Investigation of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor

enforcement officer, he was hired as a police candidate and enrolled at the Port AuthorityPolice Academy. De La Rosa never graduated due to poor attendance despite heroic andunwarranted efforts by Police Division detectives to go to his home and wake him forclass. After an incident where De La Rosa was falling asleep in class and was sent to themedical unit but refused treatment, the Port Authority Police Academy would not permithim to return. De La Rosa was permitted to resign from the Waterfront Commission inlieu of termination.Yet another detective, James Sutera, failed the required examination on the firsttwo of three occasions despite the fact that the identical examination was administered oneach such occasion. On his third attempt at the examination, Sutera scored the highestscore ever recorded by an applicant in the history of the Commission, a 97.8 percent, andboasted to other Commission staff that Madonna had provided him the answers. Suterathen supplied the test answers to another Commission employee who planned to take thepolice examination. Later, Sutera testified falsely while under oath to the InspectorGeneral about the incident and encouraged another witness to lie as well. In yet anotherinstance of exploitation, Madonna retaliated against a police officer who had filed aninternal complaint, by relocating his work station from New York to New Jersey.Madonna’s improprieties in relation to the Waterfront Police Division were evenmore fundamental. During seven years of his term at the Commission, Madonnacontemporaneously served as president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s BenevolentAssociation, the union of police officers that included the chapter to which WaterfrontCommission detectives were members. As a result, Madonna simultaneously representedand managed the Commission’s detectives, a conflict of interest that extended to threecontracts negotiated between the local union chapter and the Commission during thisperiod.The Inspector General identified other abuses at the agency including improperuse of vehicles and staff, improper use of police parking placards, and failure to properlysegregate and account for expenditure of federal grant funds. In direct contravention oftheir official duties but under the supervision of a police chief, Police Division detectiveswere diverted from their law enforcement duties to guard parking spaces designated bythe New York City Department of Transportation for Waterfront Commission vehiclesfor use by executive staff. The detectives would first report to the Brooklyn field office,retrieve a Waterfront Commission vehicle, and drive to Manhattan to guard the spots.The detectives were assigned to arrive at the spots at approximately 7:00 a.m. and toremain until all supervisors arrived, usually at 9:00 a.m. The detectives then returned tothe Brooklyn field office to resume their normal police-related duties.With regard to parking placards, the Inspector General’s investigation revealedthat Commissioner Axelrod, over a period of years, provided placards to both his wifeand a wealthy personal friend with no connection to the Commission. In addition,Axelrod retained his and his wife’s placards after he was no longer commissioner.Axelrod has since returned his official placards, and the Inspector General retrieved theplacard most-recently given to Axelrod’s friend. As to the federal grant funds,4