The Trials of Dennis Delano
by Buck Quigley
The “rogue” detective’s long-delayed disciplinay hearing begins
In a white room at the end of a hallway in police headquarters at 74 Franklin Street, about two dozen people gathered Tuesday morning for the beginning of a disciplinary hearing concerning the actions of suspended Buffalo Police Detective Dennis A. Delano. Members of virtually every local media outlet were there, scribbling notes as the proceedings unfolded.
Reporters weren’t allowed to bring cameras or recording devices inside, although a court reporter sat next to Hearing Officer Thomas N. Rinaldo, keeping an official record of testimony, and cameras mounted in the ceiling kept a watchful eye on those in attendance.
This, after all, is an internal matter. Were it not for the intense public interest in Delano—who has become something of a folk hero in Western New York and beyond, thanks to a profile on the NBC Dateline program and a subsequent New York State Senate bid—it’s doubtful that the disciplinary hearing of a cop accused of disobeying orders would get so much attention.
But everybody in town knows the guy. He’s the gruff-looking, straight-talking detective who seemed to have walked right out the movies and into everybody’s heart by uncovering DNA evidence that led to the release of Lynn DeJac, a mother who unfairly spent 13 years in prison for the murder of her 13-year-old daughter Crystallynn Girard in 1993.
Or should I say he walked into almost everyone’s heart?
Diane O’Gorman, attorney for the Buffalo Police, argued early on Tuesday that Delano was “obsessed” with the case, but not in a good way. That obsession appears to have been problematic to some. If you’ll recall, at the time of her release, former District Attorney Frank Clark, apparently wanting to save face for the department, was hinting that he would re-try DeJac. Talk about obsessive.
According to Tuesday’s testimony by Detective Sergeant Daniel Rinaldo—no relation to hearing officer Thomas Rinaldo—Detective Rinaldo was told by Deputy Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda that the DA was “reasonably sure” that Clark was going to re-try DeJac, and wanted a “fresh set of eyes on the case.”
Or at least a set of eyes other than Delano’s. Delano believes Crystallynn’s murderer was Dennis P. Donahue, a man who was given immunity by the DA, and can therefore never be charged with her murder.
In February of 2008, former DA Clark let it be known that DeJac wouldn’t be tried because, as it turns out, there was no murder at all! According to testimony of Dr. Michael Baden, it turns out the 13-year-old died of a cocaine overdose. Her death certificate was changed, and voila! Nothing to see here, people, move along.
It was at that point that Delano figured the case was closed, so he released evidence to the media, including crime scene footage that showed the girl’s ransacked room, and the lie detector test administered to Donahue. In it, Donahue admits to doing “a couple of lines” of coke that night—an act of which he was not proud. (Clearly it would spoil his eligibility for the Olympics.) At the end of the interrogation, he turns and asks the detective: “How’d I do?” “You done good,” came the reply from the faceless detective, as he lit a cigarette for the suspect.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards spoke to the fact that within the department, Delano’s actions had a negative impact. Discipline and good order are paramount. It was detrimental to public perception, because he took actions that were not advisable and that might have created the impression that he was a “rogue cop.”
Delano’s attorney Steven M. Cohen asked—since the public didn’t know if Delano acted alone in releasing the information to the media—did the police, by charging him, create the perception that he was a rogue cop? Richards replied that it might have come out that Delano released the tapes without authorization.
Cohen argued that if the DA had already changed the cause of death, no longer making it a homicide, Delano could not be releasing evidence. Apparently, Buffalo Police do not consider the case closed, as they contend that he was releasing evidence.
In October 2008, Delano put it to AV this way: “What they charged me with was going to the media. Well, that was not a homicide case anymore. Frank Clark said it was a cocaine overdose. There’s no way I could give evidence to the media in a cocaine overdose. They had already changed the death certificate, done deal: I’m not investigating a homicide. I went there on my own time, on my own money, so I could say to myself I’m either full of crap for bucking Baden, Michael Baden, who’s an esteemed doctor, or he’s full of shit. He lied. Baden lied, no question about it. Why he lied, I don’t know.”
To his credit, no one on Tuesday could name another incident when Delano acted outside departmental rules. Still, these current charges of insubordination could end a career that helped exonerate both DeJac and Anthony Capozzi, the man wrongly jailed for over two decades as the “bike path rapist.” That killer turned out to be Altemio Sanchez, who is finally in jail thanks in part to Delano. And let’s not forget Dennis Donohue, the suspect who was given immunity by the DA all those years ago, but is also behind bars now for the murder of Joan Giambra.
Truth be told, it was fascinating, and a little scary, to watch the prosecution coldly going after Delano on Tuesday. Only a few feet away sat Lynn DeJac and her family—who have suffered so much—right there next to the rest of us ordinary folks whom they, as police, are charged to protect and serve. If they are aiming to make the citizenry feel secure in the belief that they are working day and night to deliver justice, the police may wish to consider a different approach. After all, it’s the good “rogue cop” who makes audiences stand up and cheer precisely because he will not let bureaucratic B.S. get between him and the bad guy.
If there’s a lesson in any of this, it may have been put best by Delano himself last October, when he told AV: “Everyone makes mistakes, but to try to hide it is a crime.”
The hearings are expected to continue Thursday at 9am, and again on Saturday.
—buck quigley
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In His Own Words Dennis Delano reveals the politics behind clearing Anthony Capozzi Last fall, while running for New York State Senate, Buffalo Police Detective Dennis Delano told AV the following story about the effort to clear Anthony Capozzi, who had been jailed for 22 years for rapes that were later attributed to Altemio Sanchez, also known as the Bike Path Rapist. Delano was eager, he said, to acquire and have tested slides that contained DNA samples from the rapes for which Capozzi had been convicted, to see if the DNA belonged to Capozzi or to Sanchez. The slides containing the samples were stored in the Erie County Medical Center, and a warrant was required to retrieve them: Dennis Delano: I was adamant by then, before we found the slides, that Anthony Capozzi could not have committed any crimes. But the district attorney’s office didn’t want to hear that. They wanted to focus on the current cases against Altemio Sanchez and not deal with the Capozzi situation. My feeling was that Capozzi had already spent 22 years in prison and didn’t belong there another day. But they were telling me they had to do this other thing first. They were not going to test the slides. [Buffalo Police Department Cold Case Squad Detective] Lisa Redmond, as a matter of fact, went to serve a search warrant. First place, Frank Sedita delayed us getting a search warrant by about two weeks, kept jerking us around every day. Finally we came to the conclusion that we didn’t need the district attorney—I didn’t know at the time, so shame on me—to write up a search warrant. We could have done it ourselves and taken it to a judge to be signed. We didn’t need the district attorney. When we discovered that, finally we got the search warrant. I was tied up that day, so Lisa served the search warrant, and we collected the slides. I think I gave them a list of six, seven slides from Delaware Park rapes. I took them to the evidence lab to be tested for DNA. I waited a couple days and there was no movement. So Lisa called me one day, I’m at the office, and she told me, “They’re not going to be able to get to the slides for approximately six weeks, because they’re so backed up.” Now during the bike path investigation, we were getting DNA back in 48 hours, 24 hours sometimes, so I knew it could be processed quickly. In the meantime, don’t forget, Anthony is sitting in prison. Now Frank Sedita is telling us they’re not going to be able to process the slides that are gonna free him for another six weeks. I go ballistic. To make a long story short, Lisa calls, she argues with Frank, and they agreed—just to shut me up—to test two of the slides [from rapes] that Anthony was convicted of. They felt that his DNA would be on those slides, and they thought that would shut me up. Wednesday afternoon about noon, I called John Simich from the lab, I say, “John, is there anything on the test results of the two slides?” and he says, “No, they’re still in the cooker.” I say, “Will you please call me as soon as there are any results?” He tells me that he has to run it by Frank first. I don’t know if he meant Frank Sedita or Frank Clark. I said, “Why are they part of this? I submitted the evidence to you. You have an obligation to tell me what the results are. I don’t mind if you tell them too, but why is it depending on them if I get the results?” That shouldn’t be. It’s against protocol. He said, “Well, that’s the way it is.” I said, “Fine. When you can, please call me.” I waited. No call that day. Thursday morning I get a call from someone in the DA’s office. They say, “Listen, don’t tell anybody I called you because they’ll fire me if they know, but you were right. The DNA on the slides was Sanchez, not Capozzi. They’re going to have a press conference today.” Now while I’m taking that call, I get a beep on my ear thing—you know, the Bluetooth thing. It was Pam Gunther, who is Anthony’s sister. She’s in tears, and she says, “I don’t know what to say.” I say, “What’s that matter?” She says, “Yesterday at three o’clock we were called to a conference in Frank Clark’s office.” Anthony’s attorney, her, and Frank Clark. “So they sat us down and they told us that Anthony was going to be exonerated, that the slide was not his DNA.” Now the lab had told me that they weren’t even done yet at that point. She says, “Frank Clark told me that nothing was to leave that room. That I was not to talk to the investigators on the task force, the media, or you about these test results or it could jeopardize Anthony’s early release.” I said, “Okay, Pam, just calm down.” I wasn’t upset so much by the whole scenario of how the test results were released; I was upset that [Clark] would put that kind of pressure on a victim’s family member. I mean, Anthony’s in prison. Why should she have to deal with this stuff? This was all political crap. She said, “You’ve always been truthful with us and I feel bad withholding this from you.” I said, “Don’t worry about it.” That morning Frank Clark had a press conference. There was not one person from a police agency that solved that case who was there. He was all by himself. This is the kind of stuff that was going on behind the scenes, the reason I was bucking the system. People have to realize—I didn’t just suddenly go off the deep end after 23 years of being a cop. I don’t have one mark on my record for insubordination or anything like that in 23 years, which is almost unheard of. |
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