New Haven Independent

Ever since an FBI sting nabbed the city’s top narcotics cop Lt. Billy White and Det. Justen Kasperzyk on theft and bribery charges last week, Ortiz has been holding community meetings responding to sizzling city reaction and a feared break-down of trust of the men in blue. (Click here for the latest roundup, and background on the scandal).

“It’s a constant struggle” to uphold credibility of law enforcement, said the chief, who detailed the facts of the narcotics scandal to a crowd of 25 gathered at the Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hill Management Team at the police substation on Whalley Avenue. Click here to read the page-turner affidavit describing the FBI sting.

“I am not going to let Billy White bring down this department. That’s the bottom line,” Ortiz told a group of neighborhood activists and a rolling TV camera.

Prefacing questions with praise for their trusty district manager Sgt. Steve Shea, neighbors posed questions to the chief, in the hot seat at the end of a large table.

Would drug enforcement flag now that the police department has disbanded its narcotics enforcement unit? Ortiz assured the crowd that arrests would continue through the work of patrol cops, and that the unit’s four detectives (minus Det. Justen Kasperzyk, who was arrested and placed on administrative leave) and six officers had been sent back to the streets on patrol duties.

Ortiz was asked the “burning question” posed at a press conference earlier Tuesday: How did the Board of Police Commissioners, the city’s civilian review board, and the police department’s internal affairs unit all “fail to detect this activity or in fact to uncover this activity?”

“These individuals’ actions were not detected [by any of the three agencies], clearly,” responded Ortiz. But placing the blame on those three agencies is “not fair.” Even with that system of oversight in place, the success of the department depends on the “integrity” of officers to follow rules, and report others when they don’t, reasoned the chief.

“Our investigation shows that people knew what was going on, and did not do anything to report it. They are just as guilty as the people who committed the crime.”

How long did Ortiz know about allegations of theft and bribery in his department? “I was well aware of the investigation for one year.” He declined to elaborate on how he first found out, saying only that he cooperated with the FBI investigation, which resulted in a sting known as the “Estupido incident,” in which White allegedly stole about $27,000 from an abandoned car.

Prior to the investigation? “I don’t know how long it’s been going on. I didn’t know about it; we didn’t catch it.” “No one whispered in my ear” that the top narcotics chief was suspected of taking bribes, stealing cash or allowing a supervisee to gamble in illegal poker games.

“Do you feel that someone who’s heading narcotics should not be left in charge for so long?” LCI neighborhood specialist Elaine Braffman relayed a question she said many are asking.

“We clearly learned that perhaps we have to rotate people” more often to keep them fresh, responded the chief.

Though the FBI has taken many files, Ortiz said an internal affairs investigation headed by Lt. Patrick Redding would “move a little more assertively next week,” digging through available documents, such as payroll timesheets.

Meanwhile, Ortiz expected the damage control/scandal debriefing tour to carry on. Elsewhere in the city Tuesday, assistant chiefs were discussing the scandal with the Downtown/Wooster Square and West Hills management teams. Earlier in the day, Ortiz met with a group of clergy on the same topic. At that meeting, clergy told him they were concerned that police would become “upset, pissed off and going to take it out on the community.”