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Feds join Hempstead noose investigation

SID CASSESE | SID CASSESE

October 2, 2007

Law enforcement officials from Nassau County and the U.S. Department of Justice have launched a joint task force to investigate an incident in which a hangman's noose was left in the locker room of the Hempstead Police Department, the Nassau district attorney's office said yesterday.

The noose, found in a basement locker room hanging from a ceiling pipe, was apparently directed at Willie Dixon, a deputy chief. About half of the village force is minority, most of them black.

"The Nassau County district attorney and police department are leading an exhaustive investigation into the incident, which includes the creation of a task force dedicated solely to this case, and with the assistance of the Justice Department and FBI," said DA Kathleen Rice's spokesman, Eric Phillips.

"We are working with the Nassau County district attorney and local law enforcement to aggressively investigate this incident," said Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the Department of Justice in Brooklyn.br>

Neither the district attorney nor the Justice Department would provide further details of the probe, which will include the civil rights division.

Phillips said, however, that the Hempstead Police had provided "complete cooperation."

Dixon, a village cop since 1981, was named deputy chief of the 107-member department in May. He has said the noose appeared to have been directed at him. Newspaper stories about criminal charges against Dixon, on which he was acquitted in 1993, were posted on a bulletin board in the locker room and in an adjacent men's room at the same time as the noose, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

"I feel a lot better knowing that the proper authorities are taking this seriously," Dixon said of the investigation.

Other village sources, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the issue, said Dixon, who is chief of patrol in his new job, had drawn animosity from some officers because of personnel changes he made in squads.

Mayor Wayne Hall said he was pleased that a task force has been put together for the investigation. "I'm glad this incident is being taken so seriously, as it should be," Hall said.

The federal involvement in the investigation isn't the first time that U.S. officials have investigated a law enforcement agency in Nassau.

As part of a 2002 agreement, the Justice Department closely oversaw the operation of the Nassau jail following the 1999 beating death of an inmate, Thomas Pizzuto, of Hicksville. Pizzuto was serving a 90-day sentence for driving while under the influence, when he was beaten to death by correction officers after he demanded methadone.

Two officers were convicted in the death, while other officers were convicted of civil rights violations related to the beating. The federal oversight ended in 2005.

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