Ricks, Swaby Photos
Esserman, Obama in New Haven.
New Haven’s police chief threatened to pull dozens of city cops from protecting First Lady Michelle Obama during a visit to the city after a secret service agent failed to inform him of his exact place in the motorcade, according to law-enforcement eyewitnesses.
In a separate incident, the chief allegedly threatened to shut down a Yale football game when he wasn’t allowed in without a ticket — although it turns out, under oath, he didn’t remember it that way, according to a deposition obtained by the Independent.
Those details come from fresh accounts about two of the most controversial incidents from Dean Esserman’s close to five-year tenure as New Haven’s top cop.
The new accounts offer insight into how Esserman’s explosive temper and bullying tactics landed him in trouble, culminating in his current forced three-week leave from his job.
The accounts also add to an already burning question at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.: If he returns to his job next Tuesday, can Esserman realistically mete out discipline to other cops given his litany of unpunished or barely punished public misbehavior?(Click here, here and here to see how rank-and-file cops, Independent readers and at least one citizen gathering feel about that question.)
“What Else Don’t You Know?
Esserman wasn’t even investigated, let alone disciplined, for a tantrum he threw and a threat he allegedly made to the U.S. Secret Service on Oct. 30, 2014.
The incident fed the rumor mill for a while; a broader WTNH TV report about Esserman’s bullying tactics referred in passing to Esserman “exchanging words” with the Secret Service that day and then leaving the site on foot. But otherwise no one came forward to tell what really happened.
Three of the dozens of local, state and federal law-enforcement agents present at the scene that day agreed this week to detail for the Independent what they saw — and, especially, heard. (They agreed to disclose the information on condition of anonymity to protect their professional relationships.)
The scene was Tweed-New Haven Airport. Dozens of law enforcement were massed at the East Haven side of the airport by the Robinson Aviation terminal waiting for First Lady Michelle Obama to land and preparing to escort her in a motorcade to Wilbur Cross High School, where she was headlining up a re-election campaign rally for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
A detective, Leonard Soto, drove Esserman to the scene, dropped him off and then left. Here’s what happened next, according to two of the law-enforcement agents present, who saw it up close:
Esserman proceeded to ask a secret service agent where his place would be in the motorcade. The agent didn’t have that information. He said he’d make a call to find out.
Esserman erupted in anger. He started berating the agent. He demanded to speak to someone else. Another agent came to speak with him. Esserman learned he would be riding in the lead New Haven car in front of Obama’s. He continued yelling at the agent: “What else don’t you know!” “You people don’t know what you’re doing!”
He yelled about all the money the detail was costing New Haven. Then he made a threat: “I’m going to take all my cops and leave.”
A third law enforcement agent present wasn’t close enough to hear what Esserman was yelling. But, he told the Independent, he could even from a distance hear Esserman yelling at Agent Michael Sweeney (not the same Michael Sweeney who used to work for the New Haven police): “He was on his toes, trying to be taller” than Sweeney, “finger-pointing in the guy’s face. It was all one-sided.” Sweeney stood there politely taking the abuse.
Esserman didn’t make good on the threat to pull all New Haven’s cops from their assignments protecting Michelle Obama that day. Instead, he stormed off. He walked out onto the streets of East Haven. Someone called Detective Soto, who returned to fetch the chief and drive him back to the city.
Esserman did not return a request for comment for this story.
The New Haven Police Department did not investigate this incident, according to Acting Chief Anthony Campbell. It never came before the Board of Police Commissioners, according to Chairman Anthony Dawson.
Michelle Obama landed. She subsequently wowed the standing-room-only campaign rally. at Wilbur Cross High School. Gov. Malloy was re-elected.
A “Ticket” Materializes
The Board of Police Commissioners did hear about a different public Esserman tantrum and threat, made Sept. 27, 2014, at the Yale Bowl during the Yale-Army football game. The mayor heard about it too, along with the public, in detail.
That’s because a Yale public-health professor named Dan Weinberger happened to witness it and then write a letter to his alder. In the letter, Weinberger described watching Esserman enter the Bowl and trying to get in without a ticket. Esserman was with his son. An elderly usher asked to see his ticket.
“The Chief replied sharply that he didn’t need a ticket because he was the Chief of Police and had “an all access pass,” including some additional belittling comments,” Weinberger wrote. The usher commented to Weinberger’s wife that Esserman had acted like a “jerk.”
“The chief then turned around and began to loudly and harshly yell at the man and demanded to see his supervisor. The Chief made the man sit and continued to verbally abuse him. When the supervisor arrived, the Chief demanded that the usher be ‘removed from the premises.’ When the supervisor hesitated, the chief threatened that he would ‘shut the whole game down’ if the man was not removed immediately.” (You can read the full letter in this story.)
After the story became public, Esserman apologized for losing his temper and having a “bad day.” He didn’t offer more details.
The following May, he was asked to give more details, under oath. He was being questioned by an attorney in a deposition in an unrelated lawsuit. Esserman proclaimed not to remember a lot about the incident. The details he recalled, under oath, diverged markedly from the account offered by Weinberger. He remembered having a ticket for the game. He omitted any mention of threatening to shut down the game.
His account, in the form of answers to the attorney’s questions, follows, according to a section of the transcript beginning on page 54:
Q. Now, since you’ve been police chief—
A. Three years.
Q. — have you had any problems, any charges been brought against you?
A. Yes.
Q. Like what?
A. The Yale football game against Army, I lost my temper with a person, which I was wrong and I was with my son. It happened on a Saturday football game. On Monday, I reported myself to the mayor and to Yale and then met with Yale to apologize to the professor who didn’t show up, but I offered to meet with him to apologize, but I was wrong. When you’re wrong, you’re wrong.
Q. Okay.
A. And then three months later, the board of alders brought it to the surface because they got a letter and the mayor gave me a written discipline.
Q. Who did you get a letter form?
A. The professor who had witnessed me yelling at the employee.
Q. Okay. And excuse me for not being up on the local sort of politics or news, but what was the yelling, what was this all about?
A. My kid and I had tickets and I’m not good when a person puts their hand on my kid. … [He was] 17 then. I lost my temper. There was no excuse.
Q. This person put his hand on your son?
A. Shoulder.
Q. To do what exactly?
A. Stop him from going down to the seat. It was a total misunderstanding and he really didn’t do anything wrong. He was flustered by everyone coming in at the same time and he grabbed my son and then he grabbed me and I’m embarrassed by how I acted, which is why I reported myself.
Q. So you’re the chief of police. Was there any crime committed?
A. No. I don’t think so.
Q. Okay. In your opinion anyway, there was no crime committed?
A. I don’t think so.
Q. You had said that the mayor had issued a letter?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. What was the content of the letter?
A. This was improper behavior, that she appreciated me telling her about it but I had to be held to a higher standard as the chief of police and that this conduct is not proper. She was right.
Q. Is that the end of the matter now at this point?
A. Yes.
Q. Any further action pending?
A. No.
Q. Any further actions pending regarding anything else?
A. No.
Q. And as far as Yale was concerned, did anything happen with your teaching position at Yale as a result of that?
A. No.
Q. What did you yell at the young man, who I assume was an usher of some type at Yale? Am I correct that he was an usher?
A. I think he was. Something like that. I don’t know.
Q. How long did you yell at him?
A. Not long.
Q. Did he yell back at you?
A. A little bit.
Q. What did he yell?
A. I don’t remember.
Q. Okay. Were you drinking that day?
A. I don’t drink.
Q. On any medication?
A. No.
Q. Any problems with memory.
A. Other than I just don’t remember the words, no.
Q. Well, if you don’t remember the exact words, do you remember the gist of what it was you were yelling?
A. It was an argument about the ticket. I think we had both a ticket and a pass. We were wearing two different things.
Q. So you were yelling something like we’re entitled to go down to those seats?
A. I really don’t remember. I remember I was wrong.
In the wake of Weinberger’s letter, Mayor Toni Harp issued Esserman a written reprimand. She warned him that further misbehavior would lead to “more severe consequences.”
In July, Harp learned the details of a similar incident at Archie Moore’s restaurant where Esserman berated a waitress so vociferously that other patrons moved away and the management felt the need to let them eat for free. This time she placed him on a paid three-week (15-working-day) leave. And, she said on her “Mayor Monday” WNHH radio program this week, “my expectation — and he knows this — is it will not happen again …”
This is the sort of investigative journalism that has largely been lost in our media. The statements here can be verified as true or false and based on everything I have heard, as a person close to many police officers, it rings true. I heard it the same day it happened. The question now is not the Chief. He has shown himself to be a troubled man who deserves our compassion, but does not deserve to lead police officers. Sadly, the Mayor continues to avoid responsibility for dismissing him despite her dismissal of others that she appeared to have no compassion for. Her "witch hunt" tactics with Nicole Jefferson is a prime example. Nicole Jefferson changed the lives of many poor and working class artisans and continues to suffer for the ruthless way Mayor Harp treated her. Mende Blue did not get progressive discipline despite being a young woman who did everything her community asked of her. She graduated from high school with honors, attended Harvard University and earned three degrees including a Juris Doctor. She has never broken the law or ever disrespected anyone to my knowledge. She is a bright, caring, and fun loving young woman who lost her father, grandmother, and father in law in the course of several months. She was summarily dismissed by the Mayor, marched out of City Hall by an armed officer, and refused any severance or unemployment benefits. Ronald Manning, a gentleman of uncommon courtesy, is at home now suffering because he was run out of City Hall despite many years of service. The Mayor never offered the emotional support. These are also facts. You can draw your own conclusions about fairness and compassion when it comes to the woman we elected to lead this city. I have and will vote accordingly in the next election. Republicans do not have a monopoly on mean-spirited and self-serving leadership. We are living through this now in our city. Wait till you find out about what Garth Harries is treating his staff and what he has allowed. Stay tuned..