The Garden City Park Board of Fire and Water Commissioners announced plans last this week to hold a hearing on a civilian misconduct complaint following allegations from a Garden City Park resident that a chief of the Garden City Park Fire Department improperly assisted a police investigation.
“The board is going to appoint an independent hearing officer to hear the matter and make recommendations,” said lawyer Joseph Frank, who represents the Garden City Park commissioners, in a telephone interview early this week.
Garden City Park resident Dawn Ward told the commissioners that Michael Magas, 3rd assistant chief of the Garden City Park Fire Department, attempted to forcibly entered her home while assisting Nassau County Police in an investigation on the night of Aug. 14.
Ward read a letter saying Magas and another fireman had chased her 19-year-old son after he had been assaulted by a security guard at the nearby Cellini Lodge Italian Festival in Michael J. Tully Park moments before.
Magas declined to comment on the record about the incident.
“I’m not commenting on any of this because it’s ridiculous,” Magas said after the meeting. “There’s a lot that can be said but I’m electing not to take that route right now.”
In a phone conversation this week, Magas said the fire commissioners had told him not to comment on the case. An 11-year veteran of the Garden City Park Fire Department, Magas was elected 3rd assistant chief last January.
In her Sept. 5 letter, Ward wrote that two men who identified themselves as firemen pounded on her door on Aug. 14 and then attempted to enter her house through the locked front door. She said when she opened the door, they again attempted to enter the house. She said she then walked out on the porch, closing the door behind her “to see what was going on.”
Ward also alleged in her letter that the fireman she later identified as Magas, driving a Garden City Park Fire Department chief’s car, had attempted to stop her son a block away from home and “almost hit him with their vehicle.”
“This conduct was reckless and showed no judgment. It reflects very poorly on the fire department,” Ward said in the letter, requesting they take action.
At a closed meeting with the fire commissioners on Sept. 26, Ward identified one of the men as Magas, who is also a New York City policeman. Ward said she is a former emergency medical technician who served for five years in the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department.
The commissioners made the decision to hold the hearing about Magas’s behavior during an executive session.
Garden City Park Fire Commissioner Chris Engels read a letter in reply to Ward’s letter during the open meeting prior to the executive session.
“There is no question that our personnel must be trained to understand that they must leave police work to the police department and not to involve themselves and our equipment in assisting the police department with the criminal justice function. We are working on new rules that will make it clear that this type of conduct is unacceptable,” Engels said.
Engels concluded the department’s letter by saying, “We recognize that this was a difficult situation for your family and we are continuing to consider the proper action to take under the circumstances.”
Frank said the commissioners must draft administrative charges against Magas and determine the availability of an independent hearing officer and witnesses in the case to proceed with the hearing.
According to Ward, the Aug. 14 incident began at the Cellini Lodge festival after her son was assaulted by a security officer. She said “fearing for his safety” he ran home and within seconds of his arrival, the two firemen were pounding on the door.
Outside the meeting, Ward said her son was “choked” by the security guard after being told to “move along” with a group of other young people. “I’m moving,” she said her son told the guard. She said the guard then assaulted her son, her son “slapped” the guard and ran.
Shortly after the firemen arrived, Ward said in her letter, several Nassau County Police officers arrived on the scene, and “determined that the matter was resolved; no one was hurt and no charges were to be filed.”
In response to questions about the incident, she said a police officer at the scene told her no charges were being filed since both her son and the security guard were each saying they had been assaulted by the other.
Inspector Sean McCarthy, commanding officer of the Nassau County Police Department’s 3rd Precinct, declined to comment on the altercation or its aftermath.
Ward said Magas had first denied being on her property in the closed-door session with the commissioners on Sept. 26 and then said he might have been on the property and apologized “if he had done anything wrong.”
This week Garden City Park Commissioner Augie Carnevale said he considers Ward to be a “credible witness” and an investigation must go forward.
“She’s a taxpayer. We have to hear it,” Carnevale said. “It’s a special case. It’s something we’ve never handled.”
Garden City Park Fire Department Chief Roger Green declined to comment on the incident after last Thursday night’s meeting. Engel’s letter said Green has submitted a report on his own investigation into the Magas incident.
