My esquire
When was the last time you heard an attorney say, “At this point, I’ll work for free. I haven’t delivered results and this is getting ridiculous.” It appears my esquire had hit the same blue wall of silence I’ve been living with for years. That statement almost made me cry at the office on Friday.
More than three years ago, I reported one of New York’s finest to their Internal Affairs Bureau. I was scared shitless, but I was given assurances that my name wouldn’t be on the report and they would just investigate the allegations.
They told me I did the right thing.
Imagine my surprise, then fear, when I was called to be a witness in the bad cop’s administrative hearing. My trust in the force diminished again. I called one of my sources who was able to find out from inside One Police Plaza that the cop I turned in was low hanging fruit; however, he had cut a deal of some sort. In addition to internal police corruption, this case had turned into a federal RICO investigation and it was suspected the Russian mob was involved.
Fabulous instincts I have. The hearing was a blatant character assignation from the time I put my hand on the Bible until I got off the stand. But, even looking back on it now, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I learned a lot and my integrity is still intact.
I’ve been trying to get the transcripts of my hearing dialogue for three years. After requesting, appealing, and resubmitting under the freedom of information act, I decided to enlist the help of a New York attorney before I moved to LA. For the last year, he’s been encountering delays in responses, and unreturned phone calls. The latest rejection stated they can’t give me transcripts that are in personnel files.
My attorney became so outraged; he filed a complaint with the CCRB against the records clerk who wrote the letter. In addition, on Friday, he wrote a letter to the commissioner of police which had big SAT words restating the pure negligence with which my simple request has been treated.
In the meantime, I’ll write the story and drop the quotes in later. Screenplay? Novel? Law & Order episode? I don’t know.
I do know I did the right thing and I have an attorney that thinks so too.