Janet Difiore.

The Advocate
Richard Blassberg

Only A Federal Investigation Will Protect the Residents And Honest Police Officers Of Harrison

It’s disheartening, but true nevertheless, that citizens and hardworking police officers, in many municipalities throughout Westchester, cannot count upon the Office of the District Attorney to protect their lives and property from unlawful and un-Constitutional violation by government agents, rogue police and prosecutors, acting under
color of law.

That reality is due, in large measure, to the legacy of corruption and injustice that permeates the law enforcement
and judicial communities of Westchester in the wake of 12 years of tyranny and confabulation from former DA Jeanine Pirro.

There were those who dared to hope that there would be significant changes with Pirro’s departure.
And, clearly those hopes might well have turned to reality but for the fact that the new regime was unfortunately
intertwined with the old, and lacked both the courage and the desire to repudiate and reverse the prosecutorial misconduct and criminality of the past. The Office’s 13-year Balancio Case lie, and their tenacious continued concealment of mountains of exculpatory evidence, erased any doubt about the intentions of the current administration of the Westchester District Attorney’s Office.

Very sadly, a wonderful opportunity to make a clean break with past horrors and injustices was clearly squandered, better yet, trampled, as lie after lie was proffered, not only in State Supreme Court, but also all
the way up into the lofty chambers of the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Nation’s second-highest tribunal, by misguided, treacherous, assistant district attorneys. The intense struggle to withhold 376 pages, and 52 boxes of information, not only clearly establishing the innocence of Anthony DiSimone, but also strongly pointing to the actual murderer, constitutes an unforgivable betrayal of the public trust, and explains, only too clearly, why federal investigators are now very busy at work in several Westchester venues. Innocent citizens and dedicated, honest, police officers and public servants know very well that they cannot turn to the County
DA’s Office for help and protection.

The Public Integrity Unit under Mike Hughes is an oxymoron, and has been for many years. The United States Attorney, Michael J. Garcia, who 16 months ago published a toll-free number for Westchester residents and businesspersons to use in contacting his office with information about public corruption and misconduct, recognized that the District Attorney’s Office, as incestuously connected to the Mayor of Yonkers and his administration, as it is, and as demonstrably unresponsive to citizen’s complaints of police brutality as it had been, compelled a federal response. Of course, any time there are legitimate, and persistent complaints of police brutality, the deprivation of civil rights under color of law, there exists justi- cation for federal intervention
and investigation.

However, police brutality, a long-standing stain upon the reputation of the 650-member Yonkers Police Department, is clearly not the only issue in police/community relations that warrants federal investigation and prosecution. In Harrison, police misconduct, and abuse of process and authority, unlawful harassment, and the deprivation of Constitutional rights of rank and - le police o cers, and citizens, alike, incredibly aided and abetted by the District Attorney’s Office, comprise a no less compelling reason for the United States Attorney, and the FBI to pursue a vigorous and aggressive investigation. the Westchester District Attorney’s Office reflexively turns a deaf ear to civilians and police officers targeted by high ranking police brass, a clearly political decision.

Consider the current state of affairs in a town with a police force of approximately 75 officers. Police Chief David Hall, already the subject of a lawsuit in United States District Court for the unlawful and unwarranted video, and audio-taping of Harrison Police Officers in their locker room, is the Defendant in still another complaint brought in the same Court by twelve Harrison Police Officers, members of the PBA, charging both criminal and Civil Rights violations. Chief Hall, on the criminal side, stands accused of forgery, and theft, in the taking, and altering of a check in the amount of $2,500 written to the Harrison PBA by the Brae Burn Country Club, thereafter depositing it to the account of the New York State Chiefs of Police Association, of which he was the President at the time.

It is important to note that when the alleged criminal activity by Hall was first discovered, and a complaint was filed with the Westchester District Attorney’s Office, earlier in the year, that office responded by quickly exonerating Hall, and refusing to investigate and prosecute the case. As outrageous as that response by the DA’s Office might seem, it is nevertheless consistent with Hall’s intense political involvement in the 2005 contest for DA, and the role repeatedly played by that Office in matters involving both Chief Hall and Captain Marraccini versus Harrison Police Officers, and civilian complainants.

The overwhelming majority of Harrison residents realize that the present harassment, and suspension from duty, of 10-year veteran Harrison Police Officer Ralph Tancredi, is all about retaliation, and the fact that Tancredi is the President of the PBA. And, Officer Tancredi is not the only Harrison Police Officer being harassed and suspended in retaliation.

Steven Heisler, 28, a lifelong Harrison resident, member of the PBA, and one of the complainants in the Federal Court action, is also under suspension on trumped-up charges.

Unbelievably, Hall and Marraccini, smarting after recent exposure in the Guardian, have arranged for a party in their own honor to be held at Wellington’s Grill in Harrison on September 18th. Tickets for the event reportedly will be $50, and pressure to attend, under threat of retaliation, has been brought to bear on every police officer in the department.

Their arrogance and corruption apparently know no limit. The once-proud Harrison Police Department has been morally and spiritually ravaged by a greedy, self-serving, pair of imposters; two rogue cops, long ago committed to milking their positions, and their authority for all it was worth, abandoning all principle and law in their joint pursuit of power and wealth. Chief David Hall, and Captain Anthony Marraccini, his puppeteer, will only be brought under control by federal investigators and prosecutors, a fact made abundantly clear by the District Attorney’s Office’s continuing collaboration in their unlawful and un-Constitutional schemes.

The United States Attorney, and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department must not ignore their compelling interest in what has been going on in Harrison for several years under this “tag team” of wrongdoers. It would be a tragic miscalculation by federal law enforcement to ignore the pleas of police officers and civilian victims alike, particularly in light of significant evidence, not only of criminal wrongdoing, but also of shelter and assistance by state prosecutors.

Federal investigators will not need to dig very deeply before discovering evidence not only corroborating the charges currently lodged in Federal Court, but also pointing to holdings, and enterprises totally inconsistent with the normal activities of honest public servants. They will not need to dig too deeply either to discover prior and ongoing unlawful enterprises facilitated by position, coercion, and extortion, RICO-type enterprises calculated to personally enrich the participants at the expense of innocent citizens.

There is no shortage of Harrison residents and businesspersons who have had their fill of the Marraccini-Hall Regime, and who anxiously await the opportunity to come forward and help purge their community of its oppressive stench.