NYPD prober under fire
Internal Affairs lt. investigated over handling of L.I. brawl
A former top investigator for the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau could be fired over departmental charges he fiddled with a probe of a young detective’s scuffle in a Long Island firehouse to get at the detective’s father, a high-ranking police union official.
The NYPD has filed 13 upgraded disciplinary charges against Lt. John Dandola for a range of misconduct in his twoyear investigation into Detective Scott Munro Jr.’s alleged scuffle in 2018 with fellow firefighter Jonathan Kriklava at a Long Island firehouse, the Daily News has learned.
The charges are a new twist in the years-long saga.
Kriklava filed a complaint with with Suffolk County police accusing Munro Jr. in the incident at the firehouse in Hauppauge, and the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau and Dandola pursued their own probe against Munro Jr.
Suffolk cops couldn’t find video of a confrontation or witnesses. The only security video they found showed Kriklava in no discomfort. Kriklava withdrew his complaint, NYPD records show.
After Dandola completed his investigation in 2019, the NYPD stripped Munro Jr. of his rank, moved him out of the Detective Bureau’s elite Auto Crime Division, and marooned him on desk duty. He was also hit with the loss of 30 vacation days.
But in a reversal, the NYPD cleared Munro Jr. of the charges in January 2022. He was restored to the rank of detective, and his vacation days were returned.
Now, just over a year later, Dandola faces charges he failed to conduct proper investigations and deleted documents favorable to Munro Jr., records obtained by The News show.
The 13 departmental charges filed Jan. 26 also allege Dandola failed to conduct interviews of 10 witnesses in the case, failed to re-interview witnesses who contradicted themselves, omitted key Suffolk County police and fire documents from the case file, and failed to supervise underlings involved in the probe, the records show.
John Scola, Munro Jr.’s lawyer, said that given the result so far in Munro Jr.’s case, the Police
Department should look into other cases Dandola has handled. “All of his previous investigations must be independently reviewed,” Scola said.
Lou Turco, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, defended Dandola’s handling of the case.
“We are looking forward to the trial, and we are confident that when all the evidence come out, our lieutenant will be exonerated,” Turco said. “The evidence will show he conducted a fair and balanced investigation.”
Dandola, a 25-year NYPD veteran, was quietly transferred Feb. 9 from Internal Affairs to the Detective Bureau, records show. An NYPD spokeswoman declined comment. “The discipline process is ongoing at this time,” she said.
Munro Jr.’s father is Scott Munro Sr., currently the secretary or No. 3 official in the 5,000-member Detectives Endowment Association. Hank
Sheinkopf, a DEA spokesman, declined comment.
The father-son duo claimed in a February 2022 letter to Mayor Adams that Dandola’s zeal was fueled by a grudge against Munro Sr.
On March 8, 2019, after Dandola and three sergeants stripped Munro Jr. of his rank, the young detective claimed in an earlier employment complaint he overheard Dandola say, “His father’s next, f——- union.”
A sergeant with Dandola allegedly replied, “We’re going to crush him like a f——— cockroach.”
Meanwhile, Dandola’s immediate superior, Captain Thomas Kamper, is taking unspent leave, sources said. And Kamper’s then-superior, Deputy Inspector Edward Armstrong, recently retired, said the sources.
The Munros accused Kamper and Armstrong of obstructing the investigation, but they were never charged.