Criminal Kerik: Walking In Fear

While Kerik was the Commissioner at the Department of Correction, his actions were not just mismanagement or malfeasance – they were criminal and he had a lot of loyal followers who came in all shades to aid and abet him in his dirty deeds.

[On The Spot]

Disgraced former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Bailey Kerik decided to plead not guilty last week to various crime charges.

He was indicted on November 8, 2007, on 16 federal criminal counts ranging from lying on his Homeland Security application to tax fraud; he appeared before the Honorable Stephen C. Robinson at the United States District Court (USDC) in White Plains last Monday to answer upgraded criminal charges brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

It is not a pretty feeling when you no longer control the music; and when it stops – you are left standing by yourself. Such is Kerik’s current position.

Kerik knew when his mentor, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, did not get the votes he needed to win the presidential primary race, he had a lot to worry about. He now walks like a perp who is full of fear. In his little mind, he still thinks Giuliani was the best presidential candidate and the rest of us were totally wrong.

I have intimate knowledge about Kerik’s criminality—I was a victim of the regime he ran at the Department of Correction, when he was Commissioner; I was an officer and I later filed a federal lawsuit naming Kerik as one of the defendants.

In August 1998 I was on medical leave after being injured in the line of duty. Approximately two weeks later, Kerik’s armed agents—lackeys—made several unofficial visits to my home while I was in a full leg cast, threatened me over the telephone and continued to write bogus departmental charges on me to create a negative paper trail.

Fraudulent official medical documents were filed to remove me from medical leave, without being seen by a doctor, and official documentation labeled me as Absent Without Leave (AWOL.)

The reason I was out on medical was because during a mandatory training session both bones on my right ankle were broken; had I not had on a boot, the foot would have come off. To this day, the “accident” remains suspect to me –several officers conveniently fell on my back while we were simulating how to remove an inmate from a cell.

To understand Kerik, one needs to get into his mindset. This isn’t a difficult task, since his own words are instructive.

“There are things you have to know in a position like mine, one, every cockroach will come out when you’re down,” Kerik declares, in a video that is available on the website www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1896776866 on VBS.TV

“They don’t have the balls and they don’t have the courage to attack you up front. When you’re down they come out,” Kerik adds, speaking from his New Jersey mansion.

Kerik is calling members of the media and anyone who dares to report the truth about him, “cockroaches,” because in his mind, he thinks it is being “disloyal” when the truth is exposed.

The whole criminal aspect of Kerik has yet to be addressed or adjudicated. The Bronx District Attorney’s Office and the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) need to come clean and turn over Kerik’s entire criminal file, which should include DOI Inspector Michael Caruso’s ties to Kerik; these all should be turned over to the DOJ.

In Kerik’s book, “The Lost Son,” he does not mention all his criminal contacts, but he does mention enough. Kerik was arrested on state felony charges, which he was allowed to plea down to state misdemeanors and received a slap at the wrist. Kerik has continued to avoid any type of sanctions for the wrongdoings and crimes he committed. His ties to Giuliani have kept him in a safe mode as he now faces federal felony counts.

Kerik made an attempt to question the validity of the federal criminal justice system and the action of the DOJ. “That’s what the government tries to do, you know, financially cripple you so you can’t defend yourself,” Kerik rattles as he faces crimes he willingly committed while being protected under the color of law. Kerik still does not understand, he cannot have it both ways – it never works.

Giuliani began to build Kerik’s resume by putting him in key positions. While Kerik was the Commissioner at the Department of Correction, his actions were not just mismanagement or malfeasance – they were criminal and he had a lot of loyal followers who came in all shades to aid and abet him in his dirty deeds.

Most of these agents knew what they were doing for Kerik was against departmental policy and Mayoral Executive Order number sixteen (MEO16), a city order that supposed to prevent any corruption in the work place.

The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association (COBA) headed by the corrupt Norman Seabrook did nothing; Seabrook was a lackey to Giuliani.

Kerik, while at Correction, used his governmental powers viciously against me after I started exposing activities that contravened the laws and departmental regulations amongst some officers.

Before Giuliani sent Kerik to Correction, I had already been reporting on racism at the department, wrongdoing, and corruption internally and outside of the DOC. Under Giuliani and Kerik’s watch, the problems worsened. Kerik called an officer like me, “Disloyal,” and rewarded all of his lackeys who did his dirty deeds – to silence me.

The day Kerik labeled me AWOL, the union, under Seabrook, stopped my health benefits; and I had two small children at the time.

A month after my line of duty injury, my paychecks were illegally stopped and Kerik trespassed against General Municipal Law 207c, which provides for the payment of the regular salary of certain law enforcement employees such as police officers, correction officers, deputy sheriffs, probation officers, AMT’s, etc. when injured in the line of duty.

However, a DOC payroll supervisor, who would not reveal her name but had the initials SD, told me over the telephone: “I have a yellow sticky attached to your paychecks ordering me not to release them to you.” When I questioned who gave the order, she responded: “It’s coming from the top. That’s all I can say.”

This vindictive and illegal action prevented me from supporting my family and defending myself; I began to default on my monthly obligations.

I filed a criminal complaint with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office about these attacks on my livelihood, and an Assistant District Attorney referred to the matter as an “economic crime.”

After giving a full detail of events leading up to my paychecks being illegally withheld by the DOC, the ADA asked me, “What do you want our office to do?”

If Kerik was committing a crime, why wouldn’t he be arrested? I was not contacted by anyone from that office again and when I was leaving the courthouse, a female who had accompanied me was arrested by Court Officers.

The Bronx County DA eventually brought tax related charges against Kerik, for accepting illegal gifts on an apartment renovation amounting to $165,000
—Kerik was allowed a misdemeanor plea to avoid jail time, in 2006. People who are familiar with the case knew the outcome was political; Giuliani was going to run for the presidency.

When Kerik beat the state criminal justice system in the Bronx, he was on top of the world and the people who came forward to give information about him ran and hid under rocks; these are some of the people Kerik now refers to as cockroaches.

Kerik seems to know a lot about cockroaches. Like we used to say back on the old block, “It takes one to know one.”

Kerik continues to cry about how hard it has been for him and his family these past two years. I would put my hand on a stack of Bibles and tell you, Kerik knows nothing about hard times. Imagine living without salary, being unable to pay bills, being unable to buy children birthday and Christmas presents; for 10 years? Kerik hasn’t suffered.

There are many Kerik loyalists who should be heading to jail with him as well; yet they are collecting their healthy pensions and some are still employed at the DOC. I will be happy to provide the Department of Justice with documentation to broaden the case against Kerik.

I am only one of hundreds of victims of Kerik’s tyranny and retaliation and I invite others to come forward with their stories. No crime Kerik committed should go unpunished; many have yet to be investigated. His current Kerik’s case will resume for oral argument on February 3, 2009 at 10:00 A.M.

Contact Winkfield for his consideration regarding covering your own story: (347) 632-2272 By mail: On The Spot, Post Office Box 230149, Queens County 11423; Email: [email protected] or [email protected]; call (212) 481-7745. Together we can get the justice everyone just talks about.

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