Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said his office is investigating allegations made by Legis. Robert Trotta that outgoing Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison falsified timesheets to receive a larger payout for used time when he leaves the department later this month.
Trotta (R-Fort Salonga), a frequent and vocal critic of the Suffolk County Police Department and the Suffolk Police Benevolent Association, alleged in a news release Thursday that Harrison changed leave days to sick days on previously filed timesheets to get a larger payout. In the news release, Trotta urged Tierney to open an investigation.
“We take allegations of this type seriously,” Tierney said in a statement to Newsday hours after Trotta made his letter public. “We will confer with the chief of department.”
Harrison said he changed some vacation days to sick days for additional time off, which he said is a common practice in the Suffolk County Police Department. He changed them back after consulting with the county attorney, he said.
"I put them back, and there is nothing wrong here," Harrison said Thursday.
“This does not sound like the man I know,” Suffolk Police Benevolent Association president Lou Civello said of Harrison. “I hope this is not Trotta just slinging mud at him.”
Trotta was removed from the legislature's public safety committee in March after he threatened to play an audio recording of a private conversation with Harrison.
Tierney, meanwhile, clashed with Harrison in October, when the district attorney issued a scathing statement criticizing the commissioner after he appeared at a news conference with attorney John Ray to discuss witnesses who provided Ray with statements linking suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex A. Heuermann to slain victim Karen Vergata and Shannan Gilbert, the woman whose disappearance in 2010 led to the discovery of 10 sets of remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.
"We take allegations of this type seriously," District Attorney Ray Tierney said. Outgoing Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison countered: "There is nothing wrong here."
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