensions, which he called `comical.` The suspensions claim Hughes took unwarranted sick time and filed false time records.
The suspensions will be dropped, Hughes said, because he was asked to disclose detailed medical information, which violates state HIPPA Laws and there are no grounds for the other claims. He said the suspensions are indicative of the many internal problems in the department, and added that he isn’t alone in his dissatisfaction with how things are currently being run.
`All I want is to be treated fairly, I don’t have skeletons in my closet,` Hughes said. `I’m not backing down from this.`
Corsi did not return numerous calls for comment on this story.
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