Gun discharge prompts review
Not accused of wrongdoing in domestic incident, State Police major is still on duty
ALBANY — A State Police major who oversees the Hudson Valley’s Troop K is under investigation following a domestic incident last week in which she fired a round from her service pistol into an interior wall of her Greene County residence,
officials said.
Maj. Kathryne M. Rohde, who two years ago became the 37th commander of the troop that includes Columbia, Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties, has had no change in her employment status and remains on-duty in her position, a State Police spokesman said.
The incident took place on the night of Feb. 15 after Rohde returned home from a retirement party for another member of the State Police. She had an argument with her 17-yearold daughter before officials said she went into another room and discharged a round from her firearm into a wall.
“Maj. Rohde was alone in a room when the single round was discharged, and there were no injuries,” said Beau Duffy, a spokesman for the State Police.
“What happened with the discharge is she was taking her duty firearm out of one holster and putting it into a different holster that she was going to wear the next day; in the course of that one round was fired into the wall,” said Daniel Strollo, an attorney for the Police Benevolent Association of New York State Troopers who went to the residence that night to represent Rohde. “Nobody was injured. She was fully cooperative with the New York State Police investigation. She sat down and talked to them. The daughter talked to them as well.”
Strollo added that when he arrived at Rohde’s residence around midnight “she was not intoxicated” and he said the argument with her daughter had no connection to the discharge of the weapon.
Duffy confirmed Wednesday that a domestic incident report was filed in connection with the incident. But it remains unclear who placed the call summoning police to the residence or why they did so.
“State Police learned about the incident from an uninvolved party,” Duffy said. “I can’t provide further at this time; the circumstances remain under investigation.”
He added that Rohde’s daughter was not on the phone with anyone at the time of the incident.
Rohde, 45, graduated from the state University at Albany, where she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice, and joined the State Police in 1999. She has worked at various assignments during her State Police career, including serving as a commander in the Computer Crimes Unit and a lieutenant in the Professional Standards Bureau (internal affairs).
State Police sources said that Rohde is highly respected by many members of the agency and had previously been on a list of candidates considered for promotion to the rank of inspector. But her career also has had some bumps through the years.
Nine years ago, the Times Union published a story detailing how aides for former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had directed the systematic rebuilding of his State Police protective services unit. The story noted that Rohde, then a sergeant, was among three members appointed to that special detail in 2010 despite a recommendation from the internal affair bureau that they not be assigned there. That recommendation followed an incident in which Rohde had been censured and suspended without pay for three days for failing to properly investigate a hit-and-run crash involving an off-duty trooper who may have been intoxicated.
Rohde subsequently left the governor’s protective detail and in 2012 was promoted to lieutenant and initially assigned to the Professional Standards Bureau.