By Aaron Besecker
Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Police Department brass want suspended Cold Case Squad Detective Dennis A. Delano off the force, describing him as as a “rogue cop” who disobeyed orders.
Delano’s defense attorney paints him as a frustrated investigator passionately pursuing the truth in the 1993 death of 13-year-old Crystallynn Girard.
These two contrasting portraits unfolded Tuesday in a disciplinary proceeding in Police Headquarters before Hearing Officer Thomas N. Rinaldo.
The hearing had two notable observers -- Lynn M. DeJac, a woman Delano helped free from prison with his work on the Cold Case Squad, and Cariol J. Horne, a former Buffalo police officer removed from the force in May for conduct in a domestic dispute -- who listened but did not testify.
Two commanding officers -- Chief of Detectives Dennis J. Richards and Detective Sgt. Daniel F. Rinaldo -- testified that Delano had received verbal and written orders to stay clear of investigating the Girard case.
Instead, they told the hearing officer, Delano set up an interview with a witness in the case and told his superiors that he did it because he wanted to talk with the witness “before they got their hands on him.”
“They” referred to members of the Erie County district attorney’s office.
According to police, Delano also released video footage to WGRZ-TV, Channel 2, of both the crime scene and a polygraph test administered by police to Dennis P. Donohue, DeJac’s former boyfriend and a person of interest in the case who had been given immunity by prosecutors.
Delano never asked permission to keep investigating.
The detective had become “obsessed with the case,” Assistant Corporation Counsel Diane T. O’Gorman said during Tuesday’s hearing. Segments of the television news reports that included footage provided by Delano were shown during the hearing nd entered into evidence.
Police brass saw Delano’s actions as troublesome, defense attorney Steven M. Cohen said.
“Some pretty powerful people didn’t want the truth to come out,” Cohen said.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Cohen said police brass liked it when Delano brought accolades to the department through his work with the Cold Case Squad.
After all, he said, police officials agree that Delano’s work helped lead to DeJac’s release from prison after 13 years. He also helped free Anthony J. Capozzi, who had been convicted in a series of rapes and sat in prison for more than 20 years.
When the district attorney’s office declared in February there was no crime in the death of Girard, Delano kept pushing, Cohen said.
“When the administration began to push and say stay away from the case, other detectives complied with that,” Cohen said. “Detective Delano continued to seek the truth.”
Delano did not work the case in the time between the written orders and when the district attorney’s office announced that no crime had been committed, Cohen said.
Police officials have filed six departmental charges against Delano, including insubordination, conducting an indepen-dent investigation, distributing photographic materials and other evidence, and violating the good order and discipline of the department.
He was suspended without pay for 30 days last February, then with pay, in accordance with the police union’s contract.
Cohen raised questions about how Buffalo police could view the Girard case as an open one when then-District Attorney Frank J. Clark announced last Feb. 13 that Girard had died of a cocaine overdose rather than strangulation as initially ruled.
Since the district attorney’s office viewed the case as closed, the video footage Delano released should not be considered evidence, Cohen said.
Delano, frustrated by the way the case was being handled locally, even went so far as to take his case to the FBI, his attorney said, but it came back to the county DA’s office.
O’Gorman said that Delano was “infuriated” by Clark’s announcement and that the case was never “closed” by Buffalo police.
The attorney also said that it was clear Delano defied the orders of his commanding officers, including Deputy Commissioner Daniel Derenda, who assigned the case to homicide detectives led by Rinaldo in order to get “fresh eyes” on it.
Delano, who joined the department in 1985, has previously stated he believes that Donohue, DeJac’s former boyfriend, was responsible for Girard’s death. Donohue has since been convicted in the 1993 slaying of Joan Giambra.
Horne said she came to the hearing to show support for Delano. Delano’s wife, Cheryl, and brother, Paul, a former homicide detective, also attended Tuesday’s proceeding.
Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson has the final authority in what happens to Delano, regardless of the hearing officer’s ruling.
The hearing is scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. Thursday in Police Headquarters.
Copyright 2009 Buffalo News