FOIL requests to the Westchester County District Attorney’s office produced a striking contradiction: the office said no records exist related to three officers’ Brady/Giglio status, then produced disciplinary disclosure documents for all three
WHITE PLAINS, NY (June 13, 2026) — A series of Freedom of Information Law requests filed with the Westchester County District Attorney’s office has produced both significant disclosures and a striking contradiction that Talk of the Sound intends to pursue through the appeals process.
What Was Requested
Beginning May 17, 2026, Talk of the Sound filed a series of FOIL requests with the Westchester County DA’s office as part of its ongoing reporting on the New Rochelle Civil Complaint Review Board and a related investigation into whether the disciplinary records of three New Rochelle police officers — Sean Kane, Alec McKenna, and Michael Vaccaro — were in the DA’s possession in time for the criminal proceedings that determined their fates.
The requests, filed between May 17 and June 3, sought:
- Records related to Kane’s Brady/Giglio status — filed May 17
- Records related to McKenna’s Brady/Giglio status — filed May 17
- Records related to Vaccaro’s Brady/Giglio status — filed May 17
- All versions of any adverse credibility list, bad cop list, Brady list, or Giglio list maintained by the DA’s office, along with related records — filed May 21
- All records relating to the DA’s office obtaining disciplinary records from the New Rochelle Police Department from January 1, 2017 to the present — filed June 3
What Was Received
The DA’s FOIL office responded to all five requests on June 9, 2026.
For the three Brady/Giglio status requests — Kane, McKenna, and Vaccaro — the response was identical: no responsive records exist.
For the adverse credibility list request, the office stated that no such list has ever existed in Westchester County (former DA Mimi Rocah said it did exist). It denied access to records related to the creation, development, or maintenance of any such list under the attorney work product doctrine and the inter-agency exemption to FOIL. One item — communications between DA staff and Talk of the Sound regarding the adverse credibility list, including emails involving staff members in 2022 — remains under review, with a response due by June 22, 2026.
For the NRPD disciplinary records request, the office denied access to records of how and when disciplinary materials were obtained from NRPD — again citing attorney work product — but did produce the disciplinary records themselves for Kane, McKenna, and Vaccaro, delivered via a secure file-sharing link.
What the Records Show
The disciplinary records produced include CO-2 documents — forms used by the Westchester County DA’s office, as stated on the documents themselves, to disclose to defense attorneys “substantiated allegations raised against current/former members of law enforcement” pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law Section 245.20(1)(k), which governs disclosure of materials that may bear on the credibility of prosecution witnesses. The CO-2 forms reference Brady v. Maryland and Giglio v. United States — the Supreme Court decisions that established prosecutors’ obligations to disclose evidence bearing on witness credibility.
The cover sheet for McKenna’s CO-2 is dated September 7, 2023. The cover sheet for Kane’s CO-2 is dated October 10, 2023.
Those dates are significant. McKenna’s CO-2 was prepared more than three years after the November 2020 grand jury that returned a no true bill on McKenna for the shooting death of Kamal Flowers. The document’s date strongly suggests that McKenna’s disciplinary record was not in the DA’s possession at the time of that grand jury proceeding — and that the Brady/Giglio obligation the DA’s office was under since at least 2017 may not have been met in that case.
Kane’s CO-2 is dated more than a year before the December 2024 grand jury that returned a no true bill on Kane despite body camera footage showing him placing drugs under the wheel well of Ivin Harper’s vehicle. Kane’s disciplinary record appears to have been in the DA’s files in time for that proceeding. Whether it was presented to the grand jury remains unknown.
Talk of the Sound previously asked the DA’s press office when McKenna’s and Kane’s disciplinary records were added to their 1K files. The office said in May 2026 that collection after the 50-a repeal in June 2020 “was not automatic” and “was a bit of a process,” and that specific dates were being researched. Those dates were never provided. The CO-2 cover sheet dates now suggest the answer: fall 2023 — more than three years after the 50-a repeal and six years after the Brady/Giglio boilerplate obligation took effect in New York courts in 2017.
While McKenna’s disciplinary records were not compiled by the DA’s office until September 2023, the New Rochelle Police Department was publicly honoring him during that period. On October 6, 2020 — four months after McKenna shot and killed Kamal Flowers — the NRPD honored McKenna at an awards ceremony at the Greentree Country Club, where he received a 2020 Commendation Award, a 2019 Commendation Award, a 2019 Class C Citation, and a 2019 Lifesaving Award. On November 11, 2022, the department posted a Veterans Day tribute featuring McKenna on its Facebook page. No civilian oversight body has ever reviewed the Flowers shooting.
Vaccaro’s file is the most extensive — 17 documented disciplinary matters spanning 2006 through 2020, including a 10-day suspension for making false statements and a March 2020 matter in which Vaccaro accessed the Thomson Reuters CLEAR database without legitimate police purpose to search a name on a VIP/PEP watchlist.
Vaccaro Decertified — Kane Still in Law Enforcement
One finding from the produced records raises a question the documents alone cannot answer.
Vaccaro was decertified by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services effective September 1, 2023. The decertification was pursuant to Civil Service Law Section 75 — New York’s law governing formal disciplinary hearings for public employees, in which charges are presented, evidence is heard, and a hearing officer issues findings. Decertification by DCJS means Vaccaro’s police officer certification has been permanently revoked. He is legally barred from serving as a police officer anywhere in New York State.
Kane, whose misconduct included planting drugs on a civilian in an act captured on body camera, was demoted two ranks by the New Rochelle Police Department, resigned, and was subsequently hired by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. He remains in law enforcement.
Why Vaccaro — whose misconduct, while serious, did not include planting evidence — was permanently decertified while Kane, whose body camera captured him placing drugs under a wheel well, was able to move to another law enforcement agency is a question the records do not answer. It is also a Brady/Giglio question: Kane’s NRPD disciplinary record, including his 2013 gravity knife evidence tampering and the IA findings in the Harper case, is now potentially discoverable in any case where Kane testifies for the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
The Contradiction
The DA’s FOIL office told Talk of the Sound that no records exist responsive to requests for Kane’s, McKenna’s, and Vaccaro’s Brady/Giglio status. The same office then produced CO-2 disclosure documents for all three — documents that, by the terms of the CO-2 form itself, are Brady/Giglio disclosure records prepared pursuant to CPL 245.20(1)(k).
Talk of the Sound intends to appeal all three no-records determinations. The appeal will argue that the CO-2 documents produced are themselves responsive to the Brady/Giglio status requests — and that the determination that no such records exist is contradicted by the office’s own production.
Talk of the Sound is also awaiting an email address for the DA’s appeals officer, having been provided only a physical address. The office has been asked to advise on how to file an appeal by email.
New FOILs Filed
On June 13, 2026, Talk of the Sound filed four additional FOIL requests with the DA’s office:
- All records in Alec McKenna’s 1K file
- All records in Sean Kane’s 1K file
- All records in Michael Vaccaro’s 1K file
- All logs, tracking records, transmittal letters, cover sheets, receipts, acknowledgments, or confirmations of receipt documenting when the DA’s office received disciplinary records from the New Rochelle Police Department for any NRPD officer from January 1, 2017 to the present — limited to administrative records only, not attorney communications
The prior broad FOIL for NRPD disciplinary records was denied for items covering how and when those records were obtained, under the attorney work product doctrine. The new narrowly tailored request seeks only administrative records of receipt — logs, transmittals, and receipts — which are not attorney mental impressions and should not qualify for work product protection.
What Is Still Unknown
The records produced answer some questions and raise others.
The CO-2 cover sheet dates strongly suggest McKenna’s disciplinary record was not in the DA’s files in time for the November 2020 grand jury. But the records do not confirm exactly when the DA’s office first obtained McKenna’s disciplinary records from NRPD, or what was — or was not — presented to the grand jury.
Kane’s CO-2 date suggests his record was in the DA’s files before the December 2024 grand jury. Whether it was presented to that grand jury remains unknown.
No records have been produced showing when the DA’s office first sought or received disciplinary records for any NRPD officer. That institutional paper trail is the subject of a pending appeal and a new FOIL request.
Former DA Miriam Rocah has not responded to inquiries sent May 26 and June 2. Former DA Anthony Scarpino indicated willingness to speak by phone on June 3, 2026. As of June 13, no call has been received.
Talk of the Sound will report further as FOIL responses, appeals, and media inquiries are resolved.
Talk of the Sound and Words in Edgewise articles on the New Rochelle Civilian Complaint Review Board and its predecessor, the Community Police Partnership Board.
This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools under the direction and editing of Robert Cox.
Have information about this story? Email robertcox@talkofthesound.com (preferred) or contact via WhatsApp: +353 089 972 0669.