Investigation of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor

Madonna denied providing the exam to Sutera or to anyone else. He testified thathe requested the exam to see why Sutera kept failing. Madonna also denied instructingthe Police Division to retest Sutera, and stated that they tested him three times in a monthbecause, “maybe they liked him as a candidate. Maybe they wanted to try to pleaseme…”During the Inspector General’s investigation, Sutera testified falsely regardingnearly every aspect of this episode and then tried to secure supporting testimony from theaforementioned colleagues. As noted above, Sutera denied that Nunziato had referredhim to the Commission, a fact attested to by others. He also denied that Madonna, oranyone else, had provided him with a copy of the exam or any assistance, and that he hadshared the test answers. In fact, Sutera testified that he never showed a study guide toanyone interested in taking the Waterfront Commission Police Division examination.According to Sutera, other detectives at the Waterfront Commission talked about theexamination but he always kept “his mouth shut.”The Inspector General learned that Sutera spoke to both colleagues in an attemptto procure testimony that would conform to his false testimony. The matter of Sutera’sfalse testimony has been referred to the New York County District Attorney’s Office fortheir review.The Commission reported to the Inspector General that it has since eliminated theuse of a police exam and has improved its background investigations.Madonna Improperly Interfered with an Internal Investigation and RetaliatedAgainst a WhistleblowerOn April 30, 2007, the Police Division was prepared to discipline Detective DavidBistacco for making false statements during an internal investigation. The InspectorGeneral learned that Commissioner Madonna ordered then-Chief of Police Smith toretract the findings against Bistacco, with whom Madonna was friendly. Moreover,Madonna then ordered a retaliatory transfer of Lieutenant Scott Politano, whosecomplaint had triggered the internal investigation.In 2007, Lieutenant Politano, who was assigned to the Brooklyn field office, wasdating Detective Shanti Novak of the New Jersey field office. When Politano learnedfrom Bistacco that a fellow detective had observed Politano’s car at Novak’s residence,Politano complained to his supervisors that he had been the subject of surveillance,prompting an internal investigation. During this investigation, Bistacco initially deniedthat he had spoken to Politano about this incident, but later admitted to making the call.Bistacco stated that he initially denied making the phone call in order to protect Politano.According to Smith, a report of the internal investigation included a findingagainst Bistacco. Smith stated that he proposed that Executive Director De Maria place aletter of discipline in Bistacco’s personnel file for one year. Through De Maria,Madonna ordered Smith to remove the finding against Bistacco from the report andwould not allow a discipline letter to be placed in Bistacco’s file. Smith testified that he42