Newsday journalists present their findings on police misconduct on Long Island. // Jacob Lewis/The Hofstra Chronicle
A mother feared for her life, asked for help and ultimately met her demise. A cab driver was shot by an off-duty police officer, then arrested. A man’s life changed forever when an officer hit his car while driving under the influence. These stories have one thing in common: police misconduct.
All three stories were investigated and reported on by Newsday’s investigative reporters, Sandra Peddie, David Schwartz and Paul LaRocco, along with Arthur Brown, head editor at Newsday. They were invited to speak at Hofstra University on Thursday, April 7, by the Hofstra Clocktower.
Jo’Anna Bird, a mother of two, was in an abusive relationship with Leonardo Valdez-Cruz, also known as Pito. He was arrested for physically assaulting Bird but was let go because she did not testify at the hearing. Pito also sent Bird dozens of letters and phone calls threatening her life and later murdered her. The police did nothing to help her, and many believe it was because Pito was a police informant, according to Peddie.
“When he kills me, take these letters to the district attorney,” Bird said to her sister.
The punishment of the 14 officers who dismissed Bird’s phone calls consisted of 24 lost vacation days, Peddie said.
Bird’s story resonated with students in the audience in regards to the police prioritizing information over somebody’s life.
“The cops chose to prioritize that information over the safety of another individual just because they felt it could better suit their case when, in actuality, that ended up just blowing up in their face,” said Devin Blandino, a senior business management and marketing double major. “The blatant abuses of power … it’s running rampant.”
Thomas Moroughan, a Huntington Station cab driver, was shot twice by Anthony DiLeonardo, an off-duty Nassau police officer who had alcohol in his system. DiLeonardo stated that he shot Moroughan in self-defense and that Moroughan had incriminated himself when questioned in the hospital.
“They ended up arresting the cab driver and exonerated this officer,” Schwartz said. “Essentially, later on, back in 2013, [Peddie] ended up getting the Nassau Internal Affairs report, [which was] supposed to be a secret file.”
Newsday found that the police attempted to falsify reports to make it seem like they were not at fault, according to Schwartz.
The Hofstra Clocktower, a student-run investigative journalism outlet, organized and moderated the event. // Jacob Lewis/The Hofstra Chronicle
The last story of police misconduct that the Newsday panel discussed was that of Julius Scott, a man who drove around his block and was hit by Officer Weldon Drayton Jr., who was driving while intoxicated. Drayton Jr. was unharmed, but Scott was trapped in his car with his scalp torn and his brain exposed. Scott needed the jaws of life, a hydraulic-extrication rescue tool, in order to be removed from the car. Drayton Jr. refused to take a breathalyzer, and his punishment for the incident was a loss of four days’ pay, according to Peddie.
Elise Robley, a sophomore journalism major, was impacted by hearing Scott’s story.
“When [Peddie] told the victim what the cop’s punishment was, and he said ‘I wish you hadn’t told me that,’ that was really powerful,” Robley said. “[It shows] that more needs to be done to uncover anything that is hidden in these types of cases because justice needs to be served. It’s crazy that this is something he’s going to have to deal with for the rest of his life, and that cop only got four days of punishment.”
Leah Chiappino, deputy editor of the Hofstra Clocktower, moderated the event and participated in the student panel alongside Urvi Gandhi, the audience engagement editor of the Hofstra Clocktower, and Marie-Sybille Rateau, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists at Hofstra.