NEW ROCHELLE, NY (June 13, 2026) — New Rochelle has spent more than two decades studying, debating, and designing civilian oversight of its police department. Four successive committees have produced reports, recommendations, and ultimately a Civilian Complaint Review Board that has yet to review a single disciplinary complaint, issue a single recommendation, or hold a single meeting.
The Committee on Community Policing (2015)
In early 2015, City Manager Charles Strome appointed 15 members to the New Rochelle Committee on Community Policing, with three members recommended by Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll. The committee was co-chaired by Dr. Cathryn Lavery, Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at Iona College, and Michele Rodney, Esq., Dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Monroe College — the same Monroe College that would provide supplemental CCRB training nine years later.
Members were: Jackie Agudelo, Walter Brown, Martin Cassidy, Matt Costa, Esq., Bruce Daniele, Det. Chris Greco, Rev. DeQuincy Hentz, Sgt. Barry Johnson, BreeAna Jones, Cynthia Lobo, Esq., Sgt. Calvin McGee, Timothy McKnight, Claudia Perez, David Peters, and Camille Edwards Thomas.
Two members were subsequently arrested and criminally charged.
Detective Chris Greco — a 25-year NRPD veteran who retired in August 2021 — pleaded guilty in November 2023 to petit larceny for stealing approximately $24,000 from Christopher’s Voice, Inc., a New Rochelle charity for autistic children he co-founded and named after his son. He was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and required to pay full restitution.
Timothy McKnight was arrested on September 18, 2020, after crashing his car while intoxicated; a loaded 9mm Glock was found in his vehicle’s center console, and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office subsequently charged him with possessing the firearm outside the parameters of his target-shooting pistol permit. He was removed from the 2020 Police Review Committee following his arrest. McKnight pleaded guilty on March 11, 2022, to DWI-First Offense and Disorderly Conduct for Creating a Hazardous Condition; the firearm charge does not appear in the final disposition. It was not McKnight’s first alcohol-related arrest — New York State Police had arrested him for impaired driving in March 2019 after his vehicle became stuck in a highway median in Rockland County.
Cynthia Lobo, Esq. has served on the board of the New Rochelle Police Foundation since 2010 and has served as its Secretary since 2022. Matt Costa, Esq. later became a New Rochelle City Court judge — and the most aggressive enforcer of officer disciplinary record disclosure requirements in Westchester County, whose conflict with DA Miriam Rocah over CPL 245 compliance produced the still-pending Rocah v. Costa appeal at the Second Department.
The committee submitted its final report on November 23, 2015. Among its ten recommendations was a call for “a permanent Community Policing committee to collaborate with the Commissioner to receive updates on recommendations and be apprised of progress.” The report was filed. The permanent committee was never created.
The Police Review Committee (2020)
On June 9, 2020 — four days after New Rochelle Officer Alec McKenna shot and killed Kamal Flowers, 24, during a traffic stop — the New Rochelle City Council requested a comprehensive review of NRPD practices. Three days later, on June 12, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order 203, requiring every local government in New York State with a police department to conduct a comprehensive review of its police force in the wake of the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd.
Members were: Lisa Burton, Alvin Clayton, Kwamain Dixon, Natasha Fapohunda, Robin Frankel, Nat Harris, Carmelo Hernandez, William Iannuzzi, Jason Labate, Wynter Parham, Wendell Sears, Emma Silva, Jabari Skeene, and Steven Sonet.
McKnight was appointed to the committee and subsequently removed following his September 2020 arrest. Alvin Clayton has served on the board of the New Rochelle Police Foundation since 2014.
The committee submitted its report in November 2020, recommending creation of a civilian complaint review board and offering four models ranging from a full CCRB with disciplinary power to an Inspector General. The city’s outside labor counsel, attorney Vincent Toomey, issued a legal opinion on November 9, 2020, advising against creating a CCRB. Toomey warned that doing so would require amending the City Charter — and that such an amendment could have the “unintended and ironic consequence” of making police discipline a mandatory subject of collective bargaining with the PBA and Superior Officers Association, potentially stripping the Police Commissioner of disciplinary authority. On December 1, 2020, Mayor Bramson and Council Member Ramos-Herbert issued a joint memorandum to the City Council proposing the Community-Police Partnership Board as a substitute for the CCRB the committee had recommended.
The Community-Police Partnership Board (2021-2024)
In March 2021, the City Council adopted the New York State Police Reform and Collaborative Plan, formally creating the CPPB. The plan committed to delivering a CCRB framework within one year — so that a board could be established by 2022. The CCRB was not created until October 2024 — two years late.
The CPPB was co-chaired by NRPD Deputy Commissioner Robert Gazzola and Rev. David Holder.
Members at various points included: Dr. Betty Campbell (Westchester County Commissioner of Jurors), Heriberto “Eddie” Contreras (Westchester County Community Outreach Senior Coordinator), Karina Cortez (WestCOP), Natasha Fapohunda, Kathleen Gill (Corporation Counsel and Chief of Staff, later City Manager), Martha Gutiérrez (WestCOP), Edward Hayes (NRPD Lieutenant), Michael Kushner, Esq., Rev. David Holder, Mark McLean (NAACP New Rochelle Branch President), Melvin Molina (NRPD Captain), Yadira Ramos-Herbert (City Council Member, later Mayor), Neil Reynolds (NRPD, later Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner), Raul Rodriguez (NRPD Lieutenant), Wendell Sears (retired NYPD), and Dawn Warren (Corporation Counsel, replacing Gill).
Of 17 individuals who served on the CPPB at any point, the overwhelming majority had direct financial relationships with city, county, or state government. Six were NRPD officers or command staff: Gazzola, Reynolds, Hayes, Rodriguez, Molina, and Sears (retired NYPD). Two were Westchester County government employees: Campbell, the Commissioner of Jurors, and Contreras, a Senior Community Outreach Coordinator. Four were city officials or employees: Council Member Ramos-Herbert, Corporation Counsel Gill, her successor Corporation Counsel Warren, and Gutiérrez — listed in city records as Senior Office Assistant Bi-lingual at the New Rochelle City Youth Bureau. Holder, the community co-chair, is pastor of a church with a real estate stake in 500 Main Street, a city-subsidized development known as The Leaf. McLean, the former NAACP New Rochelle branch president, subsequently received more than $1 million in no-bid city contracts through Kingdom Community Consulates. Cortez and her successor Gutiérrez were affiliated with WestCOP, which receives federal grants and city CDBG funds. Warren, who replaced Gill as the city’s legal seat on the CPPB, is a co-plaintiff in active federal litigation against Talk of the Sound.
The CPPB voted 7-6 in June 2024 to recommend a civilian complaint review board with pre-discipline review authority. Four NRPD officers on the board voted against the CCRB. The vote was taken on Zoom after a disputed meeting, with at least one member — believed to be Rev. Holder, based on statements made by Fapohunda and Reynolds at the July 2024 City Council meeting — absent from the final deliberation before the vote.
The Inspector General — Created But Largely Invisible
The March 2021 plan also committed to an Inspector General who would “conduct independent investigations involving all City employees, including the Police Department.” The position was funded in the 2021 budget and filled in November 2021. Wilbert Ortiz — a former NYC school safety officer and NYS court officer/sergeant — was appointed to a dual role as City Marshal and Inspector General, operating under the supervision of the Law Department. His described duties include executing judgments, serving legal documents, and working alongside the Ethics Committee reviewing financial disclosure forms.
There is no public record of the Inspector General conducting any investigation into NRPD misconduct — not in the Kane matter, not in the McKenna matter, not in the Vaccaro matter. Ortiz also serves as Chair of the New Rochelle Board of Ethics — the body that received Talk of the Sound’s ethics complaint against Mayor Ramos-Herbert for failure to deliver the 2026 State of the City address. The person charged with independently investigating city misconduct chairs the board reviewing a complaint against the Mayor.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board (2024-present)
The New Rochelle City Council unanimously adopted Article XXXI of the city code on October 15, 2024, creating the CCRB. Applications were accepted from February 18 to March 12, 2025. The City Council approved the original seven appointments under Resolution 2025-102 on June 17, 2025. Members were seated July 1, 2025.
Members appointed were: Julie L. Mercer (Mayor’s at-large appointment), Luis Angel Ochoa (District 1), Donna O’Keeffe (District 2), Damon Maher (District 3), Natasha Fapohunda (District 4, Chairperson), Fabiola C. Brito Briseno (District 5), and Renée M. Baron (District 6).
Within weeks, Ochoa resigned and was replaced by Christian Ismell Walker. Fapohunda was required under the city code to convene monthly public meetings and issue semi-annual reports. She held none. The semi-annual report due December 31, 2025 was never produced.
On May 17, 2026 (a Sunday) Talk of the Sound published a 14-section investigation documenting the board’s failure to function. On May 18 — the Monday after the investigation published, and the day after Talk of the Sound asked Fapohunda whether she had considered resigning to draw attention to the board’s failures — Fapohunda resigned without answering any of the 17 questions Talk of the Sound had sent her. She is the only person to have served on all three prior oversight bodies. The City Council considered appointing a replacement on June 9, 2026, but entered executive session and deferred action to June 16 after members raised the possibility of a co-chair arrangement — a structure not provided for in the city code, which designates a single Chairperson. As of June 13, the District 4 seat and Chairperson position remain vacant.
What Remains Unresolved
Resolution 2025-102 contains language stating CCRB members “may be” a present or former law enforcement officer — directly contradicting the city code, which states “No member may be.” The error has not been corrected.
NACOLE — the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement — is named specifically in the city code as a required training provider. NACOLE could not deliver two required curriculum topics and provided only nine of the required 9.75 training hours. The city code has not been amended to remove NACOLE by name or to specify the curriculum the board must receive from qualified providers of its own choosing.
The Toomey opinion warned in November 2020 that creating a CCRB without Charter amendment could make police discipline a mandatory subject of collective bargaining. The City Council created the CCRB in October 2024 without publicly addressing that opinion or its consequences. The CCRB has never addressed how it will operate in light of the contract between the city and the New Rochelle Police Benevolent Association.
The board also has no independent legal representation. Corporation Counsel Dawn Warren — who helped design the CCRB framework as a CPPB member, now serves as the city’s legal advisor on CCRB matters, and is a co-plaintiff in active federal litigation against Talk of the Sound — has not publicly recused herself from any aspect of CCRB legal oversight.
Twenty years after New Rochelle first recommended a permanent community policing oversight body, the board created to fulfill that recommendation has not reviewed a single disciplinary complaint, issued a single disciplinary recommendation, or held a single meeting.
This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools under the direction and editing of Robert Cox.
If readers are aware of another police reform committees email robertcox@talkofthesound.com (preferred) or contact via WhatsApp: +353 089 972 0669.