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Thread: Former State Police Official, a Guard to Governors, Commits Suicide

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    Member sharky's Avatar
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    Former State Police Official, a Guard to Governors, Commits Suicide

    I'm not sure what to make of this, but my guess is he was involved in, or knew details of, something big

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/ny...c63&ei=5087%0A
    Former State Police Official, a Guard to Governors, Commits Suicide

    By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and NATE SCHWEBER
    Published: May 17, 2008

    A former New York State Police inspector who once headed the governor’s personal security detail committed suicide at his home in Orange County on Thursday, a family friend confirmed on Friday. The inspector, Gary A. Berwick, 48, retired from the State Police last month, shortly after the resignation of the acting State Police superintendent, Preston L. Felton.

    Several friends and former colleagues of Mr. Berwick said they were unaware he had been having any personal problems. But a former State Police official who was close to Mr. Berwick said he had been scheduled for an interview with the agency’s internal affairs bureau.

    The former official, who requested anonymity out of respect for Mr. Berwick’s family, said Mr. Berwick also expected to be interviewed by investigators for the state attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.

    There was no indication on Friday that Mr. Berwick was considered a target by either Mr. Cuomo or internal affairs investigators; officials at the attorney general’s office and the State Police declined to comment. But both offices have been conducting investigations of units where Mr. Berwick worked during his 25-year career with the State Police.

    Last month, Mr. Cuomo’s office began an inquiry into possible politically motivated operations at the State Police, focusing in part on the executive services detail, which protects governors. Mr. Berwick worked in the detail for years, protecting Gov. George E. Pataki and his family, and was the detail’s top-ranking officer between 2005 and 2007, under Mr. Pataki and Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

    Mr. Cuomo’s investigation has focused in part on Daniel Wiese, Mr. Berwick’s predecessor as the head of the executive detail and a friend to both Mr. Pataki and Mr. Spitzer. Mr. Wiese was recently suspended from his job as inspector general at the New York Power Authority, where investigators for Mr. Cuomo discovered efforts to scrub e-mail messages from Mr. Wiese’s office computer and BlackBerry.

    In an interview, Mr. Pataki effusively praised Mr. Berwick and described himself as baffled at the former officer’s death.

    “The other troopers, and myself and my family, looked up to him as one of the best and most upstanding people that worked in the State Police,” Mr. Pataki said.

    Mr. Pataki also emphatically dismissed recent speculation in Albany that a rogue unit of State Police officers, possibly involving Mr. Wiese, had engaged in political espionage against lawmakers and other officials, describing the speculation as a “torment” to those serving at the agency.

    “These are wonderful people who every day put their lives on the line,” Mr. Pataki said. “I’ve been to too many funerals of these brave people to have them live under the cloud that is now out there.”

    He added, “There was no rogue State Police unit; there was no political spying or keeping of records at all during the years that I was governor.”

    Between February 2007 and his retirement in April, Mr. Berwick was the confidential secretary to Mr. Felton, in effect the acting superintendent’s closest aide.

    Mr. Felton was recently replaced by Mr. Spitzer’s successor, Gov. David A. Paterson, after an earlier investigation by Mr. Cuomo had named Mr. Felton and other State Police officers in efforts by the Spitzer administration to tarnish Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, by collecting information about Mr. Bruno’s use of state aircraft.

    Mr. Spitzer resigned in March after revelations that he had had sex with prostitutes while governor. The new State Police superintendent, Harry J. Corbitt, has ordered an internal investigation into how Mr. Spitzer was able to arrange meetings with prostitutes while ostensibly under guard by the State Police.

    The former official said that Mr. Berwick, whom the official last spoke with several weeks ago, was demoralized by the damage to Mr. Felton and by the strain of the investigations.

    “He was not happy with the turn of events,” the former official said.

    Mr. Berwick had recently finished teaching a class in criminal investigation at a community college near his home in New Windsor. Officials at the college said that he was well liked by students and was expected to teach again in the fall. Some of his friends said there had been no indication that he was depressed about the investigations of the State Police, or was having difficulty adjusting to life outside law enforcement.

    “If he would have told anyone, it would have been me,” said Bob Mistretta, the friend who confirmed the suicide, as he stood in Mr. Berwick’s driveway Friday. The New Windsor Police Department and a person who answered the phone at the Berwick home declined to comment Friday.

    Mr. Mistretta said that he and Mr. Berwick had meant to meet on Friday night, but that Mr. Berwick had called him on Thursday to cancel.
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    Let's hope they got it right and his death really was a suicide.

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    Unregistered Cgoodsp466's Avatar
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    And I should feel bad why?

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    Who gets the State pension now?

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