The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Toy story mystery remains
Police probe fate of toys taken in 2015
The public’s response to toys taken from a nonprofit in 2015 just before Christmas was overwhelming, with more than enough donated to the Charles Street police substation to replace those that went missing.
At some point, as the donations increased, a large number of additional toys were sent to 200 Wintergreen Ave., a secure location that the Police Department is in the process of converting to a training facility.
Who should have had control over the distribution of those toys at 200 Wintergreen Ave. and where they went is now the subject of two probes.
Metashar Dillon, CEO of Kingdom Interna-
tional Economic Development Corp., which has worked in the city for years distributing toys and winter clothing at Christmas and food at Thanksgiving, recently filed a complaint with internal affairs at the New Haven Police Department and with the Connecticut attorney general’s office.
Dillon asked that Lt. Rachel Cain, who heads the internal affairs division, not undertake the investigation at the Police Department.
She said it would be difficult for Cain to look into the situation as her supervisor, Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova, who oversees the training division, allegedly made the decision to call in groups and district managers to pick up the toys if they knew of families or organizations that could use them.
Interim Police Chief Anthony Campbell said the inquiry will be headed by Michael Carter’s office.
Carter is Mayor Toni Harp’s chief administrative officer, whose oversight responsibilities include the police and fire departments.
Campbell said Carter would sit down with Dillon and have a conversation about possibly replacing the toys after determining how many there were and what had transpired.
For years, Kingdom International Economic Development Corp., which also has taken over the Mae Ola Riddick Foundation, has been collecting toys and winter clothing to give to families just before Christmas, goods they distribute out of the Charles Street police substation in the Dixwell neighborhood.
Dillon said the organization spends months “begging” for toys and clothing, as well as raising funds. They advertise the usual two-to-three day distribution event and post fliers that also include the New Haven Police Department as sponsors.
She said as many as 3,000 families register to pick up gifts, although others benefit if there are any left over. Dillon said they have a system of accountability.
Campbell said police do their own fundraisers for toys at other events, but the police relationship with KIEDC mainly is around use of the community room at the Charles Street substation.
There were numerous news articles on the loss of toys days before Christmas in 2015.
Dillon said United Way came through with a donation close to $5,000, which was matched by Walmart, allowing her to shop for replacements just before Christmas 2015.
“They didn’t raise the money for the Police Department. They raised it for our organization to reap that benefit,” Dillon said. Those goods went to the Charles Street station as did many others.
But donors were also contacting the Police Department and were told to bring toys to 200 Wintergreen Ave.
“I distributed the toys because that is what I thought I was supposed to do. No one told me not to distribute them,” Casanova said. “We didn’t want to store toys.”
He said they also had to clear the space to finish creation of a gym there. “I was just trying to do the right thing,” Casanova said.
“It was not a Wells Fargo toy heist. It was a good effort” to benefit children, Casanova said.
The city is in the process of hiring a new police chief. The opening has been posted with applications taken through Jan. 20. Campbell planned to apply on Friday.
Casanova sent an email on Dec. 23, 2015, to the 10 police district managers in the city, telling them about the excess toys. He said if they knew families who might need them, the officers could come and get them.
Casanova said he also contacted Arte, Inc., an Hispanic cultural organization in Fair Haven where Casanova is listed as a board member and his wife is vice-chairwoman, according to its website.
Daniel Diaz, coordinator of parent engagement with the New Haven public schools, as well as chairman of the Arte board, was also contacted, as was Good Shepherd Ministries in West Haven.
Dillon asked when he was making phone calls, why he never called her.
“He didn’t have the right to distribution and no authority to do it,” Dillon said. “You did not advertise, you did not market, you did not work (to get the toys.) Because the toys we had were taken, a press release went out, not for the police department, but for KIEDC.”
Her understanding is that the toys were at 200 Wintergreen for protection.
When informed of the excess toys there, Dillon said she thanked police in early January at a CompSTAT meeting and planned to use some for other events in January, while putting the rest into storage for use in 2016.
After someone donated a container unit to her group, she said she visited 200 Wintergreen on Jan. 21 with Hellinger and Dillon’s sister, Thelma Bromell, who had helped pack some donations. She said when they got there, they only found a few boxes and scattered toys.
The amount of toys that had been on that site is not clear. Dillon said she was told the gym was close to being full. A witness to the amount of toys there that she listed on her complaint to police is Sgt. Elliot Rosa. He had no comment.
Campbell made two deliveries to the site with toys gathered from workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He said each time he was able to fill his Ford Expedition.
At one of his stops at the police facility, Campell said there was another SUV and a van waiting to be unloaded and there could have been more later.
He said he saw chesthigh boxes of toys lining a wall for about 30 feet in the gym area, something he estimated could be worth $10,000.
He said “there were a ton of toys,” but he took issue with Dillon’s estimate of $100,000 worth, which she said would be the value if the gym was close to full.
Only one of five district managers reached for comment said he recommended a family in his district that needed toys. None of the five had visited 200 Wintergreen Ave.
Diaz said they used toys from the police facility for Three Kings Day celebrations connected to several city schools in January 2016.
“The kids loved it,” he said. He didn’t have an estimate on the amount of toys, but children from at least one of the schools sent thank you notes.
Ana Reyes, a co-pastor at Good Shepherd Ministries, said a member of the congregation, dropped off toys that came from 200 Wintergreen.
“We were very grateful for that. That experience was amazing. The kids were so happy. Many of them don’t have much at home,” Reyes said. She said about 100 children received gifts.
Dillon said she was reluctant to formally complain to police, with whom she had a good relationship. Campbell said he thought the issue had been resolved last year until he recently heard from Dillon again.
Dillon said Casanova did apologize to her around Thanksgiving and said the situation was due to a “misunderstanding.”
She said they brainstormed about raising money for the group and police held a “Stuff the Cruiser” event last month.
Dillon said they had to turn away a lot of families last month and toys from last year would have filled the gap, particularly gifts for older children.
Campbell said he feels the nonprofit should have done the distribution “because her organization oversaw all of this.”
But in the end, he said the problem appears to be “there was no real communication” between Dillon and the assistant chief and there was confusion with toys donated to 200 Wintergreen.
The interim chief said one of the things that is clear to him is that going forward, whenever the department is involved in collecting or distributing goods in conjunction with a charitable organization, “you have to have a protocol in place ... we need checks and balances in place.”
He said he does not feel there was any impropriety, “but you have to avoid the very appearance of impropriety.”
As long as the donations “went to the right place,” he said that is what matters to him.
“But I do understand her frustration when someone broke into the substation and took those toys. Now you get more toys donated. You think you are going to have control over them ... and now you go to get them and they are gone,” Campbell said.