Westchester district attorney calls for federal investigation into Mount Vernon police

Matt Spillane Jonathan Bandler
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah is calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Mount Vernon Police Department for what she called "disturbing allegations of patterns of inappropriate and potentially unlawful conduct."

Mount Vernon police

Rocah said in a statement on Friday that federal investigators should look into "pervasive and persistent alleged civil rights violations including unlawful strip searches, excessive use of force, and other misconduct."

The Mount Vernon Police Department has been embroiled in controversy in recent years.

The agency is facing several lawsuits over strip searches. Overtime pay for supervisors was investigated by the DA's office but no criminal charges were brought. Four members of the department were arrested on criminal charges in the past two years and those cases are pending. And the department's chronic badge drain has worsened over the past 16 months, with at least 40 officers retiring, resigning or transferring to other departments.

And Rocah's office is still investigating members of the disbanded narcotics unit over allegations of misconduct. 

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Rocah said patterns of inappropriate or possibly illegal conduct by the police were discovered during her office's ongoing investigation of the department's officers. 

Mimi Rocah, who is running for Westchester District Attorney, called on state Attorney General Letitia James to take over the investigation of Mount Vernon police misconduct and how the DA's office handled it so far, outside Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains June 3, 2020.

“We have provided information that we gathered in this respect to DOJ," she said.

“While our criminal investigations of individual officers continue, we are requesting that DOJ scrutinize the MVPD’s operations, training and policies to determine whether the MVPD is systematically violating peoples’ civil rights and, if so, to take action to address these matters."

Rocah said that in March she wrote to Mount Vernon police Commissioner Glenn Scott about what seemed like a routine practice of strip searches and body cavity searches of suspects. She said there have been complaints about that dating back to 2012.

Allison Biasotti, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen.Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said in a statement that he "strongly supports the City of Mount Vernon and the Westchester County District Attorney’s calls for a federal investigation and hopes that the Department of Justice does a thorough, top-to-bottom report to enact productive and meaningful change within the Mount Vernon Police Department.”

The Department of Justice had no comment on the situation.

Lt. Nicholas Mastrogiorgio, president of the Mount Vernon Police Association, defended the department Friday as the hardest working, most underpaid cops in Westchester.

Mastrogiorgio said the lengthy investigation under Rocah and her predecessor has failed to substantiate allegations of police misconduct. He said that his members would cooperate with any federal probe in the hopes that it would finally "put this investigation to rest" in a timely fashion. 

"I'm not sure if this is political theater or just a grasping for straws to make good on misguided campaign promises, but either way this has gone on for far too long," Mastrogiorgio said in a statement. "If DA Rocah is frustrated that she is unable to substantiate these allegations and she wants to pass the buck to the Department of Justice, then so be it."

In Rocah's statement, Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said that her "mandate has been transformation and accountability across city agencies including the police department. We are working hard to dismantle systemic issues and reform policing to ensure that our community is a safe place for all."

“Our administration referred multiple cases to the district attorney for review and welcome DA Rocah’s request that DOJ add its resources to identify and address these issues for the benefit of our community," added Patterson-Howard, who took office in 2020.

Rocah's message was also praised by Richard Thomas, who served as Mount Vernon's mayor from 2016 until mid-2019.

"I applaud DA Mimi Rocah for urging Justice Department action to deal with police corruption," Thomas, who is pursuing the city comptroller seat that is up for election this year, told The Journal News/lohud.

Thomas, who had to vacate the mayor's office before the end of his first term after he pleaded guilty to charges involving campaign funds, added that when he and his staff "brought issues and recordings of MVPD corruption to then AG Eric Schneiderman, we were attacked and framed by powerful interests just like the victims we sought to protect in Mount Vernon."

Staff writers Jonathan Bandler and Mark Lungariello contributed to this report.

Matt Spillane covers breaking news throughout the Hudson Valley. Click here for his latest stories. Follow him on Twitter @MattSpillane. Check out our latest subscription offers here.