New Hyde Park Fire Commissioner Michael Dolan and his son Michael Jr. both denied allegations of wrongdoing in taking smoke detectors from the New Hyde Park Fire Department headquarters last summer during a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday night,
The elder Dolan said the two men removed the smoke detectors in an effort to safeguard them and an attorney representing the two men claimed that they were victims of departmental politics.
“This is about a fight in the firehouse,” said Michael Cornacchia. “It’s a hit on a commissioner.
The disciplinary hearing, which was held at the department’s headquarters on Jericho Turnpike, followed the decision by the Nassau County District Attorney’s office to drop grand larceny charges against Dolan and his son.
The two men had been arrested for allegedly stealing the smoke detectors in mid-July following a complaint by the fire department.
Dolan and his son, who are both members of the New Hyde Park Fire Department, have been suspended from duty since the criminal charges were brought against them.
The New Hyde Park fire commissioners filed departmental charges after the criminal charges were dropped seeking to permanently remove both Dolans permanently from duty.
Dolan said under questioning from Cornacchia that shortly after moving 150 smoke detectors he received from the Firefighters Museum to the fire department headquarters in mid-June, he noticed “a couple” of detectors were missing from a commissioner’s lounge and later found the bag of detectors “half-empty.”
He said he then took the remaining smoke detectors to his garage before returning 65 of the remaining Kidde smoke detectors to the Firefighters Museum.
“There was no accountability,” Dolan said. “I figured someone was taking them without authorization.”
Dolan said he obtained the detectors after consulting with Richard Stein, chairman of the New Hyde Park Board of Fire Commissioners, for an ongoing department program to provide smoke detectors to senior citizens.
The commissioners alleged that the senior Dolan, aided by his son, engaged in conduct unbecoming a firefighter in removing the smoke detectors from fire department headquarters for personal gain and without permission of the other commissioners or the chief of the New Hyde Park Fire Department.
Before he returned the detectors to the Firefighter’s Museum, Dolan said he distributed 24 detectors to members of the Sons of Italy Cellini Lodge in New Hyde Park.
Stein testified that Dolan brought 100 smoke detectors to fire headquarters.
In response to questions from Thomas Stock, an attorney representing the fire commissioners, Stein said Dolan was giving people misleading information about the detectors, telling them the program was for fire district residents 62 years old or older who were “destitute.”
Stein said he told Dolan “it’s not his program,” but Dolan “pretty much did what he wanted.”
Stein said he was concerned that Dolan was not following department protocol for the installation of the detectors by firefighters and having recipients sign disclaimers.
Stein said 15 of the Kidde smoke detectors were distributed to residents. He said he also took two of them for demonstration purposes and gave two to fire department secretaries Marie Cochran and Patty Guy.
Dolan and his son, he said, removed 81 smoke detectors removed from the headquarters.
But under questioning by Conacchia, Stein acknowledged there was no inventory maintained showing exactly how many smoke detectors Dolan obtained from the museum.
Stein’s comments drew a reaction from a roomful of residents largely supportive of the Dolans and one of several warnings for silence in the room from Walter Wagner, who had been retained by the commissioners as an arbitrator in the case.
In testimony on Monday night, John Murray, chief instructor of vocational instruction at the Nassau county Firefighters Museum, said Dolan subsequently returned 36 of the smoke detectors to him later in the summer.
In reply to questions from Stock, Murray, said he was visited by the elder Dolan in May or June, and asked to provide Dolan smoke detectors for a New Hyde Park Fire Department program for senior citizens.
Murray said Dolan asked him for 200 smoke detectors and he gave him 150 Kidde smoke detectors. The smoke detectors were provided by Kidde through an “Save A Life” program sponsored by ABC’s New York affiliate station for underprivileged areas, Murray said.
“Because it was Mike Dolan, I gave them to him to put in seniors’ hands,” said Murray, who testified that he had known Dolan for the past 30 to 35 years.
In cross-examination by Cornacchia, he reaffirmed his confidence in Dolan
“He’s always been an upright, upstanding guy,” he said of Dolan, adding that none of the other New Hyde Park fire commissioners ever contacted him about the smoke detectors.
Murray said he subsequently told a detective who came to question him that 36 smoke detectors had been returned and he estimated the value of the detectors at $10 apiece.
A subsequent police report said 65 detectors were reported stolen at a value of $30 apiece for a total of $3,250.
In his opening remarks, Cornacchia said that by attaching a higher value on the detectors the fire commissioner had made the alleged theft a felony rather than a misdemeanor, and a conviction would have forced Dolan to resign his position as fire commissioner.
Cornacchia said the younger Dolan was a “throw-in” and his arrest was calculated to prompt his father to plead guilty to the charges. He also dismissed the idea that the Dolans had sought to profit from the smoke detectors.
“They didn’t take them down to Canal Street and sell them off the back of a truck,” Cornacchia said.
Several days after Dolan had brought the detectors to headquarters, Stein said, Guy and Cochran told him the smoke detectors had been taken.
At a closed meeting of the fire commissioners on June 19, Stein said Dolan denied being stealing the detectors, but said he had taken them.
Stein said Dolan told him he would return the smoke detectors, which he did the following day.
Stein said one of the other commissioners subsequently told him the Kidde smoke detectors had been taken again.
Videotape from surveillance cameras showed the Dolans removing bags of smoke detectors on June 21, Stein said.
Stein said he reported to the Nassau County Police Department 3rd Precinct that a burglary had occurred and signed a complaint against Dolan prepared by the police.
In a private conversation after the police became involved, he said Dolan asked him “How do we make this all go away?”
Stein said he told Dolan to return the smoke detectors and said police investigators told him the same thing.
Stein said he then informed New Hyde Park Fire Department Chief Robert Von Werne about the alleged theft and said the chief recommended that department charges be brought to the board of commissioners after conducting his own investigation.
Asked by Cornacchia if he thought the Dolans meant to profit from the detectors, Stein said, “I don’t know what they did with them.”
Von Werne testified that Stein was his “primary point of contact” on the case.
“I filed the [departmental] charges at the behest of the board,” he said.
Dolan earlier testified he told Von Werne he had returned the smoke detectors to the museum prior to the arrest of him and his son.
Asked if Dolan had told him the smoke detectors had been returned, Von Werne said “ I don’t recall a specific conversation of that nature.”
The elder Dolan said in cross-examination by Stock that he didn’t seek approval to return smoke detectors and acknowledged they belonged to the fire department.
In questioning the younger Dolan, Stock focused on his record of behavioral problems, including two suspensions resulting from a verbal confrontation with a department chief in a bar and an assault on a fellow firefighter who had struck Dolan’s younger brother.
The younger Dolan testified that he had simply helped his father carry the smoke detectors out of the fire headquarters and had no knowledge about the smoke detector program or his father’s role in obtaining the detectors.
The two incidents both occurred when Dolan was home between two tours of duty as a U.S. Marine lance corporal in Iraq, where he served between 2006 and 2009.
Cornacchia noted the military service of both Dolans. The elder Dolan had earned a Purple Heart as a Vietnam veteran and testified that he suffers from malaria, hearing loss and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
In his summation, Cornacchia said the Dolans were liable for conduct unbecoming their positions in the department.
But, Cornacchia said, their time served in suspension should be considered in restoring them to active duty.
“This all has to do with a pissing war. Is there a struggle for control of this [fire] house? Yes,” he said.
Cornacchia recalled that Stein had earlier testified that he was “disappointed” when the criminal charges against the Dolans were dropped.
Stock said the “long history of problems with both senior and junior” Dolan warranted their permanent dismissal from firefighter duty.
“He acts with the board of fire commissioners and then when it doesn’t suit him, he goes off and does what suits him,” Stock said of the elder Dolan.
Wagner said he would review a transcript of the proceeding in two or three weeks before making a recommendation to the fire board of commissioners.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
