Ever wonder what a false police report looks like? Here's one filed by visiting assistant professor of Communication Michael W. Barberich (with some redactions):
Barberich was claiming his "personal safety" and approximately 160 students' safety was at risk (the student enrollment plus the five teaching assistants). Barberich was claiming that they were in imminent danger (the class ordinarily was scheduled to meet five minutes after Barberich filed his false police report) in a lecture hall from someone he claimed to believe was "unstable" and perhaps wanted to become a "martyr." Barberich was claiming that at a university where there had once been a real armed, unstable student who held students hostage for hours in a lecture hall: Ralph J. Tortorici (see e.g. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/ralph/dthalmann.html ), a case the UAlbany police (then peace officers) and local police had handled incompetently, leaving the students in the Tortorici case to have to disarm the shooter themselves. (One student got shot in the process, and UAlbany publicly praised the student who'd been shot - while fighting his FOIL request for records and also fighting him in court; praise from UAlbany isn't necessarily the most desirable of things.)
In the December 6, 2011 case, the malfeasant, incompetent SUNY Police didn't even bother to send any officers to the lecture hall, Barberich's office, or make an effort to determine the student's whereabouts by calling him or his emergency contact (if the report is accurate, that is, which makes no mention of such actions). Instead they assured Barberich that his false police report would be filed and sent him on his merry, sociopathic way, free to file more false police reports about students who'd reported him for academic dishonesty, sexual harassment, and retaliation. If Barberich had been telling the truth (with him: perhaps not so likely to happen often), the UAlbany police would have had some 'splainin' to do.
Clarence L. McNeill had been nice enough to tip Barberich off that he'd been reported (something that was done the day prior to Barberich filing his demonstrably false police report... hmm):
"Hope all is well w/you."
I spent time yesterday talking w/Prof. Barberich and Dr. Altarriba about what has transpired these past few weeks between you and he [i.e. that I was reporting his academic dishonesty, sexual harassment, etc. to the department chair Altarriba, who did not stop Barberich and who forced me to remain in the class all semester as a condition of receiving my degree and graduating rather than give me the academic accommodation I'd requested, all the while encouraging me to continue reporting Barberich]. He is very concerned that he is being targeted by you and there now exists an actual [i.e. bullshit] fear for his personal safety."
— Clarence L. McNeill, Subject: Good Morning [!], December 6, 2011 9:51 AM
I'd earlier expressed the fear to Altarriba that I'd be targeted for retaliation for reporting Barberich, a fear others had expressed to me on learning I was reporting him, and a fear which I thought had validity. Barberich, seemingly being inescapably a plagiarist at heart, took my real concern and falsely claimed it as his own. UAlbany acted as though I'd never repeatedly expressed my concerns about Barberich's behavior in writing all semester long (which I had), and acted as though Barberich's last-minute alleged "fear" were a real one. His "fear" came up when he learned, by being tipped off by McNeill, that he'd been reported outside the Communication department and above the chair who'd been permitting him to gratify himself however he liked all semester. Not exactly a convincing time for him to be claiming he'd been afraid.
Why he hadn't had me expelled from the class when he claimed (quite falsely) that I'd been disrupting it all semester has gone unexplained. In the end Barberich gave me a final grade of an A, a grade my quizzes, tests, and assignments don't seem to quite meet. I had to request my own grades by FOIL, because Barberich didn't provide them all, and McNeill didn't either despite promising in writing that he would.
It's not unlike the tipoffs convicted bomber Steven Raucci of CSEA evidently used to receive. That Barberich's wife Therese Assalian of CSEA is mentioned in articles about Raucci is no doubt purely coincidental.
Then again, Albany County Sheriff's Office Senior Investigator Sean Spring, Jr. ("Senior Junior") said that the case in which Barberich's wife Therese Assalian threatened the Shenendehowa school district that they needed to hire back Donna Bottari, a local public school bus driver who had threatened to hire a hitman to kill a whistleblower at a local public school who'd reported her for erratic driving, a case in which Bottari was unrepentant about her actions, a case that actually went to trial, "probably governs the reaction that the campus took with respect to you" (approximately at 3:39-3:44 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-N6rSq3DWc ). Indeed, one might well think so.
"Albany Donna Bottari was so steamed that a fellow Saratoga Springs school bus driver reported her erratic driving in May 2002 that she told a co-worker she was going to arrange a 'hit' on him, according to a court decision released Thursday. Not a good idea. Following a two-year court battle, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Bottari must be fired. The 4-0 decision reversed a move by Saratoga County Supreme Court Justice Thomas D. Nolan Jr. to reinstate Bottari last summer. […] 'We're disappointed with the decision,' said Therese Assalian, a spokeswoman with the Civil Service Employees Association. 'We agree with the lower court, and we're considering our options. 'That might include taking the case to the Court of Appeals, she said.'" (emphasis added)
Bolton, Michael Morgon. "Bus Driver Firing Upheld" Albany Times Union. January 30, 2004: B4. http://albarchive.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=6274649
"In May 2002, petitioner, a school bus driver employed by respondent Saratoga Springs City School District, was reported by another driver, Brian Winne, for driving her own bus erratically. A few days later, petitioner confronted Winne and verbally berated him. Petitioner also told another coworker that she was going to 'get a hit out on [Winne]' because he filed the report against her. [...] petitioner had erratically operated a school bus, had used threatening and obscene language against Winne and had threatened to 'get a hit man to take Winne out.' […] petitioner's poor judgment and lack of remorse, the disturbing nature of her comments" (emphasis added)
In the Matter of Bottari v. Saratoga Springs City School District, 3 AD 3d 832 - NY: Appellate Div., 3rd Dept. 2004. http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1343002799337654656
Oh, but it couldn't really be what governed the reaction in the case involving Assalian's husband Barberich, could it? Surely not? And then that there's mention of Barberich having allegedly contacted his union representative (presumably not someone with CSEA) and that an alleged e-mail to that alleged union rep had been forwarded to the UAlbany Police (for reasons unknown by persons unknown?) is probably indicative of nothing at all: nothing to see here, move along meow.
Lt. Paul Burlingame is one of the male officers in Abdul-Wahhab v. State of New York, #2012-032-004, Claim No. 116205 (June 18, 2012) http://vertumnus.courts.state.ny.us/claims/html/2012-032-004.html who hid in a women's restroom on campus where he and another male officer used a peephole in the women's restroom to spy on a decoy bag they were using to entrap students. Dirty officer Burlingame had a minority female student go outside after a major area blizzard while she was wearing sandals, shorts, and a t-shirt, arrested her, and the SUNY Police refused her a ride home after they finally released her at 1 AM.
The operation was in violation of the Personal Property Law, a law about which Burlingame-the-system and other members of the corrupt and incompetent UAlbany police subsequently claimed (in violation of the SUNY Police Manual which prohibits such a questionable "defense") to be ignorant - a "defense" that NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Judge Judith A. Hard let him make, appallingly. Judge Hard went to far as to claim that the male officers who'd hidden in a women's restroom, used a peephole in a women's restroom, etc. and who'd used ignorance of the law as their "defense" had exercised "reasoned judgment." Does Judge Hard know what "reasoned judgment" is? Perhaps the figure of Justice on the NYS Seal has a bandage over her eyes because she's gouged them out in pure frustration at the terrible insanity of what passes for justice in New York?
Burlingame had been an officer at the time, but received a promotion (possibly more than one?) to Lieutenant after (because of?) that fiasco.
The case mentions a Lt. Karosky: "After claimant was brought out of Eastman Tower, a Lieutenant Karosky told Officer Burlingame to place claimant under arrest for larceny." That officer's knowledge or ignorance of the Personal Property Law doesn't appear to have come up in the case, though seemingly it should have. For that matter, who is Lt. Karosky?
The list of members of the department as archived on June 25, 2007
http://web.archive.org/web/20070625123927/http://police.albany.edu/Members.asp
The list of members of the department as archived on February 4, 2008
http://web.archive.org/web/20080204222246/http://police.albany.edu/Members.asp
No Lt. Karosky on either of those lists.
There's a Lt. Kevin J. Krosky and a Lt. William F. Yankowski: seemingly it was the former (off by just one letter) who'd told Burlingame to arrest the student for larceny when she had not in fact committed larceny. Karosky's been at UAlbany since 1999 and he's still there. Lt. Krosky was then and is now a K-9 Officer, TASER Instructor, and Bike Patrol Officer. http://web.archive.org/web/20070518135455/http://police.albany.edu/Member2.asp?LName=Krosky&FName=Kevin "Don't tase me, bro!"
UAlbany's police dogs assuredly have more brains than Krosky and are probably the only officers in the department deserving of promotion. One of them demonstrated just how smart he was by trying to get the hell away from the UAlbany Police and the UAlbany campus. Unfortunately, the good dog's attempt to find a better home came to an end:
Waldman, Scott. "K-9 flees, gets collared." Albany Times Union. December 13, 2010. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/K-9-flees-gets-collared-878263.php
UAlbany police are to a large extent responsible for seeing to their own education (as are UAlbany students when they're unfortunate enough to have instructors like Barberich), e.g. SUNY Police Manual § 10.11 "University police members will be responsible for their own standard of professional performance and will take every reasonable opportunity to enhance and improve their level of knowledge and competence. Through study and experience, a university police member can acquire the high level of knowledge and competence that is essential for the efficient and effective performance of duty. The acquisition of knowledge is a never-ending process of personal and professional development that should be pursued constantly." E.g. § 15.09 (a section titled "KNOWLEDGE OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS" emphasis of title in original) "Every member is required to establish and maintain a working knowledge of laws, local ordinances, the rules and policies of the university and the department, and orders of the department. In the event of improper action or breach of discipline, it will be presumed that the member was familiar with the law, rule or policy in question and will be subject to possible disciplinary action" (emphasis added). E.g. § 15.11 "Members and employees shall observe and obey all laws", etc.
The UAlbany police chief is responsible for their training, e.g. § 5.10 "The chief is also responsible for officer training and documentation of such training". That "Chief" Wiley had failed to be responsible for their training (according to what his men claimed in Abdul-Wahhab v. State of New York, presumably under oath) didn't come up for some reason, nor did the fact that "Chief" Wiley had failed to swear and file his oath of office in 1996 when he was appointed - meaning he vacated the office of chief in 1996 (d'oh!).
Anyhow... the corrupt and incompetent UAlbany police did Barberich a solid by taking his false police report and further falsifying it for him. Note that in the "Associated Persons" field it claims "SUNY Student? No". One would suppose that is a search field and that they'd thereby made it more difficult to locate the report if someone were searching for reports involving students. They also classified it, falsely, as a "N-Fight/Disturbance" when there was no fight or disturbance involved. "N" seems to stand for "Non criminal," which is the category under which the report may be found in their Daily Crime Log. Note also that the summary is a false one: the report is about a claim that 160+ people were in imminent danger from an "unstable" would-be "martyr", yet it summarizes it as being about a supposed disturbance in a class:
How actual fights could be classified as non-criminal, I'm not sure, when presumably they involve assault. In this case, the report was a visiting assistant professor, tipped off that he'd been reported for academic dishonesty, sexual harassment, and retaliation, who'd filed a false police report about the student who'd reported him, making the student out to be something like a campus shooter. An unarmed adult learner with disabilities cannot pose a danger to the personal safety of a professor and the safety of 160 students, most of them teenagers in relatively good health, some of them athletes; only an armed student could do that. Note also that the case was not given a disposition like "unfounded"; it evidently wasn't given a disposition at all.
The class, however, was likely completely empty. Barberich didn't tell the police that the class had been cancelled, didn't tell the police that it was the last class of the semester (when many students choose not to go), and that his attendance policy permitted unlimited unexcused absences (which was a license not to attend which some used). There was unlikely to have been even one person in danger were the danger Barberich falsely claimed to be real actually had been real. Barberich had waited until five minutes before class had been scheduled to meet, giving the armed, corrupt, incompetent UAlbany police with their history of firearms violations no time at all to think about how to respond. By waiting until a half hour before class ordinarily met, it had been made so that the disabled adult learner, a commuter, would not have received the announcement about the cancellation had he intended to go. It is as if Barberich wanted the student to be headed to class, and for the armed UAlbany police to go rushing to the lecture hall under the impression that the student was about to harm 160+ people. What was Barberich hoping would happen, exactly?
Two of the decorated members of the UAlbany police had brought an unregistered "junk gun" on campus prior to that false police report, for which they've gone essentially unpunished. A "junk gun" is the sort of gun one fires once and discards or that one plants on somebody (or both). One could shoot an unarmed student and plant a gun on him, and claim he'd been shot because he'd been armed. Police that would file a demonstrably false police report would probably never stoop so low as that, though, right?
James Lyman, Executive Director of Council 82 for the New York State Law Enforcement Officers Union had stated, "there are police chiefs in SUNY who are not mandating policer [sic] officers, certified, whatever. We have police chiefs that refuse to voluntarily give up their fingerprints" (108). http://www.nysenate.gov/files/SUNY%20testimony%20pt.%202.PDF (emphasis added)
Peter Barry, Vice President and Legislative Director of New York State University Police Officers Union, Local 1792 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFSCME, Council 82 and AFL-CIO had stated, "decentralized structure promotes erroneous crime reporting and record keeping. One possible cause for this is that SUNY police chiefs serve at the pleasure of the campus president, thus are motivated to keep crime stats down by any means […] SUNY can no longer afford to staff, or overstaff, a body which is subject to inefficiencies, manipulation, cronyism, ill motivation and mismanagement" (127-128).
http://www.nysenate.gov/files/SUNY%20Testimony%20pt.%203.PDF
In a way, it's good the UAlbany police didn't go rushing down to the lecture hall, ready to take down a campus shooter. However, one wishes they had at least checked the veracity of Barberich's demonstrably false statements and then asked Barberich: "WTF, asshole?"
The sooner law enforcement, a prosecutor, a judge with integrity, etc. take on such problems as Barberich, the SUNY police, etc. the better for campus security, the better for the safety of students, faculty, staff, and visitors to SUNY campuses. "SUNY Albany's Public Enemy #1?" (the self-description in the sidebar) is facetious; I'd like to see that school (all schools, really) be as safe as possible, provide the best education possible, and make the best possible use of tuition and taxpayers' money. Right now it's failing in those regards: a Failure with a capital F, not the euphemistic "E" used at UAlbany for students who fail. Here's hoping things will improve sooner rather than later?
---
“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.” - Edward W. Bok
---
"the safety of our students and the security of our campuses is our top priority"
"Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo." Press Releases. September 13, 2012. http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/091412stmtsunythreats
(If only Cuomo really meant the above, if only...)
---
"Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act" 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f) (17)
"Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to permit an institution, or an officer, employee, or agent of an institution, participating in any program under this subchapter and part C of subchapter I of chapter 34 of title 42 to retaliate, intimidate, threaten, coerce, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the implementation of any provision of this subsection."
