BY DAN VALENTI

More Testimony from Three Cops, from the Inside

The ugly head of SteroidsGate has broken the surface again in Pittsfield choppy law enforcement and public safety waters. And just when you thought it was safe again to wade in up to your navel.

The Planet is just removed from our latest face-to-faces with three of our sources within the Pittsfield Police Department. They are Touchdown, Goalpost, and Red Dog. You’ve “met” Touchdown before. The other two are new. Here’s what they say:

A PPD Union Meeting with an Ulterior Motive

Touchdown reported that this past week, the police union, led by Officer Mark Maddlena, met “to discuss a contract offer” from the city. Touchdown said that after the meeting, officers felt the meeting had ulterior purposes.

“Word around the station was that the meeting was also used as a ‘feeler’ to try to find out who’s been talking about a ‘No Confidence’ vote against the Chief [Michael Wynn],” Touchdown said. “Officers felt that the union leadership was trying to sniff out who was unhappy with the chief and wanted the  ‘No Confidence’ vote. The plan was then to report back to [Captain David] Granger and Wynn.”

Whose in Charge at PPD: Wynn or Granger?

Touchdown said than some officers feel that “Wynn is losing his grip day by day and that Granger is really running things. It didn’t ‘officially’ come up at the meeting, but you could tell they were sniffing.”

Touchdown also said that The Planet “must have really hit a nerve, because the city is pushing for mandatory drug testing in the new contract, and many officers are dead-set against it.”

Testimony like this is cause for concern on its own, but when it agrees with other PPD sources who speak of the division inside the department, one would have a hard time making a case AGAINST the veracity of what Touchdown reports. Enter Goalpost.

‘Crazy Misdoings’

Goalpost has spoken of “crazy misdoings” with the PPD of late. Asked to mention them, Goalpost wouldn’t provide mustard-seed-sized specifics, but he or she did share enough details to identify the types of incidents. Again, keep in mind that these are all claims by Goalpost, who is a member of the PPD force in some capacity. We invite Captain Granger, Chief Wynn, or any other PPD source who wishes to correct any of this information to do so. The Planet wishes only, only, to arrive at the truth in reporting and commentary.

* A sexual assault investigator was found guilty in an internal probe of having sex and an ongoing affair with a victim he was interviewing.

* A patrolman on third shift was subject of a lengthy internal investigation after a complain from a woman that the officer “forced her” to have sex with him while he was on duty.

* A sergeant let a juvenile who was under arrest and in custody walk out of the station. “Nothing was done,” Goalpost said. He said the girl was arrested again a few days later. The report, Goalpost claimed, read that in the first incident, the girl had “fled the scene.” It did not reflect the truth, according to Goalpost, that she simply walked out of the station.

* A second shift officer “regularly” tells officers not to arrest females or juveniles on warrants, since “he doesn’t want to be bothered calling in a matron or having to deal with [the office of] juvenile services.”

Again, The Planet cannot testify to the accuracy of what Goalpost claims. We can only say that having dealt with Goalpost on a number of occasions during the SteroidsGate story, we judge him or her to be a credible source. We have been fooled in the past by sources, but rarely to the point of almost never. We have a good nose for that sort of thing. The Planet invites PPD Command to correct any of the record that is not accurate.

Red Dog: A Leadership Struggle within the PPD

In a face-to-face meeting held at a secret location next to the pickle jar on Funk & Wagnall’s porch, Red Dog agreed that there is a leadership struggle within the PPD. He or she minced no words.

“Captain Granger runs the place,” Red Dog said. “Chief Wynn is his mouthpiece. Wynn lets Granger run on any wild goose chase and head hunt he wants if he’s got it in for someone [one of the officers]. Wynn is scared to take any action in fear of alienating his buddies. As far as I’m concerned, Granger is vindictive, plays favorites, and plays everything close to the vest. The problem here is that the thin blue line is tough to get over,” Red Dog said, “but there are officers who are outraged by this.”

‘The Typical M.O.’

Red Dog said that when Capt. Granger learned that city solicitor Rich Dohoney released his heavily redacted report to the press of the internal investigation he headed into the alleged involvement with steroids by plainclothes drug investigator David Kirchner, “He went ballistic. He hates knowing that people will find out he was saying unkind things [about Kirchner] in his report. It’s the typical M.O. I was telling you about. They all want to come across as ‘good guys,’ but behind closed doors in the department, the gloves come off.” Red Dog says that how cliques have formed within the PPD, leading to interdepartmental politics that are “vicious.”

Red Dog said that “the majority of good cops here hope this thing [investigation into SteroidsGate] will continue. They hope that it will come to a head, and that the corruption that has so long existed here will be somehow found out and rooted out. Many of us, however, have seen this happen all too often. We have experienced it far too often, where it all gets swept under the carpet and things go on as usual. I pray that does not happen this time.”

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It is a lot to digest. The Planet is e-mailing a copy of this post to Chief Wynn, inviting his comment. Surely, if there is departmental civil war to even a part of the extent our three source indicate, public safety will be compromised, because officers will not be able to devote their full energies to helping keep Pittsfield safe.

The Planet has contacted Chief Wynn inviting his comment on this post.

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THAT’S ALL UNTIL MONDAY. THE PLANET DOESN’T OPEN ON SUNDAY. UNTIL THEN, “OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.” LOVE TO ALL.