October 7, 2010

Cover up suspected in cop's crash

The city’s police chief is among the many who think that officers covered up the circumstances surrounding the on-duty, high-speed crash of a police cruiser by Officer Robert Mosback.
“I don’t doubt there was a cover up,” Police Chief John DiVenere told Mayor Art Ward on the day that an insurance investigator phoned City Hall to let officials know that a hospital toxicology report showed Mosback was drunk at the time of the June 26 wreck.
In his Sept. 22 discussion with the mayor, DiVenere added that “nobody would be able to prove” that a cover up occurred.
That proposition may be tested.
The city is waiting for word from the state’s commissioner of public safety about whether the state police will probe the case following a plea last Friday from Ward.
“We’d like to get started as soon as possible,” Ward said late Wednesday.
In Ward’s letter, the mayor said he is seeking state police help “because of the lack of public confidence in the Bristol Police Department and my own concern that the department is not able to conduct an impartial internal investigation in this matter.”
Edward Krawiecki, Jr, the city attorney, said the city is waiting for a response to its request.
Ward said he even offered to pay the costs of the investigation since he’s aware of the budget constraints imposed on state police. He also indicated that “all city personnel will be made available at the investigating officer’s convenience.”  Click here for the full story.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is not good news. However, we still need to keep our faith in our police department. We can not through the baby out with the bath water.

Any who were involved should come forward for the honor of our department.

professionals said...

Please keep in mind that the majority of sworn police officers are professional and honorable so we should not paint them all with a bad brush.

Fed up too... said...

"Cover up suspected in cop's crash"

Duh... Ya think?

An accident investigation, an internal affairs investigation and the blood alcohol level is revealed by an insurance employee out of state?

A good percentage of the force in Bristol is probably very good. But the rotten ten percent can still flourish in a leadership vacuum.

Anonymous said...

Why would the Mayor be all in on having faith in the Connecticut State Police? Don't they hire the New York State Police to investigate themselves because they have integrity issues with their own internal affairs division?

Anonymous said...

Wow another State Police investigation for BPD. Didnt they just get done investigating a DiVenere ethics complaint????

Anonymous said...

Let us face the facts...the Chief nor the Mayor did anything wrong.

This officer knew his duties, responsibilities and he did not care enough that he put other people in danger because of his actions.

He needs to pay for the consequences and so those who covered up for him!

Anonymous said...

Captain Osanitsch does the investigation and the Chief thinks it was a cover-up? I doubt he would do that. Seems like the hospital screwed up by not notifying Personnel or the Chief of the blood test results. The state police should examine internal protocol. Perhaps some of the managers dropped the ball. Who was notified of the blood test results, who SHOULD have been notified, and why weren't they? No reason to blame the front line guys. The problem is higher up. We need to know who got the blood test results and what was done with them. There lies the real problem. We don't need smoke screens about a cover-up. Take responsibility and get to the bottom of why the blood test wasn't revealed in a timely manner.

Anonymous said...

@ 10:36 PM

A hospital has no obligation to notify ANYONE under these circumstances, let alone a police department. Nor can they under current HIPAA regulations.

Anonymous said...

If even 1 of 3-4-5 of our cops couldn't suspect something was wrong, we are in deep poop.

But then---

gusher said...

10:36, seems like your blood has gushed to your head.

Anonymous said...

initials at the bottom of the page indicate these letters were typed by the paralegal in the Corp Council office, not the mayor's office. Interesting. I think the city is being run by the other end of the third floor.

Anonymous said...

9:16

Is this the first time you realized this?

Anonymous said...

9:16

And it will be no better if you elect one of the handpicked republican puppets.

The other end of the 3rd floor will still run the show