🚀 go-pugleaf

Willard Oaf Jr Duckling wrote:
> By MICHELE McPHEE, AUSTIN FENNER and TRACY CONNOR
> DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
> Originally published on January 3, 2004
> The Staten Island firehouse where New York's Bravest
> did battle on New Year's Eve reeked of booze - and its
> captain is suspected of orchestrating a brazen coverup
> of the disgraceful fracas, the Daily News has learned.
> Capt. Terrence Sweeney lied to doctors about how
> Firefighter Robert Walsh was critically injured, and
> even put a phony injury report in the firehouse
> logbook, investigators said.
> He kept FDNY brass and cops in the dark about the
> incident for hours - and his underlings sat watching a
> plasma-screen TV "like nothing happened" as Walsh
> fought for his life, a law-enforcement source said.
>
> "They sobered up, they cleaned up, and they weren't
> answering our questions."
>
> The revelations about the goings-on at Engine
> 151/Ladder 76 in sleepy Tottenville painted a shameful
> portrait of a firehouse out of control and triggered a
> multiagency probe.
>
> "It would be embarrassing if we didn't investigate it
> fully, and if we didn't take appropriate action," Fire
> Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said.
>
> A Fire Department investigator left a written notice
> under the door of Sweeney's Staten Island home last
> night for the captain to appear at department
> headquarters. Sweeney doubtless saw it after he
> returned home about 11 p.m., leaping over flowerpots
> to avoid the press.
>
> The firefighter accused of attacking Walsh, 15-year
> veteran Michael Silvestri, was arraigned yesterday on
> assault, harassment and weapons charges.
>
> The FDNY is weighing administrative charges against
> firefighters who gave "conflicting reports" about what
> happened, Scoppetta said.
>
> "There was a report that he had fallen down the
> stairs, there was another report that he had been in a
> car accident," he said.
>
> The Department of Investigation also is probing the
> coverup, which may have involved as many as a dozen
> firefighters.
>
> The scandal stems from a weeks-old feud between Walsh,
> 40, and Silvestri, 41, that boiled over around 6:45
> p.m. New Year's Eve.
>
> Walsh, a firefighter for eight years, was waiting to
> be relieved by Edward McMullen, an ex-cop involved in
> the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo. Silvestri was
> about to start his tour.
>
> In violation of department regulations, some men were
> drinking, sources said.
>
> "You could smell it," a law-enforcement source said.
> "I'm not saying everyone in the firehouse was having a
> big party, but some guys might have been oiled up."
>
> Walsh tested positive for alcohol in his blood, and
> the stench of booze hung in the air at the firehouse
> hours after the fight, investigators said.
>
> Walsh, a giant at 6-foot-7 and 330 pounds, kept
> needling Silvestri, who snapped. He picked up a metal
> chair with a blue plastic seat and stunned everyone by
> smashing it on Walsh's head, authorities said.
>
> Sweeney and a firefighter bundled Walsh into a car and
> drove him to Staten Island University Hospital - where
> doctors were told he fell down the stairs.
>
> When Sweeney returned to the firehouse two hours
> later, that's what he wrote in the logbook, sources
> said. By then, the firefighters had scrubbed away
> Walsh's blood.
>
> That might have been the end of it, except Walsh's
> condition worsened through the night, and doctors had
> to induce a coma and put in an air tube.
>
> Suspicious of the firefighters' story all along, the
> hospital called FDNY operations at midnight.
>
> A fire chief was dispatched, and the FDNY inspector
> general's office and fire marshals also joined the
> probe, officials said.
>
> But the NYPD still hadn't heard a word about the
> incident.
>
> The cops' first inkling of the attack came at 3:30
> a.m. when a marshal went to the 123rd Precinct
> stationhouse.
>
> "There was an incident at the firehouse. It looks like
> one fireman hit another fireman with a chair," the
> marshal told commanding officer James Klein, according
> to a police report obtained by The News.
>
> When cops got to Engine 151, Silvestri already was
> being questioned by the FDNY inspector general and
> Chief Louis Garcia. The rest of the Bravest were
> watching TV or sleeping.
>
> Silvestri was suspended. Later, with his head hanging
> low, he pleaded not guilty to assault, harassment and
> weapons charges. After being released on $1,000 bail,
> he was hustled out a back door into a waiting car.
>
> "We're praying for both families," Silvestri's
> fiancée, Heather Rasmussen, said. "We hope
> everything's okay."
>
> Walsh was in critical condition with multiple
> fractures, cuts and head trauma. His family said he is
> expected to recover but could be in the hospital for a
> month and faces extensive reconstructive surgery.
>
> At the hospital yesterday, Walsh's family surrounded
> his bed with photos. "He looks like something out of a
> horror movie right now," said his brother Jim. "We're
> mad as heck that this happened."
>
> With Jose Martinez,Helen Peterson, John Marzulli and
> Joe Williams
>
> <meta name="keywords"
> content="alesi,balboni,bonancic,fuschillo,libous,marcellino,mariarz,nozzoli,velella">

I just don't understand why this allowed to continue, or happen in the
first place. The idea that a bunch of belligerent drunks are in charge
of our personal safety is frightening, and the decisions they make must
be questioned. What kind of people do this kind of thing?
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> Support the Pope's right to grope all on a rope! Quasimoto was
> a hunchback from all the pope's humping! Buckley-family oil-business
> will do to the USA what it did to Venezuela - you must worship pope and
> become a banana republic! America is half-Catholic now! Democracy
> is anti-Catholic, so must be Dog-Hole-lick! Peter King from
> Lon Gay-Land supports the IRA, leftist labor and John McCain.
> John McCain is anti-anti-Catholic says Catholic League. Bend Over Boys!
>
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