NEW ROCHELLE, NY — One of the highest ranking Commanders in the New Rochelle Police Department previously demonstrated egregious racist behavior, according to a police disciplinary record seen by Talk of the Sound.
The record was deemed confidential for 13 years and only came to light a few weeks ago as part of a long-standing Freedom of Information request by Talk of the Sound.
According to Internal Affairs records, on April 8, 2007 then-New Rochelle Police Captain Kevin Kealy was speaking with then-Deputy Commissioner Anthony Murphy from a recorded telephone line in the Communications Unit at New Rochelle Police Department Headquarters. During the course of the telephone conversation Captain Kealy used the word “fuck” several times and used the phrase “these fucking Zulus are running wild”.
Context matters.
Zulu, in and of itself, is not a racist term. Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 10–12 million people living, mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa, where it is an official language.
Zulus in the context of the Internal Affairs investigation into Captain Kealy’s use of the term appears to be predicated on Kealy apparently applying the word Zulus to Black people in New Rochelle — few if any of whom are Zulu people or Zulu language speakers — to convey a racist belief that Black people in New Rochelle are out of control savages, an entirely different context.
The specific animating event for the use of that phrase on that day is what became known as the “Easter Riot” when “200 police officers in riot gear were called from across Westchester County to deal with more than 1,000 unruly teenagers ejected from” New Roc City.
Fits of ill temper ensued, then fights, gunshots and confrontations with officers on the streets outside. A 15-year-old Bronx youth was stabbed in the chest, two robberies were reported and six people were arrested.
On the charges of Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and Use of Profanity, Kealy accepted a Command Discipline of the Loss of 5 Leave Days. The report does not specify whether the charges were based on the racist statement itself, the use of profanity, or that the racist statement and profanity were made during a telephone conversation on a recorded line.
Kealy served as Division Commander for the Police Services Division.
According to New York State Pension records, Kealy joined the New Rochelle Police Department on February 3, 1975. He remained as Captain for 7 more years after the incident until his retirement on December 31, 2014.
The incident raises serious questions about the treatment of Black people by New Rochelle Police under a command structure with an overt racist as a Division Commander and a Senior Command that tolerated such a person as Division Commander.
Talk of the Sound began filing Freedom of Information requests for New Rochelle Police Department disciplinary records starting on June 12, 2020, the day then-Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation which repealed “50a”, a subsection of the New York State Public Officers Law which shielded disciplinary records of police, firefighters, paramedics, corrections officers and peace officers. All personnel records until then were considered confidential and not subject to inspection or review by the public without the express written consent of the individual public sector employee or a court order.
Since then, City of New Rochelle and New Rochelle Police Department officials have repeatedly lied, obstructed, delayed or otherwise stonewalled the production of the disciplinary records of current and former members of the Department. Government agencies have about a month to fulfill FOIL requests As of September 30, 2021 — more than a year after our initial FOIL requests, the Department has produced less than half the more than 600 Police disciplinary records requested between June 2020 and September 2020.
Among those records that have been produced, are CO 2 records for 597 officers, a summary sheet of an Internal Affairs file which lists the date, charge(s) and disposition of Internal Affairs investigations without details or narrative describing the incidents. Records for the most infamous former members of the Department were not provided because their Internal Affairs files were not in the Internal Affairs archive, or they no longer exist.
In a list provided to us by Captain George Rosenbergen in March 2021, members of the Department who were indicated as “Terminated/Resigned — Legal Action” are Araz Alal, Jamillah Blair, Donald Feola, Harry Kyreakedes, Matthew McCarrick, Matthew McKay, Matthew Melillo, Joseph Poggioli, Dave Rodriguez.
According to Rosenbergen, these files are believed to be with the Law Department or Personnel Department which begs the question, why original IA records are not housed within the IA office and copies sent to other departments or agencies as needed? If the original files were transferred to the Law Department or Personnel Department, why have the files, some involving cases going back a decade or more, not been returned to IA. And, regardless of which department has custody of the files, why have the files of the most egregious IA cases not been produced under a lawful FOIL request.
Captain Rosenbergen’s list also indicates that for other additional former Members of NRPD with egregiously bad records, he completed a review but IA has no records, and they are not among those indicated as “Terminated/Resigned — Legal Action” which might be housed elsewhere. We inquired to Captain Rosenbergen about the discrepancies.
Kenneth Frank is marked as “completed” by Captain Rosenbergen and CO2 is not checked, meaning no records. In our notes, we have him marked as having burned his car and boat in an insurance fraud scheme and being caught working a side job while on disability leave.
Anthony Jones is marked as “completed” by Captain Rosenbergen and CO2 is not checked, meaning no records. In our notes, we have him down for “Unexpectedly Resigned” following his arrest.
Kenneth Schena is marked as “completed” by Captain Rosenbergen and CO2 is not checked, meaning no records. We have no notes on him at all, but believe there is an IA file for him.
Timothy McKnight is marked as “completed” by Captain Rosenbergen and CO2 is not checked, meaning no records. In our notes, we have him down for a 10-Day Suspension for being out of the house while sick without permission.
John DeLeno & Gary Lucchese are marked as “completed” by Captain Rosenbergen and CO2 is not checked, meaning no records. In our notes, we have the pair as having raped and sodomized a civilian police dispatcher from NRPD while they were off-duty in 1996 and that although they were acquitted, they were fired after a departmental hearing.
Andrea Faup Jr is marked as “completed” by Captain Rosenbergen and CO2 is not checked, meaning no records. We believe there are records for him.
Eric Shames is marked as “completed” by Captain Rosenbergen and CO2 is not checked, meaning no records. In our notes, we have him marked as robbing a White Plains liquor store in 1993, but that may have been after he left the department but for completeness’s sake, we want confirmation that there are no records in IA or Law or Personnel for him.
Michael Vaccaro there are 2 entries for Vaccaro, which might be for the same Member or two different Members with the same name. We would like to clarify that.
It was the CO 2 for Michael Vaccaro that revealed he had been the subject of 17 Internal Affairs investigations which Talk of the Sound reported after Vaccaro was suspended by NRPD for 30 days following an incident where he repeatedly assaulted Malik Fogg, a Black man with no prior criminal record in Westchester County, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Those records show Vaccaro was ordered to undergo retaining due to his conduct and that despite one of the worst disciplinary records in the history of the Department, Vaccaro was promoted to Detective. In June, Vaccaro was criminally charged by the District Attorney.
To understand the difference of a CO 2 and the actual disciplinary report, the first disciplinary record released in the history of the New Rochelle Police Department was that of Alec McKenna on March 4, 2020. McKenna was put on paid leave after he shot and killed Kamal Flowers, a 24-year-old Black man, on June 5, 2020.
The CO 2 for McKenna lists two IA investigations.
After illegally withholding McKenna’s disciplinary records in July 2020, City Manager Charles Strome downplayed McKenna’s record, claiming there was nothing in the file that related to the death of Kamal Flowers and that McKenna had never drawn his weapon in the line of duty — both flat out lies. The records were withheld until March 4, 2021.
Police records subsequently seen by Talk of the Sound showed thar McKenna, on January 11, 2020, had drawn his service weapon on the occupants of a vehicle based on a bogus traffic stop (making a U-Turn on Lincoln Avenue between North Avenue and Memorial Highway where it is legal to do so). In an unsettling preview of the night of June 5, 2020, the occupants of the vehicle were both 24-year-old Blacks, the same age as Kamal Flowers the night he was shot and killed by Alec McKenna.
The disciplinary records for McKenna, released on March 4, 2021, make clear how deceptive a CO 2 cover sheet can be. There were not two investigations and two violations. There was a single investigation covering a 60-day period during the Summer of 2019, from June 23, 2019, to August 24, 2019. The investigation was initiated by McKenna’s supervisor over his concern about McKenna’s conduct pertaining to traffic stops. The investigation involved a review of dash cam video of police vehicles. The investigation found 158 violations, almost all related to traffic stops. Investigators only failed to find more violations because after 60 days they stopped looking. The Command Discipline was handed down in December 2019. A month later, in January 2020, Vaccaro drew his service weapon on two 24-year-old Black people. On June 5, 2020, following what appears to have been yet another bogus traffic stop, McKenna again drew his service weapon, shooting and killing Kamal Flowers.
Clearly, the New Rochelle Police Department does not want the public to have information such as that found in disciplinary files for McKenna, Kealy and Vaccaro (recall they are only up to “M” in releasing the full disciplinary files so Vaccaro with a “V” is not among those produced under our FOIL requests).
The most direct source of stonewalling by the New Rochelle Police Department is Captain George Rosenbergen. He has repeatedly misrepresented our FOIL requests, dragged his feet at every turn, and otherwise obstructed the production of NRPD disciplinary records. Even when ordered by City and Police officials, he has resisted producing records and behaved like a jackass in the process. City and police officials have provided assurances that Rosenbergen conduct towards us is not personal, that he behaves like a jackass towards everyone. That is hardly reassuring and begs the question as to why he has not been charged with insubordination or fired.
Readers can expect more to follow on this subject. Stay tuned for our next series: “New Rochelle Police Department: A Criminal Enterprise Masquerading as a Law Enforcement Agency”.
RELATED:
Alec McKenna: A Story of Traffic Stops
How We Created the Talk of the Sound New Rochelle Police Department Disciplinary Records Database
Michael Vaccaro — Malik Fogg Archive
Alec McKenna — Kamal Flowers Archive