Islip Town worker who hung dummy suspended

An Islip Town parks department foreman who admitted hanging a stuffed, masked dummy from a rafter at a Central Islip depot on Halloween night has been suspended without pay pending a civil service disciplinary hearing.

"We feel the conduct in this instance was so egregious that it requires the town to suspend the foreman pending his disciplinary hearing," said Rob Finnegan, the town's labor relations director. Finnegan said he is completing his investigatory report.

The suspended 43-year-old, a town employee of 25 years, did not return calls for comment.

Cleveland Gamble, 51, one of three black workers in the Central Islip parks department grounds maintenance shop, lodged a formal complaint with the town Thursday, but he declined to press criminal charges after meeting with Suffolk County police on Tuesday. A police spokeswoman said last week that the matter was investigated but no criminality was suspected.

"Because of the admission and my subsequent interview with the complainant Thursday, the foreman has now been suspended without pay," said Finnegan.

The suspended foreman was charged with misconduct and incompetence, under state civil service law. He has a right to a hearing within 30 days before an officer appointed by the town's parks commissioner.

Friday, Gamble maintained he meant no ill-will against the man, with whom he has worked for 10 years. He said Wednesday he did not want the man to lose his job. He also said he had reported two race-related hate crimes at work several years ago.

"It was a serious offense," Gamble said Friday of the foreman's actions. "He could have sat that dummy in a chair -- the fact that he hung him, I have a problem with that. As an African-American, I feel my civil rights were violated."

He added: "I don't have a say on what punishment is meted out. My conscience told me to document it, but I don't hold any animosity toward him -- it was a bad prank."