Transcription
Press conference we expected to have today. Uh, as mayor, it is one of my greatest privileges to work with the men and women of the New Haven Police Department. Uh, they're New Haven's finest. They put in long hours, put your lives at risk on behalf of our community, keeping our residents and our neighborhoods safe.
That said, in this administration, we are committed to the highest degree of accountability, integrity, transparency in all areas of government. And when an individual engages in inappropriate or illegal activity and breaks the public's trust, we act immediately and accordingly. Regrettably, that is what happened uh with one of our most senior leaders of local government, which is why we're holding this press conference this evening.
Earlier today, I learned that uh police chief Carl Jacobson admitted to stealing money from a designated city fund that the department uses to support its confidential informant program. The fund is used to pay individuals who provide the department with confidential information to help solve crimes. When several officers flagged irregularities with Chief Jacobson's use of the fund to assistant chiefs inelli, ATN, and Bakana, the three assistant chiefs confronted Chief Jacobson this morning where he admitted to taking the funds for personal use. The assistant chiefs rightly reported the information to CEO Justin McCarthy who then notified me.
Chief Jacobson was subsequently called in to meet with me where I intended to put him on administrative leave as we initiated an investigation. Just prior to that meeting, Chief Jacobson submitted his paperwork to retire effective today. Uh we subsequently met with the state's attorney's office, state's attorney Jack Doyle to go over what we know about the situation. Uh and then he then engaged chief states attorney Patrick Griffin. Later I today I spoke with the chief of state's attorney who confirmed that he was in contact with the Connecticut State Police and they are determining the appropriate next steps regarding a criminal investigation.
We don't have a lot of additional information that we can share at this point. There's an ongoing investigation and we're still piecing some things together ourselves as well. Um at this point we don't have any information that anyone else is involved uh in this theft either. Effectively immediate. Effective immediately, I've appointed uh Assistant Chief David Zanelli to acting chief of the New Haven Police Department.
Acting Chief Zanelli has worked for the New Haven Police Department since 2008. He has worked his way up the ranks starting as a police officer. Uh he was a district manager in Fair Haven, assistant chief of uh patrol operations, and most recently recently assistant chief of the investigative services division. Um, and of course now he is acting chief. He'll serve as acting chief until I determine next steps regarding a permanent appointment. Uh, I want to thank Chief Sinelli for stepping up. I'm sure this morning when he woke up, he wasn't expecting to be acting chief of the New Haven Police Department. Um, and I have my uh, utmost confidence in his ability. I have worked with him for many, many years. He is a strong leader. He is someone with integrity. uh and he had brings a wealth of experience having worked uh in many different on many different issues in the New Haven Police Department. So, Chief Senelli, thank you for stepping up.
>> Uh to say that this news is a is a shock is an understatement. Uh it's a shock to me. It's a shock to the command staff. It's a shock to the men and women of the police department. It's a shock to the New Haven community. Uh it's a betrayal of public trust. No one is above the law. No one is above the law. We treat everyone the same and that includes the New Haven chief of police. We'll follow the facts where they lead and of course we'll fully cooperate with the state police and the state's attorney's office.
At the same time, you should feel proud of who the New Haven Police Department is. Uh New Haven, the men and women of New Haven Police Department, your colleagues acted courageously and with integrity. when they saw something wrong, they did the right thing and they reported it. They put their oath and commitment to New Haveners and the department and the city above all else. You also have three assistant chiefs who did the same and demonstrated absolute integrity in their actions. We're confident that you will follow their lead. We're confident that you will continue to get up every morning and do your jobs with dedication and integrity to keep our residents and our streets safe. Your city needs you and I know that you will continue to fill your oath and answer that call to duty and service.
And to the New Haven community, as it was for me, it's deeply troubling news to hear the police chief misuse public funds and committed acts of theft. We put our trust in law enforcement to uphold the law, not to violate the law themselves. Overwhelmingly, New Haven police officers do exactly that every day. They uphold the law. They protect and serve our city. And they keep us safe. So when you see a police officer on the street, please continue to thank them for their service and sacrifice. And you know you have a police department that's committed to doing their jobs with integrity in the best interests of our city. This is a challenging episode in our city's history, but we'll get through this together. Uh now I'd like to hand it over to acting police chief David Sadelli for some words.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everybody. Um this has been an incredibly challenging day for us. I'd like to thank my other assistant here um assistant chief Bagtana and Etien for helping us navigate through these waters. Uh we acted immediately and rest assured that the process does work. When police officers see something here that they think is inappropriate, they act immediately and that's what happened here. So I want to thank them for that. And to the men and women of the New Haven Police Department, I want to remind them that we are here to support them and that integrity is of the utmost importance and that the community can trust us. Thank you very much.
Before we open up the question, I just want to thank um Commissioner Police Commissioners Rivero and Dawson for being here as well. Um we also have the CEO Justin McCarthy and um Pat King, our corporation council here as well. Folks have any questions?
How much money did Chief Jason allegedly steal?
>> Uh, we we talked a lot about how much we could share and we feel like given the ongoing investigation, we can't share what we know right now because we do not have a um a very solid idea about how much.
Do you know for what period of time stolen?
>> Uh, we don't know that information yet either. I and and and there may be a number of questions I can't answer. I I just found out about this this morning.
What are the protocols over this? Is he the only one that has access to I mean obviously there's somebody who flagged the transaction but is he the only one that has access to withdraw the money?
>> Again there's an ongoing investigation so we can't answer that question yet.
You go specifically into the fund you were referring to. What exactly is it used for? How big of a budget is it?
>> Uh so I can't answer information about how big the fund is but is it is used to provide uh money to people that are informants of the police department to help them uh in investigations and identify criminal activity.
Where did the three assistant chiefs confront Chief Jameson today? Was that at the police department?
>> Police station.
So it was here at one Union Avenue in his office.
>> What time did that take place today? This is ear earlier today.
Brian,
>> around 2 p.m. there were state troopers in the building. You had said that you were talking with the state. Was that related to the investigation?
>> Unrelated.
Okay.
>> This may be a question for corporation council king, but could is there does the charter say anything about who should be the acting police chief when the current police chief suddenly departs or is it entirely up to?
>> Yeah. No.
No. I mean, you can add to
>> the mayor. the mayor would have the authority to appoint an acting police chief, which is what he has done.
And my from what I I think I understand is he was has his contract ended? Did he sign a new contract? He was in the process of that, right?
>> That I'll turn over to
So his uh term for four years and was scheduled to end at the end of January. Um obviously with this turn of events, it ended today. When just so I understand the retirement is anything owed to him because he retired is owed to the end of January or is it just when you retire you're done with the money?
>> You're when you retire you're done.
Okay.
>> Yeah.
What communication if any has there been with just rank and file police officers about what happened?
>> Well, so uh I think you're seeing the start of it and uh you can you can talk to you talk lineups and stuff.
So So sure. So, we're going to be doing some some very uh urgent messaging. This has been a developing day. Um, so this is the first time we've been back to the police, but we're going to be following up immediately with messaging.
>> Yeah. And and I I also I spoke with the head of the police union uh earlier today and they'll be sp speaking with lineups, you know, as as you I as I'm not a police officer, but as I would imagine, um police officers are shocked uh and um disappointed as many of us are. Uh but I think it's very very important to underscore that we have strong leadership. We have a strong team here that will get us through this.
You said that the chief admitted to stealing.
>> Correct.
When confronted with accusation,
>> correct?
Do you know when the officers caught the regularities involving that specific fund?
>> I'm not going to get into those details either because it's an ongoing investigation.
I know you mentioned that you don't believe anyone else is involved in this instance. Do you do you foresee any type of audits of any other line items, budget items?
>> Yeah. So we'll we'll be looking into whether there is any other possibility for the same type of activity to be happening questions.
How often are these accounts you know checked like are they annually by annually quarterly?
>> Again an ongoing investigation. So, I'm sorry. I I really would love to share a lot of this information, but I've I've found uh that often times the initial information isn't always fully accurate to and so I want to make sure that we provide accurate information, but we'll do the best that we can as as this unfolds to share as much as we can.
Is this the first time you audited this account?
>> Again, can't just leading the investigation. So uh the uh state's attorney and the state police are in discussions about who is most appropriate to lead the investigation.
Who will be investigated services as chief acting?
>> So I'll hold dual roles for the time being until the mayor finds a permanent policeman.
And to be clear, you're going to serve in that role as acting chief until he figures out.
>> Correct.
Correct.
>> Do you have any idea when that does that have to wait for?
>> Yeah. This morning when I woke up, I was not expecting this. So, give us some time to figure this out.
I have one last question. How does this affect his pension? Is he still going to be paid out when he retire?
>> So, um uh he can retire as of right and receive a pension. Uh if an individual is convicted of a financial crime against the city, there's a potential that an individual could have their pension removed. Um but it's very very early for anything like that to you know us to contemplate that scenario.
Okay. Thank you everybody. Thank you.