Cobble Hill letter to klein - Special Commissioner of Investigation

Hon. J. I. Klein -20- June 26, 2007
Even before appearing at OSI for the second interview, Cohen got a sense that
there could be a problem. According to Cohen, the UFT representative said that Cohen
and Yamali were in big trouble and that they were not tenured. At OSI, Cohen was the
last witness of the day behind Swords and Yamali, and waited about four hours for his
turn to meet with Scarcella. Cohen said: “That’s when his interrogation began.” Cohen
reported that, when he denied the cheating allegations, “[Scarcella] was not pleased.”
Scarcella went on a “horrible” tirade of repeatedly slamming on the table, standing up,
going over to Cohen, and threatening him. When Cohen denied the allegations, Scarcella
would respond: “Don’t go there.” Rather than offering immunity from disciplinary
action, Cohen said that Scarcella advised him: “If [you] do not ‘tell me what I want to
hear, I will pull you out right now,’” a reference to removing him from his position with
the DOE – as had happened to Capra. 71
According to Cohen, he “panicked.” Scarcella switched to questions about
scoring and Cohen and Scarcella repeatedly disagreed about what was standard procedure
and what was cheating. Cohen testified at SCI that he told Scarcella that standard
grading procedure was “if the score after the two readers read it, and it went in a pile, was
between a specific grade, according to the rubric, you’re to go back and re-check the
scores.” Scarcella countered: “‘No! That is not the standard procedure, that is cheating.’
By his definition.” Cohen said: “How many times am I going to argue back and forth
with Mr. Scarcella when he’s slamming on the table telling me ‘No! That’s cheating,
that’s cheating, that’s cheating!?’” Cohen added that there “was no winning with Mr.
Scarcella,” he “succumbed to [Scarcella’s] pressure” and admitted cheating. However,
he testified that, in reality, he had not done so. Cohen reported that Scarcella “coerced,
bullied, and threatened [him] into believing that [he] had done something wrong.” Cohen
asserted that he “would have told Mr. Scarcella anything to get out of the room and be
away from his threats.”
Cohen disputed Scarcella’s closing report which indicated that Cohen admitted
cheating after being given immunity from disciplinary action. 72 According to Cohen,
Scarcella did not tell him that no disciplinary action would be taken against him, and that
the information to the contrary contained in Scarcella’s report was “false.” Cohen said
that, instead, Scarcella threatened him: “if you don’t tell me what I want to hear, I will
pull you.”
In Cohen’s view, it was apparent that Nobile and Scarcella were “in bed together”
and the proof was in Scarcella’s closing report which displayed Nobile’s writing style.
71 At the George proceeding, George testified that, during his June 30, 2004, interview at OSI, Scarcella
told him that it would be his last day as principal. See the transcript at page 2397.
72 Scarcella wrote: “This investigator informed Mr. Cohen that no disciplinary action would be taken
against him with regard to his statement [at OSI].”