AUGUST 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 11
POLICE MISCONDUCT
RENEWED REFORM CALLS
Members of the Nassau County police in Wantagh in 2011. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
The Nassau County Police Department
reportedly hired 17 former New York
Police Department (NYPD) officers who
were accused of misconduct over a fiveyear
period, sparking outrage among
critics calling for police reform.
The 17 officers were the subject of
substantiated New York City Civilian
Complaint Review complaints or named
as defendants in federal civil rights
lawsuits, according to an investigative
report jointly published last month
by The Intercept and New York Focus.
The only one that the report named was
Matthew Castellano, an ex-NYPD cop
who joined the city police force in 2011.
“In 2015, Castellano was one of two
officers to stop Sheena Stewart, a Black
social worker who was seven months
pregnant, on her commute to work.
Castellano pulled her from the driver’s
seat, threw her to the ground, and called
her a ‘fat bastard,’ according to a lawsuit
filed by Stewart, who sued the officers
and the department for abusive policing
and racial discrimination,” the outlets
reported. “Stewart was suspended from
her job at a residential rehabilitation
center after being charged with disorderly
conduct, resisting arrest, and
obstructing governmental administration;
the charges against her were later
dropped.”
Castellano reportedly resigned later
that year and the case was settled for
$75,000 before the Nassau County Police
Department hired him at a higher
salary.
“It is disturbing but unsurprising that
the Nassau County Police Department
hired a former NYPD officer accused
of assaulting a pregnant Black woman,
and then gave him a pay raise,” said
Nia Adams, a social justice organizer
with the Long Island Progressive
Coalition. “Not only should Matthew
Castellano be fired immediately,
the county should also release
information regarding the other 16
NYPD officers it hired who have been
accused of misconduct, as well as all
the disciplinary records related to
repeal of section 50-a of New York
Civil Rights Law. If Nassau County
Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder
knew about Castellano’s past and still
kept him on the department’s payroll,
it would only further demonstrate
that Ryder is unfit to lead the police
department and should resign.”
Nassau police said that Castellano is
not on the force anymore.
“All Nassau County police applicants
must undergo an extensive background
investigation which they must
pass to be appointed by Civil Service
as a Nassau County Police recruit at
the time swearing in,” Det. Lt. Richard
LeBrun, chief spokesman for the
department, told the Press. “Officer
Mathew Castellano was hired in 2016
under another administration and as
of March 2021, while under Commissioner
Ryder’s tenure, Officer Castellano
is no longer employed by the
Nassau County Police Department.”
LeBrun did not address the status of the
other 16 officers or the calls for Ryder to
resign. The commissioner previously
rebuffed earlier calls for him to resign
following comments he made to Newsday
suggesting that more Black police
applicants aren’t hired because many
minority applicants weren’t raised by
both parents under one roof.
“Mr. Ryder, you’re out, and we’re calling
for you to resign, because you,
through your actions, have proven
that you cannot address the issues
of race when it comes to policing in
Nassau County,” civil rights attorney
and and Long Island Advocates for Police
Accountability (LIAFPA) member
Fred Brewington said in June during a
news conference outside of his office
in Hempstead. During a police academy
graduation ceremony the next day,
Ryder said he’s not stepping down.
IN THE NEWS
“It is disturbing but unsurprising that the Nassau
County Police Department hired a former NYPD
officer accused of assaulting a pregnant Black
woman, and then gave him a pay raise,” said Nia Adams
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
