Paul Bass Photo
Chief Anthony Campbell at Thursday’s press conference.
It turns out that city cops fabricated well more than 17 background-check reports on aspiring officers, and now state and federal prosecutors have been asked to consult on a possible criminal investigation.
Police Chief Anthony Campbell offered those updates at a press conference on a controversy that first came to light last week.
The controversy involves the fabrication of reports on alleged interviews with neighbors and relatives of applicants to the police department. After the Independent reported (in this June 13 story) that one officer had been found to have fabricated 17 of those reports, Chief Campbell suspended a new training class of police cadets (set to begin June 25) and put offers to more than three dozen new officers on hold while his department conducts a broader internal investigation into the matter.
At Thursday’s press conference at 1 Union Ave., Campbell reported that a second officer has been found to have fabricated up to another 10 reports.
He also reported that he has asked the New Haven State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin, U.S. Attorney John Durham, and the Connecticut FBI office to look into whether criminal charges against the two officers, Leah Russo and Kristian Ramirez.
Ramirez, meanwhile, told the Independent in an interview that his actions were not intentional, but rather “negligence” in the face of pressure to get reports done.
“I am beyond disheartened,” Campbell said at the press conference, held on the third floor of 1 Union Ave. police headquarters.
“I’m thankful we caught this cancer early” before it spread throughout the department, Campbell remarked.
He said that the two officers “had darkness in their hearts and cut corners,” impugning the integrity of the police department and “betraying” the public trust.
“The ultimate responsibility lies with me,” the chief said. “I own this.”
Dead Man Talking
Assistant Chief Racheal Cain first learned of the fabrications at a May 25 Police Commission meeting, when rejected officers had the opportunity to make a final plea for the job either in open session or in executive session.
One rejected applicant told the commissioners that he had reviewed his file and knew it couldn’t be accurate — because it included a report of an interview with one of his neighbors … who happens to be dead. Leah Russo had filed that report.
Cain promptly confirmed that information and ordered a review of all background reports done by Russo. She said she found 17 fabricated reports, interviews with people that never took place, in the files of “six to eight” applicants.
Russo was then told she could resign or face probable termination, according to Campbell.
The department reassigned all the background unit members back to patrol and brought in more experienced officers to redo the background investigations.
Department brass informed all members of the background unit (which includes six to eight officers at any one time) that all their files would now be reviewed. Officer Russo’s partner, Ramirez, then put in his resignation. Chief Campbell said Thursday that Ramirez had fabricated up to 10 reports.
Campbell also said it appears that none of the fabricated reports contained negative information about applicants. So no one’s chances of making the force appear to have been harmed by the fabrications.
Someone familiar with the internal investigation confirmed that members of the background unit had recently been trained in using a law-enforcement database, called Accurint, which may have helped officers fabricate reports on supposed interviewees. Lexis/Nexis, which operates the database, calls it “a cutting-edge investigative technology that can expedite the identification of people and their assets, addresses, relatives and business associates by providing instant access to a comprehensive database of public records that would ordinarily take days to collect.” Detectives use it to track down witnesses, suspects, and assets. In the past the background unit had not access to that database.
Ramirez: Not “Intentional”
Ramirez, who graduated from the police academy class of 2015, offered a different view of what happened in a conversation with the Independent.
He said he was going on vacation on May 1, and reports were due. He had tried to track down neighbors of applicants, but they weren’t home and weren’t responding to messages.
His supervisors told him he needed to file his reports before leaving for vacation, he said. So he stated in summaries that he had indeed interviewed those neighbors, with the intention of interviewing them when he returned from vacation, he said. He said he realizes that was a mistake. “It wasn’t intentional. I did have every intention to keep trying to make contact with these neighbors. The lieutenant and the sergeant said to go back and try to make contact with them.” He said his supervisors did not instruct him to file false information.
When he returned from vacation, he said, he forgot to follow up.
“It honestly slipped my mind,” Ramirez said.
Then, when Officer Russo’s actions came to light, Ramirez was reassigned to patrol along with the rest of the unit. He said he “took that as a sign” that he should leave the department. He had been excited to start working inside the building on backgrounds rather than working the street, he said. “I dont’ feel comfortable going back to the street.”
“We Have To Own It”
Russo has hired criminal-defense attorney Norm Pattis to represent her.
“Obviously the allegations are disturbing. Officer Russo has been fully cooperative with the investigation,” Pattis told the Independent.
In a conversation with the Independent, Pattis questioned the need for Thursday’s press conference. “The notion that the police department needs to conduct a press conference before they’ve gathered all the information is ludicrous,” Pattis argued. “It creates a false impression that there’s a bigger problem than there is.”
Campbell was asked about that at the press conference — and offered a passionate argument about why he needed to address the public now and “coming out and just being honest about things.”
He spoke of how police departments “have had this history of circling the wagons. “If we do something wrong, we have to be accountable. … We have to own it, take responsibility for it” and tell the public, “This is the wrong that was done. This is what we’re going to do about it.”
“The community has to trust us. If we simply circle the wagons and try to handle things internally, it does not build that trust.”
You can watch his full remarks,a nd the full press conference, in the Facebook Live video higher up int his story.