Cobble Hill letter to klein - Special Commissioner of Investigation

Hon. J. I. Klein -62- June 26, 2007
The New Principal
In an interview with investigators conducted under oath at the SCI office,
Principal Kenneth Cuthbert, George’s successor at Cobble Hill, testified that Nobile had
repeatedly asked to be removed from Thomas’s supervision. Cuthbert acquiesced and
Nobile is no longer observed by and does not report to Thomas.
Conclusions
The SCI review has concluded that the OSI investigation was flawed from its
inception. The investigator was unsupervised and acted as an agent of a complainant. In
reality, no witness provided credible evidence to support the accusations concerning
Capra and George.
The SCI investigation found no evidence of a cover-up by Region 8 officials,
specifically Lyles and Farina.
The SCI investigation also found that the OLS prosecution of George
detrimentally relied upon the faulty findings of the Scarcella investigation and report.
Based on our extensive review of the Cobble Hill matter, we drew a number of
specific conclusions.
The OSI Investigation
Scarcella
In his Cobble Hill investigation, Scarcella made a number of investigative
missteps. Scarcella did not question Nobile’s credibility and was biased from the onset.
In the end, Scarcella based his findings on Nobile’s predetermined conclusions rather
than the evidence.
• When Scarcella first met Nobile at Cobble Hill on May 5, 2004, Nobile
claimed that he had been “rated satisfactory until” he made a complaint of
Regents tampering against Capra. Although this assertion was easily
verifiable, Scarcella either failed to do so or ignored the fact that Nobile
previously had received unsatisfactory observations.
• Scarcella allowed Nobile to direct the investigation.