Town of Bethlehem Police Chief Louis Corsi has been handed a 10-day suspension by the Town Board for his use of a racial slur during a January 2006 phone conversation, a recording of which was recently unearthed.
The Town Board voted for the suspension 4-to-1 in an approximately two-hour executive session at the end of a meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23. The suspension will be fulfilled by Corsi’s existing vacation time, meaning he will not miss any work.
Councilman Sam Messina later identified himself the one who cast the dissenting vote, though he declined to speak further about the disciplinary action.
Town Supervisor Jack Cunningham said on Thursday that Corsi is in agreement with the suspension, having negotiated with the town through an attorney from the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police.
This was basically an agreement between the town and the chief that this was an appropriate level of punishment and that he was not going to appeal it, Cunningham said.
Corsi will also have a written reprimand added to his file and participate in a cultural awareness program. Cunningham said that the details of what course will be required have not been finalized, though it will be made open to all town employees.
The suspension was delivered under Section 155 of town law, which stipulates that 20 days is the maximum suspension to be given to an employee. Though different rules exist under civil service law, the incident was well beyond that law’s 18-month statute of limitation.
`Section 155 has a range of penalties. You can reprimand, you can impose a suspension not to exceed a maximum of 20 days, or you can terminate if the situation warrants it,` said Town Attorney James Potter.
Cunningham said that since Corsi’s statement was not made toward an individual, termination would not be a warranted action.
`If we tried to terminate him and he appealed, we would have lost,` Cunningham said.
He went on to state that Corsi has no other disciplinary issues in his 24-year history with the department.
`There was never a pattern of behavior with the chief that would indicate this was an ongoing issue,` he said. `He’s got a perfect file.`
Supervisor contacts
Spotlight reader
In the wake of the discovery and release of Corsi’s comment, Cunningham contacted Spotlight reader and Slingerlands resident Susan Peters, who wrote a letter to the paper last week supporting the coverage of the matter.
`He indicated that he was unhappy that I questioned his integrity in the newspaper,` said Peters when contacted by The Spotlight. `The tone of the conversation left me feeling like I had done something wrong, when I merely expressed my opinion.`
The phone conversation occurred on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 23, the day that the issue of The Spotlight with Peters’ letter ran.
Cunningham confirmed that he spoke with Peters about her assertion that when Officer Chris Hughes brought the allegations to the supervisor, `these concerns were not taken seriously and investigated independently.`
`I thought it was an unusual letter because Ms. Peters had not contacted me before to get this information,` Cunningham said. `I asked her if she was going to question my integrity that she have her facts straight.`
Cunningham said that he contacted the town’s attorneys immediately after speaking with Hughes and noted that the Albany County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit looked into the matter and decided not to pursue an investigation.
Peters said that she has never met Cunningham. Though she said she did not feel threatened or harassed by Cunningham’s call, she indicated she was initially hesitant to speak to a Spotlight reporter for fear of retaliation against a family member who works for the town.
Cunningham said he would hope residents who have concerns about his integrity would contact him.
Officer reacts to suspension
Hughes expressed discontent with the town’s decision to suspend Corsi.
`I just feel that 10 days in a slap in the face to the other guys in the department,` he said.
`It wasn’t so much making the racial slur, it was that he approached someone in the staff about erasing it,` Hughes continued. `He’s been lying to Jack Cunningham and has denied having ever made the comment.`
The town’s investigation found that Corsi did ask department communications officers whether erasing a tape would be possible, but since he did not specifically ask for the conversation in question to be erased, the town did not find his actions to be criminal.
Hughes is in the grievance process for two 30-day suspensions from the department. He has been out on sick leave.
Hughes stood before the Town Board on Wednesday and blasted the town’s investigation ` singling out Cunningham on several occasions ` and said the search for the tape took too long and should have been tasked to an outside agency instead of being headed by Deputy Chief Timothy Beebe. The investigation started in June, shortly after Hughes took his allegations to Cunningham.
Potter said that Beebe was selected because the tapes contained sensitive information about department procedures, informants and personal calls.
`We wanted somebody within the police department who could listen to the confidential tapes, and he found the tapes,` Potter said. `As soon as this issue came up, the supervisor said, ‘find the tape.’`
In a later interview, Cunningham said that limiting the search to the time of the Porco investigation did little to help because of the length of that case.
`It was narrowed down to a two-year time period,` he said. `I don’t think it took all that long to do all this work.`
Hughes also took exception to the fact he was served a notice of interrogation days after May 17, the date he approached Cunningham privately. Cunningham said that Hughes `represented to [him]` that he had a copy of the tape, and that the town sought to interrogate Hughes because if that was the case, he may have been in possession of stolen property.
`The town attorney’s first question to me was, how did he get a hold of the tape,` Cunningham said. `Part of the notice of interrogation was to ensure Chris’ rights were protected against that process.`
Hughes contests Cunningham’s account, and said that he never told the supervisor he had a copy of the tape.
The recording located by the investigation shows Corsi telling then-Albany County Undersheriff John Mahan `I got niggers in the woodpile,` apparently in reference to a possible leak in the department during the Christopher Porco murder investigation.
Corsi released a statement on Friday, Sept. 18, the day the transcript was made public, apologizing for his remarks.
`I sincerely apologize for my use of improper and inappropriate language during the course of that conversation. While I am sorry I used this language, it was not directed at any individual or group. I did not intend any bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not condone this type of language publicly or privately,` Corsi said.
Corsi could not be reached for comment. His salary is $103,761.
Though the Town Board appoints the chief of police, it is not a position that comes up for regular reappointment, according to Cunningham. In other words, resignation and termination are the only two ways to leave the office.“