Suffolk comptroller begins audit of fired Labor deputy

Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki has started an audit of fired Senior Deputy Labor Commissioner Lawrence Cooley's work and seized the computer from Cooley's Hauppauge office.

Sawicki's investigation comes after Levy fired Cooley late last month and ordered his own labor commissioner and county attorney to review Cooley's work after Cooley testified in a federal trial that he made illegal payoffs to corrupt union officials.

Cooley, testifying with immunity, also admitted that he fronted a business for a corrupt contractor making $2,000 a week while he worked for the county's labor department.

"It is meaningless for an official to be investigating his own department," said Sawicki of the Levy investigation. "The charges are serious enough to warrant an outside independent audit. . . . Any internal inquiry by Levy people would always be suspect."

Dan Aug, Levy's spokesman, said, "We're totally supportive of what Joe is doing," adding Sawicki's audit "can complement our internal investigation" to ensure "there were no inappropriate activities related to county business."

Senior investigator auditor Frank Bayer requested Cooley's county computer Monday in a meeting with Labor Commissioner Robert Dow and Sawicki said his office took control of the computer Tuesday.

Cooley, 69, of Greenlawn, served as a $116,000-a-year deputy commissioner from March 2004 until his firing Oct. 27