Cops: No arrests despite probe of crimes against Latinos

More than six months after the killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant in Patchogue, Suffolk police say they have investigated about 50 complaints of other crimes against Latinos and so far don't have the evidence to make arrests. Eight to nine of those incidents were investigated as hate crimes, said Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone, and some of them led to additional charges against the seven teenagers already awaiting trial for the November killing of Marcelo Lucero. "We thoroughly investigated and reviewed every complaint that was brought to our attention after the Lucero attack," said Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer. "The results were very limited." Dormer and Varrone also said the department's overall review of thousands of incident reports going back more than a year in Latino areas countywide found no pattern of attacks outside of those linked to the seven teens. Last week, LatinoJustice, a national advocacy group, wrote a letter to the U.S. Justice Department, which is exploring whether to look into the Suffolk Police Department's handling of crimes against Latinos, urging it to launch such a probe. In the letter, the group, which first brought the situation to the attention of federal officials, questioned why Suffolk police haven't made any additional arrests based on complaints brought by Latinos. "The fact that they can't conduct an investigation to find evidence to solve any of these is disturbing," said Foster Maer, a senior staff attorney for the Manhattan-based group. "That would suggest not a very good success rate. The Latino community should have legitimate concern about how well Suffolk County police are investigating these crimes." Varrone said 15 to 20 of the 50 complaints surfaced after the Lucero death, and 30 to 35 of them had already been reported and were reinvestigated. Varrone said police made "exhaustive" attempts to locate victims and witnesses, showed "countless" photo spreads to victims, tried to obtain video surveillance tapes and used Spanish-speaking detectives whenever possible. In most cases, victims could not identify the suspects, he said. "We tried our hardest to make any arrests or cases," he said. Varrone said the department was conducting two internal affairs investigations, looking at the way officers handled complaints. The 50 cases were reviewed by Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota and his staff and "it was determined by the district attorney that there was no legal basis" for charges, Dormer said. Robert Clifford, a spokesman for Spota, said that the cases remain open pending additional information. Dormer said their investigations to date were shared with three federal agencies - the Justice Department's civil rights division, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District - on Feb. 23. "They were very satisfied with our investigation," Dormer said. Spokesmen for the three agencies would not confirm the meeting or its outcome. Suffolk officials have stressed the high level of proof required under state law to charge a hate crime.