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ROGUE POLICE in NEW YORK …DEPT AT IT AGAIN
~~ROGUE POLICE in NEW YORK
…DEPT AT IT AGAIN
The town of Wallkill in Orange County, New York has a police department whose mission statement “ to protect life, property, public order and the rights of everyone in our community” is the antithesis of the truth with a long history of violations so egregious that New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sued the town of Wallkill for what this police department does.
In fact, the consent decree that was placed on Wallkill as a result was the 1st time New York ever did so. Four other municipalities have been forced to sign federal decrees placing their cops under outside supervision due to civil rights violations: Pittsburgh, the New Jersey State Police, Steubenville, Ohio, and Los Angeles.
From 2001 to 2006 the Wallkill Police were subject to oversight by a Federal Court appointed monitor, the result of a consent decree in a suit brought against the Town by the New York Attorney General office for civil rights violations ranging from sexual harassment (forcing teenager girls to disrobe) to targeting the local press because they were reporting on what the police were doing to citizens. The suit was prompted by multiple complaints of abuses of police authority:
The NY Daily News reported Wallkill cops stopped female motorists under phony pretexts, arresting them on groundless drunken-driving charges. The women were then allegedly hounded for dates and pummeled with sexually suggestive comments. One officer allegedly coerced a 20-year-old shoplifting suspect to take off her pants so he could “check for merchandise”. The civil rights lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court stated in its filing that “the People of the state of New York seek supervision of the Town of Wallkill’s police department which is claimed to be out of control.”
The NY Attorney General said an unidentified uniformed cop groped several 16-year-old waitresses as they worked in a restaurant, grabbing the thigh of one as he wondered aloud what she would “look like without her shirt on”. When the teens’ parents complained to town officials, nothing was done. After the lawsuit, the town officials reluctantly signed the consent decree for supervision.
A stain on Wallkill’s reputation was now in place.
Wallkill once held a highly esteemed place in the fight for freedom from British oppression and abuse of power. If Boston was where American Independence was born, Wallkill was where American firepower was created. Wallkill was once home to a great patriot, Honorable Henry Wisner, a New York delegate to the First, Second and Third Continental Congresses. Upon learning that General Washington was running low on gunpowder, he supplied the Army by setting up three production sites in the Wallkill vicinity at his own expense.
Wisner was one of four commissioners who laid out West Point, and also assisted in selecting the site of Fort Putnam. Over his grave was recorded the following: “Sacred to the memory of Henry Wisner, who departed this life, March 4, 1790, a devoted friend to the liberties of his country. On account of the extensive aid furnished his country he died in poverty.” His great-great-grandson, Lewis S. Wisner, was born and died a Wallkill citizen, earning the Medal of Honor during the Civil War for heroism.
One would think that protecting life, liberty and property would be a given in Wallkill.
A mere six years after the consent decree was lifted, Wallkill had slipped back into its old violations of civil rights. On March 6, 2012, Wallkill police trespassed upon a 100 acre farm in Wallkill, cutting and driving through the chained 1000 ft driveway claiming they were there on a “welfare check” for the two elderly residents. This farm has been home for 28 years to Karousel Kennels, where guardian Rottweiler dogs were bred for families and offered for free to victims of crime such as Bernadette Shuback who was stabbed in a violent home invasion along with her bedridden mother was stabbed to death called the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Panetta gave Bernadette free of charge two trained adult Rottweiler dogs to overcome the post traumatic every day fear from that horrific event. Another family with two kids whose mom died in 9-11 attack called to buy puppy. She wouldn’t take their money. Panetta used her dogs twice to help the police track missing persons as a volunteer.
Instead of fighting violent crime, Wallkill police officers have better things to do… like on March 12th, 2012 (in retaliation for suing law enforcement over her previous beating by rogue cops which ruptured discs in her back requiring 4 spinal fusions?) when the two Wallkill police officers did not announce their presence, in fact, they went past the house to the rear of the property where the property owner, 67 year old Sylvia Panetta spotted them snooping around the dog kennels. She asked what they were doing and told them they were not only trespassing but broke bio-security for the kennels. She asked if they had a warrant and they said no so she asked them to leave. The next morning at 6:30 am they came back with a defective warrant (in colonial times this was known as a Writ of Assistance – which sparked the American Revolution) and began a six week long seizure of all her dogs, including puppies worth $26,000 at that time..
In total they stole under color of law, over $200,000 in valuable breeding dogs. They searched her home looking for violations though none were noted on the search warrant and seized her papers. They were on a fishing expedition. Years of supervision of the consent decree had not taught this department anything such as due process and to protect all citizens 4th Amendment rights: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. WRITS OF ASSISTANCE WERE ABOLISHED IN 1620 (when the Mayflower landed). In fact, it seems their game had become more polished using asset forfeiture, also known as ‘policing for profit’. As they removed the Karousel Kennel dogs, witnesses heard them say “I want that one!”.
Pillage and plunder police. Wallkill must be proud.
Maybe we should back up and look at just who was appointed years before as the consent decree monitor to see that the Wallkill PD cleaned up their act? Dean Esserman was the appointed “monitor” to restore ethics to the Wallkill Police Dept. But was that placing the fox to oversee the hen house? Esserman was recently caught in his own scandal for misuse of police authority at a football game!
According to the Associated Press and the New Haven Register New Haven’s Police Chief Esserman got into an argument with an usher over seating during the Yale versus Army football game. Yale professor Dan Weinberger said that Esserman threatened to “shut the whole game down” after an usher asked to see his tickets. Weinberger also said that Esserman told the usher he didn’t need tickets because he was the police chief.
According to WTNH Channel 8 New Haven Mayor Toni Harp sent a letter of reprimand to Police Chief Dean Esserman in response to his conduct at the game putting him on notice that similar behavior will not be tolerated in the future. Harp warned that any future behavior of that nature will lead to “more severe consequences”.
Sources told the News 8 investigators that outburst was not an isolated incident. On several occasions, the chief has lashed out at individuals and even caused scenes at Tweed Airport. According to locals, in October 2014, when Michelle Obama came to Connecticut to rally votes for Governor Malloy, Chief Esserman waited at Tweed Airport for them to land, and planned on being a part of the motorcade. When Secret Service denied him, he “exchanged words” with members of the Secret Service and left the airport on foot, asking a New Haven Police Officer to pick him up.
City employees confirmed other incidents, including ending a school presentation early because a teacher took a phone call in the hallway, and a 2012 incident at the Hamden DMV, in which a police officer was sent back to the DMV to apologize for Esserman’s behavior. No city official was willing to be named as a source. Local Attorney William Palmieri claims, “Chief Esserman counts on people who see his behavior sitting down and shutting up”. Journalist Kate Nagle a few months ago reported that speculation has been mounting that former Police Chief Dean Esserman — who resigned in 2011 after hosting an underage drinking party for his daughters’ high school graduation — could be in contention for Providence Public Safety Commissioner where he has a history of controversy.
Esserman was appointed as Chief of Providence Police in 2003 by then Mayor David Cicilline but reports began surfacing that Esserman was in trouble. Following an altercation with an officer in 2011 — and a no-confidence vote by the police union — GoLocal’s Stephen Beale reported on additional instances of Esserman misconduct by city employees. Esserman tendered his resignation to Mayor Taveras a week following the revelations of the underage drinking on his property.
UNDER DEAN ESSERMAN, PROVIDENCE POLICE DEPT’S
ROGUE ELEMENT, CRIME & CORRUPTION INCREASED
According to “Motif Magazine” rogue cops flourish in part because the systems in place are for officers to police themselves … and that under Dean Esserman Providence’s police department’s rogue element, crime and corruption increased. Addressing some of the problems of the New Haven police force under Esserman, Scot X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut NAACP said “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, there’s a problem, and little fires turn into big fires,” said “You have individuals with the ability to take someone’s life.
They have guns. They have a lot of power. They have the ability for someone to be free or not free. They have the power to arrest. They have the power to put felonies on people. A police officer can destroy someone’s life forever. When you give people that kind of power and they’re racist or they’re prejudiced or they don’t have sensitivity to the people that they’re sworn in to protect and serve, you have a huge, huge problem. And this is something that our community has been dealing with for a long time.”
New Haven ranks 20th most violent city in the USA. “There’s a history of aspects of the police department in the day time wearing a blue uniform, in the nighttime wearing a white sheet.” said Jim Rawlings, President of the Greater New Haven Branch of the NAACP, John R. Williams, a civil rights attorney who, since 1969, has been handling discrimination cases, many involving the police in New Haven. At a press conference, Williams read a letter calling on Chief Esserman to address not just a N-word incident but ongoing problems of racism in the police department. “There are additional concerns that this police administration treats their token black officers as suspects and second-class citizens in their workplace daily,” Williams said. Many black officers said they are weary of white colleagues expressing racist and sexist attitudes with relative impunity reports the Yale-Herald.
So rewinding back to Wallkill, why would the town and the police department violate a senior citizen’s rights and take away all her assets that allowed her to support herself and her 85 year old companion who is a cancer survivor of three different bouts of cancer: prostate, testicular and brain? Destroyed her kennel business that allowed her to pay her property taxes for 28 years?
Wallkill is a developer’s dream, just 70 miles from Manhattan with rolling hills of meadows and forest. A New York Times article featured Wallkill and interviewed Martin Ginsburg, a founder and principal of GDC, a developer company that has built extensively in Westchester and Rockland Counties, who said Wallkill is one of the few places left within commuting distance of Manhattan that still has substantial tracts of land to build on.
John F. Ward Jr., the Wallkill supervisor, said that large parcels of open space “are fast becoming rare commodities that need to be fiercely guarded.” The town is under “tremendous development pressure,” said Supervisor Ward. Because of that, recent zoning changes for rural areas now require that 40 percent of the land in a new development “must stay green” if builders are to be eligible for two-acre zoning, instead of three-acre zoning, which is what is usually called for
.
The Panetta farm is a 100 acre parcel. That sounds lucrative and ripe for development. So who made the original call to the Wallkill police? A contractor. In fact, the original call was not about the welfare of senior citizens but an unfounded zoning complaint that there was a farm that had too many dogs. Never mind that Karousel Kennels was grandfathered in as a legal kennel business since 1985 sitting on 100 idyllic countryside acres. If we did the math, setting aside 40 acres for conservation, the Karousel Kennel property could be divided into 30 parcels for development.
What is the best way to take someone’s property? Trump up some code violation. In this case, a building contractor initiated the unfounded complaint of “too many dogs” against a longtime established and well known, thriving kennel. The police investigated without a warrant, fraudulently under false pretenses stating that they were there for a welfare check then upon illegally entering later secured a general “fishing expedition” warrant which did not specify anything.
In Panetta’s own words….
“…prosecutorial misconduct from various people in the District Attorney’s office, judicial misconduct and abuse of authority from several judges, fraud upon the court, misuse of tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars, misconduct from state employees, police perjury, police misconduct, misconduct from county employees … and more … much, much more.
They unlawfully seized two five year-old dogs under the color of law that were healthy, happy, in no pain, not suffering from anything — but were born deformed with known Rottweiler anomalies such as toes that curl to one side, in this case, her toe nails grew upward. They just looked different. Four days later, without my knowledge, permission, court order, or being charged with anything, the dogs were surgically mutilated. They cut her foot off!
Did this dog deserve to lose her foot over a minor deformity? If your child was born with a minor foot deformity that did not impede his mobility would you have his foot amputated? Or let the government dictate an unnecessary
amputation?
Although there were no charges against me for six weeks, they continued coming back and doing warrantless searches, accompanied by civilians and others.
They came six weeks later with not only another highly defective search warrant that had no Application for that warrant (wasn’t signed and sworn-to until the following day) with no probable cause, the judge unlawfully authorized two veterinarians and others to come here to LOOK FOR OTHER VIOLATIONS! A fishing expedition … Although I wasn’t charged with anything for the balance of the dogs, and without statutory authority or probable cause, the judge authorized civilians and police to come onto my property daily to maintain my dogs until all dogs are removed by June 1, 2012.
They ransacked my house twice, unlawfully looking for violations. They killed a newborn puppy. They euthanized a dog that went into kidney failure ten days after they seized her. They took files they don’t acknowledge taking. Fraud upon the court. Prosecutorial misconduct. (Among other things, the DA misused tens of thousands of taxpayer money.) And so much more.
I had no lawyer during this entire time that all these egregious things were being done to me The judge refused to appoint a lawyer. I stood alone in front of the judge and DA at all appearances. I finally spoke up at a hearing and told him that I had a right to an attorney. He replied, “And I have a right to move this case forward.” And he did. Shortly after that, after all my dogs were illegally seized under the color of law, the judge and his brother, yet another judge, recused themselves.
“Because they took my source of income, I have been unable to pay my taxes and the County is taking title to my house as of March 2, 2015. I will be homeless.”
I received a response from the Inspector General. The IG said they were forwarding my complaint to the police department (the department subject of my complaint), and if I had any questions, to contact them. I am now scared to death for retaliation. This police department was previously monitored under Federal monitors because the NYS Attorney General found them to be “dangerous”.
Perhaps instead of a New York state monitoring, the Wallkill Police warranted a federal consent decree like that of Los Angeles where the US Dept. of Justice spent 10 years overseeing their activities and then extended it indefinitely. That is how out of control far too many new military police departments have become in America.
States have begun to rectify the asset seizure constitutional violations such as the New Mexico legislature just did to abolish civil asset forfeiture. Civil asset forfeiture is an unlawful practice where police along with government officials take and keep your property without convicting or even charging you of a crime. There is then a costly and often unsuccessful process to get your property–whether it’s a vehicle, cash or your home–back from the police. New Mexico police must now convict you of a crime and prove your property was used in the crime before you forfeit it to the authorities. Also, the money gained from the property will now go to the state’s general fund instead of police budgets, so that police do not have incentives to take from citizens.
Meanwhile, New York’s Orange County where Wallkill sits, has just done the opposite, voting for civil asset forfeiture for all misdeameanor crimes. Perhaps they realized they are in a vulnerable legal position from the Wallkill illegal seizure and forfeiture of Ms. Panetta’s dogs and personal effects.
In the Wallkill Valley Times, Ernesto Tirado opined, “ On December 4, (2014) in a vote along party lines, Orange County Legislators voted 12-9 to give DA Hoovler his much sought after Asset Forfeiture Law on misdemeanors. All Republican lawmakers and the only Independent, Michael Amo (District 1), who usually votes with the Republicans, gave DA Hoovler the votes needed to be able to seize personal property from anyone supposedly convicted on misdemeanor drug charges “only”.
All Democrats gave passionate statements why the law is wrong and voted against it. The vote passed despite 100% of all speakers decrying that the law is unconstitutional and will lead to abuse and corruption because of the policing for profit motive of the law. As proposed, the proceeds will be distributed 41% to the DA’s office, 29% to the Sheriff’s office and the remainder to the county’s general fund. One speaker said the Conservatives voting for this law should be outraged and were basically hypocrites, as it stood against the very principles they claim to fight for, larger government and overreach. I spoke and stated how the law is discriminatory because it will mostly be targeted at the poor and minority neighborhoods. People who will lose their properties, not because they are guilty, but because they generally don’t have the resources to defend themselves. Despite DA Hoovler’s stating the law will be applied fairly, the law was being enforced before being enacted when a family in Warwick was denied the use of their urgently needed vehicle for 4 months, even though it was determined they were not guilty of the charges against them.
Included in the Wallkill Police Dept mission statement is this gem: “To promote and encourage an environment which encourages constitutionally sound policing, including the adherence to high ethical standards.”
Instead of gunpowder being manufactured in Wallkill, now over 17 million books and Bibles are produced at a massive printing facility at Watchtower Farm…. maybe there is some local Christian compassion for Ms. Panetta?
Certainly patriots Henry and Lewis Wisner are spinning in their graves in Wallkill knowing they gave their lives and fortune for liberty and freedom and protection of property while the local Wallkill government ravishes a helpless crippled elderly lady and a thrice cancer stricken octogenarian.
Honorable Henry Wisner’s Headstone in Old Wallkill Cemetery
UPDATE!!
Ms. Panetta, desperate to clear her name and reputation of the charges against her contacted all her representatives and state and federal agencies citing the constitutional violations by the Wallkill Police Dept.
In February she received a shocking reply from the Office of Inspector General:
Aghast at the peril she was placed in by the OIG’s irresponsible forwarding of her complaint letter against the Wallkill Police Dept. to that very same dept, she replied:
On April 7th, as she went outside to get the morning paper, she was arrested once again by Wallkill police.
She was booked and has not seen counsel to this date, kept in a very cold jail cell, with no medical care nor her medications for her severe medical conditions.
Below is one of three lettters her neighbors have received citing unbearable conditions, no medical care or medication and the loss of 17 pounds in one week! In her own words “I feel like I am going to die here.”
This is illegal in an America that states that cruel and unusual punishment is unconstitutional. And yet, in Orange County jail she still sits.
Ms. Panetta needs a civil rights attorney and she needs the $50,000 bail to be reduced to release on her own recognizance. She is far from a flight risk. A crowd funding account has been set up for her at:
https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/sylvia-s-property-rights/share#/
Diane Amble
Member of the Los Angeles Press Club
(650) 296-2169 [email protected]
If you look through the tax records on Panetta’s property, you’ll see she has a long history of not paying the taxes in a timely manner. It’s rather pathetic you would paint Panetta as a victim. She is a serial abuser/neglecter. I don’t support breeding for profit, and most certainly don’t support someone breeding genetically deficient dogs. What Panetta had was nothing less than a puppy mill. Breeding females that were merely puppies themselves, breeding dogs that had broken legs, leaving them in deep muck consisting of feces, urine, mud and moldy bread. Feeding them sporadically with nothing but stale/moldy bread and green water. Dog houses that were rotted, broken, not protecting the dogs from the elements. Panetta is the monster in this case. She should have rotted in jail, the way she left those dogs to rot in those “kennels”.
One can hope you would use due diligence in the future before portraying a criminal abuser as a victim. That’s what real journalists do, they check their facts.
Well, without having seen the property and conditions, I am very suspect of people who are against “breeding for profit” since the production of quality animals for any purpose, including as pets, is a costly and time consuming affair. So anyone who is fundamentally opposed to breeding for profit cannot be said to have an open mind on the whole matter, even if the facility was a spotless palace for dogs. this reads much more like a landgrab maneuver conducted in an environment of tenth rate police and other enforcers of a corrupt legal system, and regardless of the dog situation, this kind of UNAMERICAN behaviour by those who would seek to abuse our legal system is untenable. I truly hope real justice is served.
The conditions at this horror hole were deplorable. Your assumptions about me are way off. Panetta is nothing short of a cruel human. Ask her were she buried her daughter? The one that simply disappeared. The same one people fear Panetta killed and buried on that property.
This article is far from factual. If the writer had done due diligence, Panetta’s cruelty case wouldn’t be written to portray her as a victim. Panetta is guilty as sin.
Maybe you should get FACTS about Panetta’s case before you defend a monster.
Shame your parents didn’t have ethics. We wouldn’t be dealing with such a hateful person.
And you know my parents how? and what is the connection between ethics and being hateful, in this particular instance. my parents and grandparents and great grandparents were involved in horse veterinary care and the keeping of many breeds of dogs, all of whom were scrupulously maintained. my brother and I used to complain that our parents took better care of the dogs than they did of us, when we were sulking.
I am just saying this whole thing sounds like a corrupt landgrab, which to me is unethical.
He wasn’t talking to you, dumb dumb. Settle down.
what ever happened to INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY? why the lynch mob mentality?
What ever happened to balanced reporting? Where’s the information from both sides? Oh, wait, nevermind, the other side would prove how this cruelty case has nothing to do with a land grab deal and everything to do with a vicious “greeder”.
I’m pretty sure her being jailed was proof of her guilt. There is no lynch mob mentality here. There is however, those who seek to see that truth is posted upon news sites. However, Mrs. Betty continue to defend the monster you call friend.
What is this garbage? I’m literally floored and outraged at this. Shame, usually “beforeitsnews” uses due diligence before composing articles. This article is an exact reflection of the other article Written by Jim Beers defending Panetta. Even that writer did not speak with those on the ground rescuing all those companions. Just like now, you are blatantly using this issue to attack the police of New York. Granted I dislike authorities at times. Yet think for a minute you have literally trashed beforeitsnews site, you have literally went based on fabricated details.
Betty hush your mouth I know full well you are Panetta’s friend and are willing to do everything and anything to clear your friend’s name. Even far as to lie and concoct this type of tripe to make Panetta appear the victim.
I would advise this writer to speak personally with the rescuers- much like I have done and am doing.
Sylvia Panetta is and always will be an animal abusing hoarder. If she is allowed to have companions in her care again she will do the same. Abuse, Neglect and ultimately kill any animal she has in her care.
Are you agreeing with her methods of breeding, Should dogs under 1 year old be impregnated? Should dogs live off of stale moldy bread? Should dogs with genetic deficiencies be bred?
The horror of her property – was what nightmares are made of. For anyone to defend a puppy mill type establishment should have their morals and ethics questioned. No animal in this world deserves the abhorrent treatment that Panetta dished. Common sense – do your research.