Clear the air in Laffer gun case

For Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, bluster and variations on the "no comment" theme won't suffice.

David Laffer killed four people while robbing Haven Drugs in Medford, a tragedy that shattered families and rocked Long Island. The incident seemed completely shocking, but evidence brought to light by Newsday last week suggests Laffer's lack of stability wasn't such a surprise after all, even to the police department itself.

Called to the house where Laffer lived with his wife and mother in January, Det. Kenneth Ripp and his partner found a situation unsettling enough that Ripp called the county's pistol bureau to say Laffer's guns should be taken. Ripp, his partner, a highly placed law enforcement official and the written report all support this version of events.

The police were called to the house because Laffer's mother wanted to report $8,220 missing from her bank account. Laffer confessed to taking the money, and his mother refused to press charges. Ripp interviewed Laffer, thought his weapons should be taken, and phoned the pistol bureau to report the situation.

The pistol bureau let Laffer keep the weapons that day, but said it would investigate. Now, there are many questions about that process, and Dormer is providing no answers.

Did the investigation take place, and if so, what steps were taken, what conclusions drawn? How exhaustive was it? How common are such investigations, and what is the standard procedure for conducting them? How often do they result in confiscations, and what criteria determine whether that will happen?

Rather than shedding light on the process in general and the Laffer investigation in particular, the commissioner has lashed out at Newsday, claiming its story "trashes the reputations of officers in the Pistol License Bureau" (it doesn't) and does not identify any legal basis for confiscating Laffer's guns (it does).

There are 21 reasons pistol permits can be suspended or revoked in New York State. Most are specific, but one, "Behaving in a manner that would cause a rational person to feel threatened," leaves room for interpretation. Ripp, a former FBI agent and a highly decorated detective, seems qualified to make the distinction.

A member of one victim's family has served notice of intent to sue the department, but precedent suggests the suit may not have much chance. Plaintiffs in this state have generally had a difficult time holding police departments liable in this type of case. Accountability, in this instance, may not come from a courtroom.

It's impossible at this point to say whether Laffer's guns should have been taken, exactly what the police knew and what they should have done, because the police aren't being forthcoming. That means that even if the handling of Laffer before the murders was flawless, the handling of the case afterward has been secretive and opaque.

The department is a significant issue in the upcoming elections for Suffolk County executive and legislature. The candidates should be clamoring for clarity on what happened in the Laffer case, and how the department is run in general. They are, after all, going to have the task of fixing it. hN