Paul Bass File Photo
Dave Coppola
A veteran city cop retired Friday amid a department investigation into a video showing him picking up cash from the floor of a Stop & Shop while working an extra-duty job.
The cop, Dave Coppola, eventually returned the cash he is shown picking up in the video.
Coppola declined to comment on the incident, which allegedly took place at the Stop & Shop at 150 Whalley Ave.
“I have nothing to say,” he said when reached by phone. “Why don’t you write what you’re going to write and don’t call me.”
“I have accepted his retirement,” Police Chief Dean Esserman said Friday.
“The department initiated an immediate investigation upon a complaint from Stop & Shop,” Esserman said. He said he cannot comment further on what’s a personnel matter.
State’s Attorney Michael Dearington said Friday that his office has the case “under review.”
Coppola’s decision to retire “will have some influence” on how his office decides to proceed, Dearington said.
A person sympathetic to Coppola, with knowledge of the case, said the officer did nothing wrong.
“I’ve seen the video,” this person said. “He wasn’t stealing money.
“It was a Christmas Eve weekend. He wanted to get home. He never spent the money. He was ready to return to file a report.
“He sees money on the floor … a couple of hundred bucks … Picks it up. Asks everyone in the area if it’s their money.
Someone told Coppola that it “may be a kid outside,” but by the time Coppola went looking for him, he’d already left, according to this source.
“He completed his shift. He was going to file a report upon returning from his days off. When he was notified, he returned the next day to return the money to the person it belonged to.”
“Coppola was working security at Stop & Shop. There’s a hundred cameras at Stop & Shop. Everything you do is on video,” so it would make no sense for an officer to take money.
Another person familiar with the case confirmed that account of events, saying the video showed Coppola looking for the money’s owner. The issue would have been whether he properly inventoried and secured the money and reported the incident, according to department procedure.
Reached Friday, Stop & Shop store manager Anne Demchak said she had no knowledge of the incident. She referred comment to Stop & Shop’s loss prevention department.
A hard-working cop, Coppola has been among the department’s top overtime earners over the years, heading the list some years. Click here to read a “Cop of the Week” feature on him. He took home $174,044.90 in 2007. He joined the force in 1988.
He has also gotten into his share of controversy. Click here to read about an encounter he had with the president of the Board of Police Commissioners. Last year Coppola ran for president of the police union. (Arpad Tolnay won that election.) During the campaign, outgoing union President Lou Cavaliere called Coppola, who was openly critical of Cavaliere, a “criminal.” (Read about that here.)
Cavaliere cited — and provided a copy of — a 2005 settlement agreement in which Coppola agreed to pay $300 to the city and serve a 15-day unpaid suspension after failing to account for money collected on an extra-duty job at the old Shaw’s supermarket — the site of the new Stop & Shop where the more recent incident occurred.
Cavaliere also provided a copy of a letter from State’s Attorney Michael Dearington in connection with that case. It read in part: “There is probably cause to believe that Officer Coppola requested and received in excess of two hundred dollars of unauthorized reimbursement.” (Dearington added that “criminal prosecution is not warranted” because of “the amount of money and sanctions available to your department.”)
At the time the Register’s William Kaempffer reported, “Coppola on at least 10 occasions took cash or checks written to cash from contractors, but never submitted the funds to the city. It is policy to turn over the money to the city, which takes an 8 percent administrative fee and withholds state and federal taxes. Coppola had to repay the city $300 for the administrative fees. He also was accused of circumventing regulations by having contractors call him directly when they needed an officer, instead of going through the extra-duty office. One contractor told investigators that Coppola showed up at a building construction site and threatened to arrest someone if a drywall truck unloaded because their sidewalk permit had expired. Coppola then allegedly provided his cell phone number and said the contractor should call him directly when he needs an officer.”
Melissa Bailey contributed reporting to this story.
"He took home he took home $174,044.90 in 2007. He joined the force in 1988."
what does this mean?
[Editor: Oops. Typo. There should be only one "He took home" in that sentence. Fixed now.]