In case you were wondering, newly retired East Haven Police Chief Len Gallo isn’t likely to have his pension revoked even if he’s eventually indicted and convicted in the federal racial profiling/police abuse probe.
And Mayor Joe “Taco” Maturo may actually have made a wise move last week in not trying to fire his old buddy Gallo. The East Haven police commission had recommended firing Gallo to prevent him from collecting a retirement package estimated at more than $100,000.
The Connecticut “pension revocation” law passed in 2008 was essentially a response to the corruption scandals involving felonious types like ex-Gov. John G. Rowlandand former Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim.
The law is aimed at corrupt officials who steal public money or benefits, which apparently wouldn’t cover stuff like racial profiling of Latinos, violations of civil rights, police brutality and attempted cover-ups.
Those are the alleged crimes that four East Haven cops were indicted for last month. All four pleaded innocent. Gallo was listed in the indictments as “Co-Conspirator 1” and is widely expected to be the feds’ next target. But Gallo’s lawyer insists he’s innocent of any wrongdoing.
The fact that Gallo hasn’t yet been indicted for or convicted of any criminal act means that it would be extraordinarily tough to have fired him before he retired last Friday.
An older state law forbids the firing of any Connecticut police chief except for “just cause.” The idea is to insulate the heads of police departments from political pressure, but it also means a chief would just about have to be tried, convicted and on his or her way to prison in order to be fired.
East Haven would probably have spent far more than $100,000 in legal fees if Maturo had tried to can Gallo before his retirement.
Of course, Maturo could have avoided this entire problem if he’d simply not brought Gallo back as chief last November. Gallo had been put on administrative leave by Maturo’s predecessor as mayor.
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