Cobble Hill letter to klein - Special Commissioner of Investigation

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Hon. J. I. Klein -4- June 26, 2007 The New York State Attorney General’s Investigation A July 1, 2005, New York Times article mentioned that the Office of the New York State Attorney General (“AG”) had received a referral about Cobble Hill and was considering criminal charges against Capra. 12 Before commencing our own inquiry, SCI investigators met with the assigned Assistant Attorney General (“AAG”) who confirmed that Scarcella had brought the Cobble Hill case to the AG’s office in 2004. 13 The AAG added that the AG’s investigation had revealed no criminal conduct on Capra’s part, the matter was being closed, and SCI was authorized to conduct a review. 14 The SCI Investigation In July 2005, a confidential source contacted SCI and raised issues about a high level cover-up regarding Regents exams tampering at Cobble Hill which OSI had investigated. The confidential source was not Philip Nobile. We self-initiated an investigation based on the information provided by the confidential source. In the course of our investigation, we expanded our review and attempted to ascertain the basis for the substantiated findings put forth by OSI in general, and Scarcella in particular. We later examined the disciplinary proceeding involving the charges against Lennel George. The 23 month SCI review of the Cobble Hill matter was staffed by an investigator and an attorney who had not worked with Scarcella during his employment at SCI. They were assisted by additional investigators, attorneys, and student interns. The investigation was supervised by the Special Commissioner and the First Deputy Commissioner. Officials at the Attorney General’s Office, who had decided not to pursue a case against Capra, provided details about their investigation. Every piece of paper in Scarcella’s OSI file was examined and re-examined. Documents provided by Theresa Capra were reviewed as well. More than a dozen field interviews were conducted and more than a dozen other witnesses were formally questioned under oath at SCI. As the case unfolded, witnesses were re-interviewed. Officials at the NYSED were contacted for information on a number of occasions. DAA officials provided testing information as well. Additional documents, including voluminous e-mail correspondence, were obtained and scrutinized. We subpoenaed the transcript of the George proceeding. The testimony of all the witnesses was read and re-read by multiple readers. 12 The article, on page 1 of the Metro or “B” section, was entitled, “Principal Hid Fraud on Tests In Brooklyn, Officials Say.” 13 In a letter dated December 14, 2004, NYSED Commissioner Richard P. Mills also requested that the AG’s Office conduct an investigation into the Cobble Hill matter. 14 The AG’s investigation included interviews with both Philip Nobile and Theresa Capra.
Hon. J. I. Klein -5- June 26, 2007 The SCI Review Our first step was to obtain and review the file of the OSI investigation. We examined the interviews as documented by Scarcella. Thereafter, we interviewed a number of witnesses under oath. Interviews by Scarcella Terrence Swords Teacher Terrence Swords, then the United Federation of Teachers (“UFT”) Chapter Leader at Cobble Hill, described Capra as “very vindictive.” 15 Scarcella first interviewed Swords at Cobble Hill on May 5, 2004. According to the Scarcella report, at that time, Swords said that, “Capra would never do anything improper in his presence,” asserting that the assistant principal did not “trust” him and that he was “‘a threat’” to her. With respect to correcting essays, Swords described Capra as “lean[ing] to liberal allocation of points to pass.” According to Scarcella’s handwritten notes relating to this interview, Swords stated that he never saw Capra do anything wrong. Swords added: “I am not a witness.” 16 Swords said that he did not sign the George letter. The second interview of Swords took place at OSI in June 2004, in the presence of his UFT representative. The report indicated that Scarcella informed Swords that no disciplinary action would be taken against him with regard to his statement at OSI. According to the report, Swords said that Capra told the graders: “‘See if you can find points.’” Swords responded: “‘Ok, but let’s not cheat.’” Scarcella wrote that Swords said that Capra’s directive was “not clear,” but his interpretation of her statement was to “‘cheat.’” According to the Scarcella report, Swords said: “[in] April 2004 [sic],” Nobile told George that Capra was a “cheater” and George replied: “’ [sic] I don’t want to hear that.’” 17 Swords acknowledged that, when he was questioned by George, he told the principal that he had not seen Capra cheat and that she had not asked him to cheat. Scarcella wrote that Swords told him that he had never received the George letter. According to the report, Swords reiterated: “Capra’s approach to correcting regents [sic] had been very liberal.” 15 Philip Nobile succeeded Swords as the UFT Chapter Leader at Cobble Hill. Swords no longer works at Cobble Hill; his current assignment is the Urban Assembly School for the Urban Environment. 16 Swords repeated this statement in his testimony during cross-examination at the George proceeding. See the transcript at page 1869. 17 These statements – claimed by Nobile, but denied by George – purportedly took place in April or May 2003. Later in his report, Scarcella wrote that Nobile told Swords about this verbal exchange. This was inconsistent with Swords’s testimony at the George proceeding in which he said that Nobile did not have to tell him about the exchange because he had been present for it. In contrast, Nobile testified at the George proceeding that he was alone with George. See the transcript at pages 1219, 1220, and 1677.
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Cobble Hill letter to klein - Special Commissioner of Investigation

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