MY BOSS HATES MY DAD & I’M PAYING, COP SAYS
Was demoted, now claiming vendetta in
An NYPD cop claims he was demoted from detective in the elite Auto Crime Division because of an internal affairs investigator ’s vendetta against his father, an outspoken police union official.
Over the past 20 months, Scott Munro Jr., 29, has seen his once-blossoming career marooned on the shoals of an endless investigation into his role in a supposed minor scuffle at a Long Island firehouse in April 2018.
Munro Jr. and his supporters say he’s suffered because the man in charge of the investigation, NYPD Lt. John Dandola, has an axe to grind with Munro Jr.’s dad, Scott Munro Sr., a trustee in the 5,000-member Detectives Endowment Association.
“This is about all of the things he (Munro Sr.) has done. He’s constantly been a fly in the ointment,” said William Heiser, a highly decorated retired detective who served 30 years in the NYPD.
“He’s in-your-face. They do not like him. They want to get him and they are doing it through his son.”
Munro Jr., who joined the NYPD in 2013, was set to file a federal employment claim against the NYPD on Tuesday.
The NYPD declined to comment on a detailed inquiry from the Daily News, citing pending litigation. Dandola did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The sequence of events that led a second-generation cop like Munro Jr. to even contemplate suing the police department began more than two years ago at the volunteer fire station in Hauppauge.
For some young Hauppauge men, joining the clubby, insular local fire force is a rite of passage. Munro Sr. is a department commissioner, and Munro Jr. and his brothers John and Austin, the latter also an NYPD cop, all joined up.
It was within that atmosphere that Munro Jr. encountered fellow firefighter Jonathan Kriklava on April 1, 2018. A couple of days later, Kriklava filed an assault complaint with Suffolk County cops claiming Munro Jr. had knocked him unconscious.
Suffolk cops, though, couldn’t find video of a confrontation or witnesses. The only security video they found showed Kriklava in no discomfort. Kriklava soon stopped cooperating with police and withdrew the complaint, NYPD records show.
Meanwhile, Munro Jr. had two run-ins with one of Kriklava’s friends, Thomas Bagdziunas, a 25-year-old NYPD officer who’s also a Hauppauge firefighter, according to video, written summaries and recordings. During a fire district meeting, Bagdziunas kicked the back of Munro Jr.’s chair, and some words were later exchanged at a Hauppauge barber shop.
Bagdziunas filed a complaint with the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau over the February 2019 barber shop incident, claiming Munro Jr. threatened to “f—- (him) up.” A recording of the incident obtained later disproved that claim, records show.
An investigation by the Hauppauge fire board found nothing to support Bagdziunas’ complaint. The findings were turned over to the NYPD, said board chairman Joseph Beltrani.
Despite that, Dandola, of the Detective Bureau Investigations Unit, pursued the case with an almost religious zeal, Munro Jr.’s supporters say.
On March 8, 2019 — nearly a year after the alleged scuffle with Kriklava that began Munro Jr.’s woes — Dandola and three sergeants stripped him of his guns and shield and placed him on desk duty, accord ding to people who were present. ent
The decision forced the young detective off ongoing auto crime investigations.
After the meeting, Munro Jr. claims, he was waiting for an elevator when he overheard Dandola say, “His father’s next, f—king union,” according to the employment complaint.
A sergeant with Dandola allegedly replied, “We’re going to crush him like a f—king cockroach.”
Then Dandola noticed Munro Jr. “Tell your dad I said ‘Hi,’ ” he says Dandola told him.
Dandola used unethical tactics in the investigation, including repeatedly urging a reluctant Kriklava to re-file
his complaint with SuffolkS copscops, Munro JrJr. allegesalleges.
Kriklava did so. The case ended with Munro Jr. reluctantly taking a plea for disorderly conduct, a non-criminal violation. The case is now sealed, a spokeswoman for the Suffolk County District Attorney said.
Munro Jr.’s complaint also says Dandola turned off the tape recorder during some official interviews — an NYPD no-no — and embellished his reports with false information.
Dandola has baggage of his own. He was accused in 2016 of manipulating tests aimed at assessing detectives’ integrity to earn more overtime, says Munro Jr.’s complaint and other NYPD sources.
The detectives’ union threatened to go to the media if Deputy Commissioner Joseph Reznick of Internal Affairs didn’t discipline Dandola over the incident, said Detective First Grade Ralph Diaz, now retired.
Instead of seeking disciplinary charges, Reznick merely transferred Dandola to a Queens precinct, people familiar with the move said.
Despite his problems, Dandola has prospered. His salary in 2019 was $202,038 — up 68% from the $120,031 he earned in 2014.
Munro Jr.’s case brought Dandola enough tension that in September 2019 he allegedly choked a fellow officer who accepted a subpoena on his behalf from Munro Jr.’s employmentl cllaiim, JJohn h Scola, said the NYPD should review all of Dandola’s investigations.
After spending a year working in Fleet Services, Munro Jr. now collates statistics for a chief in Queens —his hopes of returning to auto crime fading.
Munro Jr. still has no date