Dell Cleared

Police Chief Anthony Campbell cleared a sergeant of wrongdoing in a case involving a dirt-bike crash video and promised to promote her to lieutenant at the next possible chance.

The case involved Sgt. Rose Dell, whom Campbell decided not to promote to one of 13 vacant lieutenant slots in July, even though she scored third in a promotional exam for the position.

Campbell said he denied the promotion then because Dell was the subject of an internal investigation. He requested the investigation because another cop had complained about how Dell handled the securing and alleged release of the video in question, of a near-fatal dirt-bike crash on Grand Avenue. The other cop, Sgt. Rose Turney, complained that at the scene of the crash, Dell, an accident reconstruction team member as well as an internal affairs (IA) investigator, had forwarded the video from Turney’s phone to her own phone without her permission. Turney also complained that Dell had released that video to the New Haven Independent.

The subsequent investigation revealed the Dell did not release that video to the Independent. Lt. Herb Sharp, who conducted the investigation, recommended in a report that Dell and several other cops be disciplined for not following procedure in how the video was collected and filed.

Campbell said he decided not to take disciplinary action against any of the officers. ​“Once I saw it was more about lack of communication” and labeling of evidence, with no evidence having been compromised, he decided simply to speak to officers about the incident and saw no major offense worth punishing, he told the Independent.

“The next possible [lieutenant] promotion, Rose Dell will be promoted” with back pay for the position dating to July 7.

Campbell faced possible criticism from either side when he weighed whether to promote Dell back in July. On the one hand, Dell’s attorney, Jonathan Einhorn, accused him of unfairly denying her a promotion over a flimsy accusation of a minor misstep; he called it ​“retaliation” for Dell’s ​“being an active and ethical IA officer.” On the other hand, because Campbell and Dell are personal friends, Campbell faced potential criticism of playing favorites by promoting someone technically under investigation. Meanwhile, cops accused of more serious offenses — and in at least one case with an extensive file of confirmed misconduct —have been promoted. And far more serious allegations of police misbehavior over the past year — like this one and this one — have not led to internal New Haven police investigations.

Dell declined to comment for this story.

“This is the right thing,” attorney Einhorn, a former city police commissioner, said Monday of Campbell’s decision. ​“She’s good for the city. She deserves this, and we deserve her.”

Faint Voice ​“Offends” Sergeant

The Dell affair sparked an extensive internal probe, with a 23-page final report the department released in response to a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request. (Click here to read the report.)

At the scene of the crash, Turney had on her phone a video recording of a video of the crash captured by a surveillance camera at nearby Grand Apizza. The original video from the restaurant wasn’t ready yet.

Turney complained that Dell looked at it and, without permission, forwarded it to her own phone.

When the video showed up in the Independent, Turney complained that Dell had released it. In fact, she hadn’t. She had informed another officer that there was no investigation pending of the crash because the dirt-bike rider was deemed at fault. The police are supposed to release information like this when no investigation is pending.

It turned out that other officers hadn’t promptly enough entered the crash video into evidence in the property room. Turney also objected that on the version of the video from her cell phone —unlike in the original video from Grand Apizza —“when you raise the volume on the computer, you can hear my voice in the background, speaking with a worker.” She wrote in a memo that she was ​“offended that my voice can be heard in the background with raised volume. It is unprofessional to release video that was not meant to be for investigative purposes.”

And, Lt. Sharp concluded in his written report, Dell should not have forwarded the video to the officer who released it to the media (after consultation with the department’s press officer) because it turned out the investigation might have still been technically open. The officer in charge of the investigation hadn’t been consulted.