| OLD SAYBROOK - A local police officer disciplined for unauthorized use of the Internet has lodged a complaint against his own police union for not backing him up in the dispute with the department. Charles Della Rocco filed the complaint with the state Department of Labor against his local and national police unions, charging that they failed in their duty to provide fair representation.
Della Rocco was one of the 11 officers disciplined earlier this year for Internet use on the job, which included some visits to pornographic sites.
He claims that the national union failed to provide him with an attorney and that local union president Donald Hull violated protocol by releasing the names of Della Rocco and two other officers to the press. Both actions, Della Rocco says, violate the Connecticut General Statutes.
"I blame my union president, my local union, and my national union for this, for failing to provide me protection under good faith," Della Rocco wrote in his complaint. "I am accused of not supporting union views and for this I was punished."
Della Rocco's hearing is set for Dec. 22 at the Department of Labor's Annex Building in Wethersfield.
In December 2003, Della Rocco was one of 11 officers cited in a department report for improper use of the Internet while on duty. The report claimed that Della Rocco and other officers visited pornographic Web sites. Della Rocco denies the charge, saying that he had left his computer on while out of the office and that other officers had accessed the sites under his password.
Last September, in meetings with Police Chief Edmund Mosca and town labor attorney Pat McHale, Della Rocco and four other officers signed a letter acknowledging that they had violated department policy and as a result received a minor penalty of up to three vacation days. Shortly afterward, an article in the Hartford Courant identified Della Rocco, Sgt. Timothy McDonald and Patrolman Brian Ziolkovski as the three officers accused of viewing pornographic sites.
In his complaint, Della Rocco accuses Hull of releasing the officers' names to the press. "I do understand that there is a Freedom of Information Act and that if anyone wants to look [the Internet study] up, they are more than welcome," his statement reads, "but my union should not be giving my name out." Hull denies giving out the names, claiming that the reporter got the information from the study itself and not a direct quote from him.
"She got the report at a Police Commission meeting and that's where she found those three names," stated Hull. "She had a copy in front of her during our interview."
While Della Rocco's complaint describes ongoing tension between himself and the union leadership, Hull said that there is "not one reason at all" why the union would discriminate against him.
After the Courant article was published, Della Rocco said, he contacted the International Brotherhood of Police Officers for an attorney, but Old Saybrook representative Ronald Suraci refused to provide him with one. The complaint claims that when Della Rocco met with IBPO officials on Sept. 22, Suraci had resigned and Vice President Paul Birks apologized to Della Rocco for the union not supporting him.
Della Rocco said that Suraci's replacement, George Winter, tried to contact the Old Saybrook union to schedule a meeting but never heard back from them. Hull denies the claim, saying that he met with Birks, Winter and IBPO attorneys Michael Brady and Alex Ross in late September or early October. Hull said that he could not comment on the meeting and that Della Rocco was not present at it.
"There are a great deal of inaccuracies there," Hull said of Della Rocco's statement. "It's just not consistent at all."
Suraci, Birks and Winter could not be reached for comment.
Della Rocco says his problems with the union are part of a larger dispute between union leadership and some officers who have been critical of certain union actions.
"My belief," the complaint states, "is that due to the problems in our police department, my union president, knowing that it would hit my livelihood, singled me out." Della Rocco was forced to resign from his job coaching the Old Saybrook High School girls soccer team, following the allegations he visited porn sites while on duty.
The police department and union have been at odds consistently during the past several years. In July 2003, when the Police Commission laid off four officers, many saw it as a union-busting move. One of the former officers, Cindi Huckel, recently filed a court injunction that seeks to have her rehired.
©Pictorial Gazette 2005
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