http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2011/02/27/news/doc4d69c6993a665543724997.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Kingston police chief says Matthews case ‘disturbing,’ announces plan to retire at end of 2011

Published: Sunday, February 27, 2011

BY PAUL KIRBY
Freeman staff

KINGSTON — City Police Chief Gerald Keller says a “shadow” has been cast over his department by investigations of a suspended high-ranking officer, but he said crime-fighting efforts have not been diminished.

The chief also said he plans to retire at the end of 2011, but he stressed the decision was made before Detective Lt. Timothy Matthews was arrested, suspended and accused of double dipping from the city and Kingston school district payrolls.

In his first comments to the media since the Matthews case started making headlines, Keller told the Freeman on Friday that the matter has become a stain on the police department.

“It is extremely disturbing,” said Keller, the city’s top cop for the past 13 years and a member of the department for nearly four decades. “Everybody has been saddened by this and by the events that have gone on.”

Still, Keller said, he and all the members of the police department are proud of the work they do.

He said the Matthews situation has “cast a shadow with all these agencies investigating, but we are going cooperate fully. ... We are policing the city the way we always have and we will continue to police the city.”

The chief declined to comments of specifics of the Matthews case.

[highlight]Matthews, the decadelong head of the police department’s Detective Division, was charged with grand larceny last month for allegedly stealing $9,000 from the city, and he was suspended without pay soon after. Then, at a press conference two weeks ago, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced an audit had found Matthews was paid by both the city and the school district for simultaneous work during the 2008-09 school year, when Matthews, in addition to his police job, was head of security at Kingston High School.[/highlight]

DiNapoli said Matthews “cheated” taxpayers by double dipping on 16 separate occasions in 2008-09.

Keller said he has not talked publicly about the Matthews case until now because of how many investigations are under way and how quickly they all happened.

“When these revelations first came to light, I had a myriad of agencies that were opening investigations, all at the same time, and a number of news agencies were (submitting Freedom of Information requests),” Keller said. “Also, at the same time, we had other personnel issues that I had to handle, and I just needed time to get this and cooperate with these agencies ... before I could make public statements.”

Besides the state Comptroller’s Office, matters pertaining to Matthews are being investigated by the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the Kingston school district and an outside auditor enlisted by the school district.

Asked about [highlight]Matthews racking up more than $750,000 in salary, overtime and benefits between 2007 and 2010,[/highlight] Keller said much of the money was overtime pay related to Matthews’ work as head of the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team, commonly called URGENT.

Keller noted Matthews’ overtime pay dropped in 2009 and 2010, when the detective lieutenant no longer was running URGENT. Also, the chief said, the one-time practice of letting Matthews approve his own overtime vouchers was halted in January 2009.

As part of the Matthews probe, the FBI has subpoenaed URGENT-related records from the city of Kingston and Ulster County, as well as unspecified documents from the school district.

KELLER SAID four city detectives still are assigned to URGENT and that he sees the multi-agency task force as a valuable tool in fighting gang activity and drug crimes in the county.

“The concept of URGENT was an excellent one to pool resources,” the chief said, though he declined to say whether he thinks the city should pull its detectives out of the squad, given the recent controversies. “It is going to have to be a determination made by the mayor.”

SEPARATELY, Keller said continuing to have off-duty city officers work as security guards at Kingston High School “is not a bad idea.”

“One of my worries (is) that I would hate to see a terrible tragedy happen in the schools” without officers there, he said.

There has been talk by both city and school district officials of using a private security company at the high school instead of off-duty police.