Chicago Police Chief: Booze, Guns and Abuse of Authority

“Booze, Guns, and Abuse of Authority”

It seems Chicago’s Police Chief doesn’t have a lot of friends out there.  We received tips from multiple sources about the following:

Reprinted from NYPD Rants via Newark Speaks.com:

1. Gary McCarthy was found “guilty” in March 2006 over an traffic altercation he had in 2005 with two New Jersey police officers. A traffic court judge ruled that Gary McCarthy had blocked vehicular traffic with his police-issued car while he and his wife confronted two plainclothes members of the Palisades Interstate Police at a gas station along the Palisades Interstate Parkway. The officers in question had just issued a summons to McCarthy’s 19-year-old daughter, who was driving another car and became verbally confrontational toward the two police officers whom in essence were enforcing the law. When Gary McCarthy had arrived on scene he was clearly irate and violently confrontational and had to be grabbed by the two police officers whom also confiscated McCarthy’s firearm and handcuffed him as well as restrained his wife when she attempted to grab the gun from the two police officers. The judge fined McCarthy $200 for blocking traffic.

NOTE: Had this incident occurred in New York City to an NYPD Police Officer the individual in question would be charged with Disorderly Conduct, Resisting Arrest, Obstruction of Governmental Administration, Assault on a Police Officer, and Unlawful Possession of a Weapon. That is not even including the possibility of driving while intoxicated. Now mind you that is just the charges faced by an average civilian. McCarthy was acting as representative of the New York City Police Department so imagine when the next incident occurs, in what capacity is he going to be acting in Newark Police Director?

2. McCarthy’s wife Regina – was charged with “unreasonable noise” – when she verbally abused and cursed at the Palisades Park Police during the entire incident. Most disturbing is the fact that she had attempted to retrieve Gary McCarthy’s confiscated firearm from an Official Police Vehicle while Gary McCarthy was fighting with one officer. Regina McCarthy had to be physically thrown to the ground as she fought with the officer over the firearm and rear cuffed face down on the ground. My question is what was her intention if she had obtained complete control of that weapon which was a 9mm handgun? Was she going to shoot the officers, break Gary McCarthy free, or just hold the officers at gun point? That is a very, very, frightening thought to comprehend!

3. McCarthy acknowledged he had had two glasses of wine at dinner hours before, but said he was not drunk. He also acknowledged that it was Regina who had backed the NYPD’s black Ford Explorer into the gas station against oncoming traffic. My question here is why was a non-certified civilian driving an “Official NYPD Police Vehicle” when she was not trained by the NYPD Drivers Training Unit as required by the NYPD Patrol Guide for all Line and Duty Officers? The bottom-line is she had no permission to operate the said vehicle! Is she going to be doing this with Newark Police Vehicles as well?

4. When the New Jersey Officers in question tried to calm Gary McCarthy, McCarthy only became more irate and confrontational and told the officers when they informed him that they were going to arrest him for gun possession McCarthy replied; ” “Knock yourself out.” Here is a man whom has no respect for police officers when he himself is an executive level law enforcement official in the worlds largest police department. How can men under him respect him? They certainly did not in the NYPD that is for certain.

5. McCarthy acknowledged that he had cursed in retaliation, that he had disregarded Regina’s advice to leave the scene when they realized that the Palisade Park Police were giving him more than ample warning to leave the scene before it escalated. He added that that one point a Detective Rossi threatened to put McCarthy “through the system,” while saying of his career, “Twenty-four years down the drain. How does it feel?”

6. McCarthy had also lied and denied a report that he had been reprimanded by the NYPD after he had gotten into an physical altercation with a off duty NYPD Sergeant at a cop bar in the Bronx on City Island the night he was appointed deputy commissioner.

On a separate incident McCarthy who was also out drunk again on City Island one evening was shooting out street lights with two other police officers one of whom was McCarthy’s brother whom is a New York State Trooper.

When McCarthy was confronted by an NYPD Sgt concerning the shooting incident McCarthy had retaliated against the officer later on who insisted on pursuing the shooting incident as a criminal matter. Needless to say the incident was quietly swept under the rug by the NYPD!

7. Gary McCarthy spent two days in a New Jersey traffic court in an attempt to explain away the circumstances that led to his being disarmed, handcuffed, and arrested. It is estimated that McCarthy had spent about $7500 on legal fees and court costs concerning the traffic violation. When confronted by reporters outside the courtroom McCarthy glared at the reporters for about five seconds before uttering the words through clenched teeth, “Get away!”

8. The traffic incident might not have even occurred had Gary McCarthy done nothing instead of intervened after his teenage daughter Kyla was ticketed for parking illegally in a handicapped zone on the Palisades Interstate Parkway in February 2005. The Palisades police officers who ticketed Kyla and later arrested McCarthy and his wife Regina testified they told Kyla that if she brought a handicapped parking placard to court, they would recommend her ticket be dismissed.

In fact, both McCarthy and his wife ran their mouths and were completely out of control as they cursed and fought with police officers! Unfortunately the McCarthy’s own testimony did little to exonerate any of them.

9. Gary McCarthy had been drinking the night of the incident. Perhaps that explains why a civilian witness, Douglas Eric Hansen of Massapequa Park, L I., testified that when McCarthy exited his black Ford Explorer, which is an official NYPD vehicle, he did so from the passenger side. If that is accurate, it means Regina – who is not a police officer – was driving a department car. Either way – driver or passenger – she had no business inside that vehicle, which McCarthy is issued as a top-ranking department official. It is not for his personal use which is corruption and official misconduct! To make matters worse McCarthy produced Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, the department’s highest uniformed officer as a witness whom was not even on scene that night or at the incident! Gary McCarthy telephoned Chief Esposito while in custody the night of the incident and neither man notified the Internal Affairs Bureau, as is required in such incidents. This explains why IAB got a late break on the case with two officers monitoring the incident.

NOTE: According to a section of the Patrol Guide reading, “Testimony Before Governmental or Quasi-governmental Agencies,” one must have written permission from the police commissioner before testifying. That would make it clear that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was on board with Chief Esposito’s court appearance on behalf of McCarthy. In the 11 months since the incident, Raymond Kelly had taken no action against McCarthy concerning his actions and behavior. NYPD spokesman, Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne, claimed McCarthy’s actions did not rise to the level of departmental discipline. Yet the average police officer would have been terminated for the same offense!

10. On February 18th, 2005, after Kyla McCarthy was ticketed. She immediately telephoned her father Gary McCarthy. According to Palisades Parkway detective Thomas Rossi, who issued the ticket, Kyla “got on her cell phone and said, ‘My father would like to speak to you.’” Rossi refused to speak to Gary McCarthy which is standard procedure on Motor Vehicle stops as something not to do. Kyla McCarthy added that her father was a deputy commissioner in the NYPD and said to Detective Rossi, “My father really wants to talk to you.” McCarthy arrived minutes later, backed his department car into a one-way zone, jumped out and said to Detective Rossi and his partner Officer Roman Galloza, “You know who I am. This is bull****. This is @#%$ bull****.” McCarthy became increasingly agitated and noticing McCarthy’s gun in his waistband, Galloza wrested the gun from McCarthy, tossing it into his own police vehicle. Regina, meanwhile, shouted, “That’s my husband’s @#%$ gun,” and retrieved it, cradling it to her chest as Detective Rossi dived on top of her. Both McCarthy’s were then handcuffed and arrested.

NOTE: McCarthy and Regina used the word “@#%$” so many times, according to testimony, that Traffic Court Judge Steven Zaben, a man of the old school, instructed witnesses to avoid using their actual language. “Just say ‘the f-word,’” he told them. The most sensible advice was offered by Chief Esposito who when McCarthy telephoned him while in custody, said “Take the summons and get out of there.” According to testimony “McCarthy identified himself as the deputy commissioner of the New York City Police Department but did not produce a badge/shield or identification. … As he was speaking a white female later identified as Regina McCarthy [his wife] who was yelling obscenities at us from the passenger seat of the black Ford [which happened to be an NYPD department car.] …“I explained that I was the officer who issued the summons and McCarthy said loudly ‘you know who the @#%$ I was before you issued the summons and that is bull****. McCarthy said numerous times very loudly “to go @#%$ ourselves”. McCarthy was told to get out of the area … before he was charged with weapons possession and McCarthy said … You can suck my dick” After a scuffle between McCarthy and Rossi’s partner Roman Galloza, Rossi “grabbed the handgun out of his [McCarthy’s] waistband for officer safety and threw it in the front seat of [the patrol car]… McCarthy’s wife …stated ‘That is my husband’s @#%$ gun.’ She reached for the handgun and I had to jump on her back and take the gun out of her hand. I placed her into handcuffs…” The NYPD took no disciplinary actions against McCarthy. Spokesman Paul Browne said early on his actions did “not rise to the level of discipline.”

11. To add insult to injury and embarrassment after Commissioner Ray Kelly let Gary McCarthy skate after the New Jersey incident; Gary was back up to his old tricks again. McCarthy involved himself in another car stop. This one involved the arrest of a relative in Manhattan for drunken driving. When a cop on the midnight tour of the Manhattan North Task Force pulled the relative over, the relative telephoned McCarthy but the cop refused to speak to him. Instead, after consulting with his Sergeant and Lieutenant, the cop arrested the relative of McCarthy. McCarthy was not happy. He began calling the borough commander, Assistant Chief Raymond Diaz, to have the cop, Sergeant and Lieutenant transferred. Behind-the-scenes negotiations with a union trustee ultimately produced a back-door apology. Only a few months ago Gary McCarthy again involved himself in the Manhattan North Task Force car stop. This time, it involved a friend of his who was summonsed by a cop for talking on his cell phone while driving. When the cop asked McCarthy’s friend why he had been talking while driving, the friend answered, “Because I got a @#%$ phone call.” Again, McCarthy was not happy, and again, he attempted to have the cop transferred. The cop, however, comes from a police family. A relative is an inspector. So far there have been no transfers. Neither McCarthy nor the Task Force Captain, William Crossan would comment on the case.

12.Gary was back up to his old tricks again. He involved himself in another car stop, this one involved the arrest of a relative in Manhattan for DWI.