CASE CLOSED: Westchester County District Attorney Rejects Harassment Claim Filed by James Bonanno Against Talk of the Sound Repo

James “Little Jimmy” Bonanno filed a harassment complaint against your intrepid reporter last week which was rejected by the Westchester County District Attorney because the actions described in the complaint were not illegal.

Doh!

On April 2nd, New Rochelle police responded at 7 a.m. to 51 Cliff Street based on a complaint made against Robert Cox by Jimmy Bonanno. They might have added that Bonanno lied in the statement he gave to police but the case is closed so there is no need to make an issue out it.

According to police records obtained by Talk of the Sound, Bonanno told police that Cox was following him around in a car last week, video taping all his movements. Bonanno claimed he remembered Cox following him from work on Tuesday March 27th, to Sickles Avenue and to Grove Avenue, all while video taping in between. Bonanno said that he was most upset about his privacy being violated when Cox video taped him, and other patients, entering a private doctors office on Sickles Avenue and May Street. According to the incident report, Bonanno said that “this institution which considers the privacy of their patients critical matter will also be filing a complaint with NRPD.”

The Detective notes “I viewed the video that [Bonanno]o was referring to on Cox’s web site, Talk of the Sound, located at www.newrochelletalk.com, and the posting was headlined “Should New Rochelle District Employees Be Allowed to Drive District Vehicles While on Synthetic Opiates Like Methadone?“. On the video you do see [Bonanno] entering the building, and moments later existing the building. The video continues to follow [Bonanno] to where he parks his van and exits it.

Detective Gregory Herring filed a supplemental narrative report dated April 10, 2012.

On the above date and time this Detective spoke to Robert Cox in regards to the Harassment that was reported against him by James Bonanno on 02 April 2012. Cox was advised that after investigating the allegation of Harassment and discussing the incident with the District Attorney’s Office it was deemed that the actions of Robert Cox was not illegal. Cox advised that he did not think his actions were illegal and advised that he would attempt to pick up a copy of the report. With the incident not being illegal this Detective will close the case at this time.

What Detective Herring did not note is my laughing aloud, saying “I should hope so”, when told the DA had determined that my actions were not illegal.

For the uninitiated, in order for their to be a privacy violation there has to be an “expectation of privacy”. There is no such expectation when a person walks or drives in public. There is no law against taking photographs or shooting video in public. The supposed “harassment” was nothing more than traditional investigative reporting where I was gathering information for purposes of informing the public which I did by publishing my report along with the video. The location on Sickles Avenue is a community center open to the public which houses the Westchester County’s Methadone Maintenance Program in New Rochelle

Bonanno is lying about “remembering” that I followed him “from work to Sickles Avenue” and then on to Grove Avenue. I did not follow him to Sickles Avenue I was waiting there when he arrived. I had been parked in the area from about 6:30 a.m. based on information that Bonanno was a daily visitor to the County Methadone program (I have commented on his heroin addiction problem in the past). Bonanno arrived at about 7:15 a.m. and left about 7:30 a.m. I filmed him from across the street as he pulled in, parked (in a fire lane, I might note), and went inside. A few minutes later I picked him up again coming out of the building and then video taped back on Sickles Avenue and turning onto North Avenue. I did not follow Bonanno further. Instead I simply went to Grove Street where I picked him again and watched him between 8:00 a.m and 8:15 a.m. until he went into the school district office at Grove Street.

My favorite part of this is that Bonanno is filling a false complaint in which he admits his work day started before he got to Sickles Avenue and perjures himself while asking police to watch video of himself misappropriating public property – the van, parking illegally; and committing theft by stealing 75 minutes of paid regular time from the district.

For those who missed the original story, in the above video, Bonanno is seen driving a school district van to the Westchester County methadone clinic on Sickles Avenue in New Rochelle. After leaving the methadone clinic he drives onto North Avenue, then Lockwood and on to the buildings and grounds offices on Grove Street near Webster Avenue…Bonanno is doing all of this between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. during a workday which begins at 7 a.m.