Nassau PBA president tried to 'squash' complaint about friend

The head of Nassau County’s largest police union attempted to prevent the impending arrest of a high school and family friend who had allegedly stalked and harassed a retired police officer’s wife, Newsday has learned.

In a covertly recorded phone call shared with Newsday, Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President James McDermott told retired Nassau police Officer Christopher McCarthy:

"I would love nobody to get arrested, nobody to get screwed, no ... [expletive], stay out of each other’s hair and lives. That would be my goal."

McDermott also told McCarthy: "I do wanna squash it."

McCarthy’s wife, Nadene, reported to police in February 2019 and September last year that neighborhood resident Steven Cottage had "made her fear for her safety" while each walked a dog in the area around their Seaford homes.

She described Cottage in one report as commanding a pit bull mix to attack her Siberian husky, ordering his dog to stop at the last second and then threatening to sodomize or kill her after she told Cottage to keep his dog on a leash. In a police report, she quoted him as saying:

"Why don’t you send your five-foot husband over, and I’ll ... [expletive] kill him. I’ll ... [expletive] kill you, too!"

McDermott, who announced his plans to retire in September on Friday, and Cottage were teammates on Levittown’s MacArthur High School football team, graduating in 1981. Their sisters are today best friends, McDermott told McCarthy in the recorded call.

Asserting that McDermott had applied improper, if not illegal, pressure to prevent an arrest, McCarthy provided the recording of his conversation with McDermott to both the police Internal Affairs Unit and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.

He said the IAU also referred the matter to the district attorney. The DA’s office declined to prosecute, DA Chief Investigator Josh Genn told McCarthy in a voice mail.

"We feel that, although it seems ... [McDermott] knew ... [Cottage], he would not be looking to actively get more involved," Genn said. "Unfortunately, for us to make a prosecution we would need something quite explicit in this regard."

McCarthy gave a copy of his recorded conversation with McDermott to Newsday after internal affairs and the DA took no action.

"I felt they were trying to sweep it under the rug, and I didn’t want that to happen," McCarthy said.

"If it can happen to me, who’s a retired member of the department and still a member of the union, I can’t imagine what would happen to someone with no connections."

In a Newsday interview Friday, McDermott said the recorded conversation had not prompted his retirement.

McDermott said "it’s a nothing complaint," but declined to comment further. "I can’t talk to the specifics of that."

Nadene McCarthy declined to speak with Newsday.

In a Newsday interview, Cottage denied the harassment and characterized Nadene McCarthy as "a crazy lady." He acknowledged that he asked McDermott for help.

"And Jimmy says, ‘I’ll try, but I don’t deal in that part of it.’ He didn’t want to get involved, which I understood, because there are regulations and stuff. He goes — I think he tried to talk to someone, and they said, ‘Stay out of it.’ "

After McCarthy rebuffed McDermott, Nassau police arrested Cottage on Sept. 24 on charges of harassment and stalking. Nadene McCarthy also obtained an order of protection requiring Cottage to stay at least 100 yards away from her.

Police arrested him again in January for allegedly violating the order by driving past her slowly, rolling down his window, nodding, turning in her direction and staring at her. He has pleaded not guilty.

Cottage said he is being represented for free by the law firm of Keith Lavallee, whose clients include at least five village PBAs, as well as the Emerald Society of the Nassau County Police Department.

Lavallee did not return a call for comment.

Nassau police spokesman Det. Lt. Richard LeBrun did not respond to requests for comment.

Brendan Brosh, spokesman for the Nassau County District Attorney, said in an emailed statement, "The NCDA thoroughly reviewed the evidence in this matter. After extensive legal analysis, the conduct on the telephone call does not meet the standard for a criminal charge in New York State."

At Newsday’s request, Hofstra University Law School Clinical Professor Elizabeth Nevins listened to the audiotape. She said McDermott hadn’t clearly committed a crime, such as attempted witness tampering, by pushing McCarthy to avert Cottage’s arrest.

New York’s Penal law defines that crime as trying "to induce" an upcoming witness from appearing to testify at a proceeding.

Nevins questioned the propriety of McDermott’s phone call.

"Why is he getting involved with this matter at all? Why is the head of the PBA getting involved in a criminal investigation that he had nothing to do with?" Nevins said.

"We don’t all have a friend at the top of the PBA who can put in a call for us to try to keep us out of trouble, and that seems unfair," she added.

McCarthy served as a Nassau police officer for 15 years before retiring in 2011, after being injured in the line of duty.

He said Cottage began harassing his wife three years ago by "threatening" her with his dog and making "inappropriate" comments. At first, he said, Nadene was reluctant to call the police. Instead, McCarthy spoke to Cottage and described him as ranting about Communist Russia in their meeting.

Changing her dog-walking route, Nadene McCarthy avoided serious problems with Cottage until February 2019, when they crossed paths on the grounds of the Nassau BOCES Seamans Neck School, McCarthy said. In a police report, she stated that Cottage became irate and threatened her.

In addition to threatening to sodomize her, he called her a "psycho," the report said. She stated that she believed he was following her.

Speaking with Newsday, Cottage said that he had been friendly, that he had made no threats and that his dog, which has since died, was not at all menacing. He also alleged that Christopher McCarthy had threatened to shoot him. He did not file a police report about the alleged threat. McCarthy denies making the threat.

The day after the incident on the school grounds, Nadene McCarthy recorded a cellphone video as she walked past Cottage’s house on the opposite side of the street. Newsday reviewed the video.

"What’s your problem?" Cottage called to her. "You have an issue with [garbled]? This is an issue."

"Please don’t talk to me," she responded.

"Get off my block then," Cottage said. "Don’t try to come and tantalize us."

In an interview, Cottage said his wife and children had become alarmed when they saw someone videotaping them. He said he grabbed his dog and chased the person.

"I could see someone just turning the corner. I go ‘Hey!’ I’m yelling at ‘em, the guy, ‘Hey, buddy, get over here!’ I kinda, almost cornered her, and she turned around and it’s this lady. And I said to her, ‘Are you kidding? That’s it! I’ve had enough.’ And I called the Seventh Precinct."

Two weeks after Nadene McCarthy reported the incident on the school grounds to police, she said that then-Det. Hans Richter called her. She put the call on speaker to enable her husband to listen. Christopher McCarthy said that Richter, who was a detective’s union trustee, told Nadene that he saw no grounds to arrest Cottage and instructed her not to walk on Cottage’s block or to video him.

Richter, who has since retired, did not return a call for comment.

For the next year and a half, McCarthy said, Cottage occasionally made inappropriate comments to Nadene McCarthy while passing her in his car and while walking their dogs. Then, on Aug. 24, 2020, they had an encounter near the school.

In her police report, filed at the Seventh Precinct, she quoted Cottage as saying, "Are you a black widow? Are you even wearing panties?"

Cottage also went to the Seventh Precinct to file a complaint, but refused to deal with a female police officer, Christopher McCarthy said.

According to the police report, Cottage told a detective: "Yeah, I went down to the precinct first that day and spoke to a female who was being a wiseass."

In an interview, Cottage said the female police officer asked him, "What exactly are you trying to achieve here?"

He said he then agreed to speak to a male sergeant.

McCarthy said he thought the police had not taken his wife’s first complaint seriously and he feared the same would happen if another complaint were filed. He contacted a high-ranking friend in the department, whom he declined to name.

Assigned to investigate, a detective spoke with Nadene McCarthy several times and took a statement from a neighbor who witnessed the incident. That witness did not return calls for comment. More than two weeks passed. Then, on Sept. 11, 2020, McDermott contacted Christopher McCarthy, who recorded the roughly 14-minute conversation.

New York law permits one party to a conversation to record what was said without informing others who are participating.

McDermott opened the call by explaining his relationship with Cottage.

"Um, a buddy of mine from high school — I played football with, and my sister is best friends with his sister — gave me a call," he said.

While stating, "I’m not trying to use any kind of influence to do anything at all," he told McCarthy, "But if I can broker peace, I would love to do that, you know."

He continued: "But, listen, it’s your wife, it’s your situation, you’re gonna handle it, you know, any way you want to. But I would love for you, you know, to work this out. That’s what I would love."

When McDermott also said, "I wish there was a resolvement," McCarthy answered, "You know what I wish? I wish when you called me up, you asked me if everything was all right with my wife first before we got into this. That, that would have been nice on my end."

Later, referring to Cottage, McCarthy also said, "Well, maybe before you even call him back, you should look up the victim’s reports."

Explaining that he had tried unsuccessfully "to broker good will" with Cottage, McCarthy told McDermott, "We’re going to continue on the path we’re on now." McDermott responded that McCarthy could face consequences.

"I think they’re looking to lock him up, but I don’t think he’s gonna shy away from this," McDermott said. "I think he’s going to go to the DA’s office with whatever he has."

Later, McDermott told McCarthy that Cottage had related "something where you threatened him with a gun." McCarthy laughed in response. McDermott continued, "I do wanna squash it. I don’t want anything happening to you, too."

Changing the subject, the PBA president spoke briefly about then-ongoing police contract negotiations and complained about some of his own neighbors. He said the neighbors parked their cars in front of his house and boxed him in when he parked his car in front of their house.

"Not for nothing," he told McCarthy, "if you weren’t a cop, wouldn’t you like the ... [expletive] president of the police union next door to you, you know?"

McCarthy agreed, and McDermott said, "I’ve comped them PBA cards, you know."

The cards are coveted because drivers often believe that flashing one during a traffic stop will persuade a police officer not to write a ticket.

"Don’t you want me in your good graces?" McDermott said of his neighbors.

McCarthy said he planned to pursue the case.

"I’m not letting go until it’s done," McCarthy said.

"Rather than protecting a PBA member's wife, James McDermott chose to protect a high school friend. He has clearly lost sight of what being a police officer and union official are all about. Furthermore, he stated that my complaint has no substance yet he is running out the door with three months remaining in his term of office, leaving the union and its members who he claims to love so much with no contract and no leader," McCarthy said.