Letters: Carnal cop gets light punishment
Former Nassau Police Officer Michael Tedesco leaves the Nassau Police headquarters after surrendering in Mineola on Dec. 14, 2012. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The article "Ex-cop's guilty plea" about the renegade Officer Michael Tedesco leaves me perplexed [News, May 13]. This man violated the public trust and his oath of office. While he was paid $182,000 a year, he was shacking up with two different women, for as much as six hours a shift.
Newsday reports that this went on for "hundreds of hours." Apparently his carnal needs overcame "alarms, domestic disturbances and a report of a possible cardiac arrest," and resulted in numerous delayed 911 responses. Then he tampered with and falsified the records and lied about his work activity.
And so what happened to this crooked cop? He will forfeit some termination pay, but not his pension, and will have to perform 100 hours of community service and pay $3,700 in restitution. This is an outrage!
It is also an open invitation to any wayward cop inclined to do this sort of thing in the future. The punishment essentially says, "Go ahead, violate the public trust, put the public at risk. The worst that will happen is you may have to pay back some money that you didn't earn anyway."
William Bernstein, Dix Hills
The fact that there will be no jail time, only the forfeiture of termination pay and 100 hours of community service, for ex-Police Officer Michael Tedesco is not a "win for taxpayers," as Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice portrayed it.
Nor is it a "very fair, a very decent resolution of the charges he was facing," as his attorney, Bruce Barket, said.
It is a travesty for Nassau taxpayers because the charges Tedesco faced, misdemeanors and felonies, had to do with his official responsibilities to serve and protect the public. Instead, he spent hours at a time with his mistresses. Other officers on patrol had to do not only their jobs, but also his as well. And for this he gets to keep his pension!
His pension will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars over his lifetime. His was not a one-time mistake, but a pattern of behavior over an extended period. That certainly demands the loss of his pension.
The law must be changed so that public servants automatically lose their pensions if they are guilty of criminal charges that relate directly to the performance of their public trust.
Police officers, legislators and those involved in criminal justice must be held to a higher standard once they raise their right hands and take the oath to faithfully serve, protect and defend.
William Plackenmeyer, Deer Park
Editor's note: The writer is a retired New York City police captain.
