NY’S INSPECTOR GENERAL STOPPED PUBLISHING THE RESULTS OF ITS INVESTIGATIONS: WHY?

LETTERS STATING THE FINDINGS OF INVESTIGATIONS INTO MISCONDUCT AND CRIMES BY STATE OFFICIALS WERE KEPT SECRET UNTIL 2022 WHEN GOV. HOCHUL'S INSPECTOR GENERAL BEGAN RELEASING THEM. WHY DID THEY STOP?

Lucy Lang, New York’s Inspector General. Photo credit: screengrab WMHT

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June 3, 2024

New York’s Inspector General has stopped publishing "secret" letter reports detailing the findings of its investigations into alleged misconduct and crimes by state officials—that it just began releasing to the public in 2022. 

Letters like the one that finally exposed the serial sex pest who exploited his position as Director of the State Committee on Open Government to prey on journalists and state employees.

Aisha Powell was a young newspaper reporter for The Journal News in Westchester when Robert Freeman—who was supposed to be helping her obtain access to government records—gropped her, grabbed her head and kissed her during a meeting in May 2019. 

Powell filed a complaint with the Inspector General's office, which is charged with investigating misconduct by state officials and employees. The office questioned Freeman and issued a preliminary report, in the form of a letter, 11 days later.

The office "regularly issues advisory letters outlining the Inspector General's findings regarding allegations of corruption, fraud, criminal activity, conflicts of interest, or abuse," the IG says. The letters also include "the Office’s recommendations for reform."

The letter in Freeman's case said investigators found "compelling evidence" he "sexually assaulted" Powell.

Investigators also found 100s of photographs of naked or "scantily clad" women on his work computer, along with "a series of sexually suggestive email messages and photographic images" Freeman exchanged with a Syracuse University student.

The Inspector General did not publish the Freeman letter on its website or post it to any social media account. 

The letter would have remained secret, but for the fact it was obtained by the USA TODAY collective of newspapers. Eight women—three reporters and five state workers—said they were sexually harassed by Freeman. He was fired and fined $15,000.

For years the Inspector General's office used letter reports like these to inform the heads of administrative agencies of the results of investigations it conducted into the agency’s workers. From 2011 until today, the IG issued at least 359 such letters, according to a Free Lance count.

Sometimes the IG announced findings of cherry-picked investigations in public reports. They were few and far between. Letters were never released.

For example, in 2017 the IG's office released 15 "reports," according to its website. Seven of them were news releases relating to criminal charges filed against state employees as a result of IG investigations. They were not the official reports of the investigations themselves.

In contrast, the IG issued 46 letter reports to state agencies detailing misconduct and crimes by state officials and employees—or clearing them.

While the IG's office contends that letters could be released in response to requests from members of the public made pursuant to New York's Freedom of Information Law, no one knew there was anything to request. When savvy journalists made targeted requests, the IG's office invoked alleged exceptions to FOIL.

Until another sex scandal drove another high-ranking New York State official from office in 2021. This time it was a governor, Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo was succeeded by his lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, making her the Empire State's first female governor. A year later, Hochul won her own election to become New York's first, elected female governor.

Lucy Lang was Gov. Hochul's choice for Inspector General in 2021. Lang started her career as a prosecutor in Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morganthau's office in 2006. She began publishing the letters on the IG's website in early 2022. Here's a taste. 

A male prison K-9 officer who liked to take female visitors into bathrooms with his dog and force them to strip. The prison SWAT team that gassed a town with chemical weapons. A high-ranking official who was "kind of a perv.” A Department of Labor investigator who hacked a computer—belonging to a colleague's daughter. Power Authority police who illegally tapped workers' telephone calls. 

There were also hidden cameras in a mens' locker room, courtesy of the female executive director of the Bridge Authority, since resigned. A banking department official who didn't disclose he owned three Dunkin Donuts. A conservation worker addicted to Pokemon Go. And a State Commission of Corrections auditor who stayed overnight at the home of an under-sheriff in charge of a county jail he was auditing. 

Forgery by state officials is an entire subset of misconduct.

The Division of Criminal Justice Services forged forms, "purporting to be from the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office." A deputy state prison warden disciplined prisoners without the hearings required by law and forged records to cover it up.  Corrections Officers forged sick leave forms. A DMV worker had a forged inspection sticker. A parole commissioner paid his assistant to forge state vehicle use logs.

Even officials in the IGs office violated rules: a deputy chief directed an unauthorized criminal records search.

A report Lang issued Feb. 2024 touted the successes she had in her first two years as Inspector General, including what she said were "transformative steps to increase transparency.” The report cited the "historical letters" as proof.

While Lang was touting historical transparency, she appears to have been neglecting it in real-time.

The Free Lance's tally of documents published on the Inspector General's website reveals a precipitous decline of letters published detailing investigations conducted under Lang's leadership.

The IG issued 13 letters in 2012, 19 in 2013, 28 in 2014, 36 in 2015, 29 in 2016, 46 in 2017, 39 in 2018, 46 in 2018, 39 in 2020 and 28 in 2021 before Lang was appointed by Gov. Hochul.

The year Lang was appointed by Hochul, 2022, the IG's office published 23 letters. Lang’s office published 11 letters in 2023.

So far in 2024, Lang's office has published one letter—on Jan. 16. 

That letter did not focus on misconduct by individual officials. It took aim at the education systems in New York's prisons and juvenile detention facilities. It said they lacked "a uniform system involving evidence-based literacy education."

Lang's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Neither did it respond to multiple requests for copies of any other letters it issued in 2024.

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