Just days after Talk of the Sound reported that convicted felon Vito Costa had been hired as Assistant Director of Maintenance at the SUNY College of Optometry, the school has confirmed that Costa is no longer working at the school.
“It is the policy of the State University of New York not to comment on personnel matters”, said Ann Warwick, Vice President for Institutional Advancement at the SUNY College of Optometry, in response to an inquiry from Talk of the Sound. “However, we can verify that Mr. Vito Costa is no longer an employee of the State University or the SUNY College of Optometry”.
Warwick declined to respond to questions as to the SUNY policy regarding the hiring of convicted felons or address what sort of background check is done prior to extending a job offering.
Despite Costa admitting to working a “no-show job” amidst allegations that he routinely pilfered equipment and supplies for his Heatings and Air Conditioning business, no current or former managers in the buildings and grounds department were have held accountable for signing Costa’s time sheets or invoices. Sources have told Talk of the Sound that Costa was operating his side business for years. As Costa was just one of two HVAC engineers on the Board of Education payroll it is difficult to understand how Costa would not have been missed by his supervisors or why no inventory controls were in place.
RELATED:
District Attorney Visits Home of New Rochelle School District HVAC Employee Vito Costa
New Rochelle School District Employee Looking at Seven Years in State Prison
New Rochelle Board of Education Votes to Begin Litigation Against Vito Costa
I am not bright at all!
I thought the legal system was designed to obtain the truth. The fact that you have to think about your answer as a potential jurer to a question related to a police officer telling the truth while on the “stand” is a clear indication that should tell you something about our system. It sucks! As a kid growing up, most of us were taught to respct our elders, and not talk back to our parents etc. I guess now things have changed from the traditional values, and thats why the world is subject to corruption and deal making by all individuals that have some type of power position. Im happy that you two individuals updated us on how to manipulate the system with your “creative answers” not the right one!
Welcome to the real world, it’s complicated.
firstly, they are not creative answers, they are the answers a thoughtful, educated adult would give. Secondly, the sheltered world of youth is very different that the real world adults live and work in. Maybe in your world 10 year olds could be jurors. They have summers off and don’t work so they don’t have many time conflicts. But in the real world people lie, steal, cheat and kill and we need jurors that can try to make sense of conflicting testimony, “expert” witnesses and many other things that go into a trial. You were obviously not cut out for the job and have only further proved that the “system” worked in your case by weeding you out.
What System!
There is no system it’s just who you know or who you blow.
Give me a Break!
Nice response
and you wonder why you were not chosen? Take comfort in the fact you may have had a very good shot of making the O.J.Simpson jury pool.
I Hate Cops!
When you read this you probably think wow this person is nuts! I have been called worse, and really don’t care what you think. With corruption at an all time high, from senior levels in government down to the local police, we have come to accept that this is just the way things are. It is what it is!
I was recently called for Jury Duty and almost made it to the final 12. When the Judge stated that they needed one more person for the panel they called me by my government name out of 50 people sitting alongside me. OK dumb luck I guess! Why could I not hit the damn lottery instead?
As soon as I heard my name I started my slow trek from the back of the room to the jury coral. With all attention now on me the defendants attorney starts firing questions which I guess I answered right until the next question which was; what would you think if there was a police officer on the witness stand answering questions. Would you think the officer would be, 1) more inclined to tell the truth? 2) less inclined to tell the truth? . My answer #1 was wrong and now I know why, at the time I was perplexed but relieved that they asked me to step down.
A good friend of mine made the reference that cop are simply crooks with badges and Igun. I’m not sure about that, but I wonder every day that I read the newspaper and see another officer being arrested for some weird crime.
Have a great day!
VeRyFlExiBlE
It’s Plain as Day
The “DEFENDANTS ATTORNEY” was asking you the questions and you weren’t acceptable because the wrong answer for the DEFENDANT is the police would be, “1) more inclined to tell the truth?”
You would of been on the jury if you answered #2 because the DEFENDANT’S ATTORNEY would want a juror who wouldn’t believed the police!
If the PROSECUTOR was asking this question, #1 would of been the correct answer for the prosecution.
I mean, how do the police get painted by your broad brush of corruption by this experience? BTW, was your friend the defendant? lol!
I would also be interested to know if you could provide one occupation that is immune to hiring bad people? It happens in every occupation, but the police are much more interesting to read about than any other occupation. It’s called “sensationalism”
You may or may not be “nuts”, but you are definetly “clueless”!
Congratulations on the “Dumbest” post of the year.
You’re not nuts, you’re just not that bright.
they weren’t looking for you to pick #1 or #2. They wanted to hear you say “that’s a loaded question” or “it depends on the situation” or “neither” or “more inclined or less inclined than whom” or anything that showed them you could think. What you did was give the answer you thought THEY wanted to hear and that is the type of person NO ONE wants on their jury. That’s is why they ask these types of questions, to weed out the idiots.
The Fish is Rotten from the HEAD! Ann Warwick’s Comment
OK so a quick recap related to your comment.
Mr. Costa gets hired in the New Rochelle school district and commits at least one felony and pleads guilty and is now no longer employed there. Great!
Next is that he shows up at SUNY Optometry as a Director of Maintenance and a post goes out on this Blog and he gets the pink slip again shortly after.
Thanks for the recent update Ms. Warwick, and we understand the respect of people’s privacy unless they are criminals, Do we care if a pedifile living down the block form us gets his feelings hurt, nope, all bets are off on people that break the law.
Oh we relize that this is a “white collar” felony and Costa is basically not a threat to anyone unless he is on your company payroll or has access to your supplies.
In the bigger picture, what the hell is going on with his past supervisors in New Rochelle and at SUNY?
Did Mr Costa sign his own time sheet? Did he hire and fire himself? He probably ordered his own supplies for his outside work too.
When this story broke on “the sound” we went straight to Google, and typed in his name, and it was pretty clear that there was more to this guy then meets the eye.
Now at least, he is out of your hair at the College, but you still owe it to the students and staff to find out how your Chief of Police and his committee, hired this guy in the first place.
OOP’s and UH OH is not applicable here. This is exactly what the Chief get’s paid for at the College. The state is paying this man $145,000 dollars, to do his job to determine what and who is a risk to the organization keeping the students from being at risk.
We ask, what if the person hired was a rapist, child molester, or murderer? I’m sure we would have a new position available at the College for the Chief’s job.
Once in a while we have to ask ourselves if we have done everything possible to avoid this situation in the future.
Todays Update At SUNY
As usual when Frank Orehek’s cheeks are on the burner he will typically point in every direction to pin his wrong doings on anyone as long as he is found clean.
He is like the scarecrow in the Wizzard of Oz, not knowing which way is safe! This time he is pointing at his office manager Yvonne, who happened to be included on the committee to hire Costa trying to blame her for hiring Costa. This person is clean!
Are we surprised at Frank’s action, nah, we will have to call him teflon Frank if he gets away this time!
He has been abusing his employees for over twenty years not granting them their vactions, calling them at home when they are sick, stating that they will not get paid if they dont come in to work.
We also heard that Frank has instructed his trusty assistant chief of police to “hunt” for suspects and he has been told to “dispose of anyone” that gets in the way.
Frank has also told Rob Pellot from IT to search the inhouse email for anything with his name on it. Hey Rob, do you need a pink slip too? We can certainly set it up for you next.
Oladapo Adurogbola, AKA DAPO is the man, who just today may have made his own mistake by threatening a CSEA union official, on the voice mail of her personal cell phone.
We heard that she saved that recording left by DAPO and is playing it for anyone who wants to hear it. That will certainly come back to bite him. Without DAPO doing all the work for Frank you may as well kick Frank in his ass, and send him on his way. Oh, he may like that, the kick in the ass!
After tomorrow’s showdown at the “College Coral” who will be left to point at?
It seems like a good day to make a clean sweep, and the Chancellor is just the person to make the move. Frank always avoided her but when he gets called tomorrow it will be like “dead man walking”.
Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher we appeal to you and ask that you clear the College of Frank and his sidekick to start with, and at least look into the finances and manipulation of funds on the 9th floor. For the good of the College.
A friend!
The SUNY Optometry MOB has to answer now!
The game is on temporary hold for now. Someone “dropped a dime” as they say and the players are all worried that the gravy train is over. Just like any situation, when you get one crook you can get them all, as they turnover on each other. Every good cop knows this.
Let see if David will back up Frank, his Pitbull, today when they meet with the queen.
I would think that when it comes to losing your position, you protect yourself, and let the sacrificial lamb take the fall. Good Luck Today, It’s seems like a good day to call in a sick day!