BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA. STAFF WRITER
Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.
A top city police official and his wife were found guilty yesterday for their role in a heated New Jersey traffic dispute in which police handcuffed him and took his gun, authorities said.
Deputy Commissioner of Operations Garry McCarthy and his wife, Regina, were each fined $200. He was fined for obstructing vehicular traffic and she for making excessive noise.
The decision was announced by Steve Zaben, the judge who presided over the trial and who oversees the courtroom for Palisades Interstate Park.
McCarthy, who is in charge of the NYPD’s CompStat Program, the initiative credited with helping push crime down by tracking it more closely, made headlines Feb. 18, 2005, when he and his wife had a dispute with two officers from the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department at a service station north of the George Washington Bridge.
The incident was triggered by a summons given to McCarthy’s daughter, Kyla, 18, for illegally parking in a handicapped spot at a service station.
The two officers testified that Garry McCarthy had been drinking, used excessive foul language and got angry enough that they were forced to handcuff him and take his weapon. They also testified that McCarthy’s wife was loud and abusive and grabbed his gun after they had placed it in their police vehicle.
Regina McCarthy denied being loud and said she was only trying to safeguard the gun. Her husband admitted he had had two glasses of wine at an earlier family function and testified he feared the officers were impostors looking to rob his daughter.
March 17, 2006