(My comment I hope that Marty pervails,he was a good cop that was thrown a bag of crap, New Bedford politics.)
Suit claims police looked to hush up pornography charge against local politician
By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD — The former New Bedford police officer who arrested prominent local politician George Rogers in 2001 has testified that he was pressured and threatened with jail time by a superior over the case, according to court documents. Martin J. Novia, a patrolman who left the New Bedford Police Department in 2003 after 16 years of service, testified in a deposition that then-Deputy Police Chief Carl K. Moniz pressured him to drop the case. Mr. Moniz, who would later become chief of police, allegedly told Patrolman Novia "you might end up in jail" after Mr. Novia arrested Mr. Rogers on the charge of disseminating pornography to a minor, according to court papers. Mr. Novia made the charges in a deposition connected to his lawsuit against the city, which has disputed Mr. Novia's assertions. The case is set to go to trial in Fall River Superior Court next year. Mr. Novia has asked to receive 14 months of back pay after going on "stress leave." Mr. Novia claimed in the lawsuit, filed in 2001, that the hostile work environment of the city's Police Department caused him to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. He also claimed that four other officers received paid stress leave while he did not. In the deposition, taken by assistant city solicitor John Markey Jr. and Mr. Novia's attorney, Donald Fleming, at City Hall last month, Mr. Novia testified that he was threatened twice by Deputy Chief Moniz in 2001 over the case. Mr. Novia had investigated the allegations made against Mr. Rogers by a 16-year-old male, and had written up the youth's allegations in a police report. The head of the department's sexual crimes unit had not been informed before the arrest. According to the deposition, Deputy Chief Moniz threatened Mr. Novia after he arrested Mr. Rogers. The confrontation, the deposition said, occurred in the office of Police Chief Arthur J. Kelly III, who was not present. "He said, 'You better be very careful, you don't want to end up in jail,'"‰" Mr. Novia said Deputy Chief Moniz said to him, in the deposition. "What do you mean by that?" Mr. Novia said he asked. ""‰'You better be careful. You may end up in jail,'"‰" Mr. Novia said Deputy Chief Moniz responded. "For what?" Mr. Novia asked. Deputy Chief Moniz did not respond, and stopped himself from saying anything further, Mr. Novia testified in the deposition. Mr. Moniz, who has since retired after serving for two years as chief of the city Police Department, did not return three phone messages left since Wednesday for this report. Former Police Chief Kelly did not return a call, either. Before he had arrested Mr. Rogers, Mr. Novia said, Deputy Chief Moniz spoke to him about the case. "He said, 'You know, Marty, you've had a lot of problems around here. There is no need to make any more problems for yourself. Let us handle it,'"‰" Mr. Novia said in the deposition. Asked how Deputy Chief Moniz's statement made him feel threatened, Mr. Novia replied: "With the way that Chief Moniz has gone after me, with the persecution that I've suffered historically in the department, it made me uncomfortable for my professional well-being." Later, he said that his work was being scrutinized more closely than other officers. "Police work is not an exact science. If they want to shine the light on you, they will, and they will find something wrong, to planting something in my locker and finding it," he said in the deposition. Mr. Markey asked him whether anyone had ever planted anything in his locker, or in anyone else's locker, in the 16 years he was on the force. Mr. Novia said no. Mr. Novia's past and performance were scrutinized following the arrest, according to a March 2001 Standard-Times report. Mr. Novia said he had heard that the department was seeking to quash the charges. "I have sources that told me that they would handle it by means of a magistrate's hearing and quash it at the magistrate's hearing," he said in the deposition. Mr. Novia would not comment on the record, beyond what he testified to in the deposition, on the advice of his attorney. For his part, Mr. Rogers said he never said a word to anyone in the Police Department. "My lawyer handled the whole thing," Mr. Rogers said. "If (pressure) was (applied), it was unbeknownst to me. I certainly never brought any pressure. It sounds like a bunch of (expletive) to me. Those things didn't happen." The case against Mr. Rogers was finally settled when a judge said he found the youth "truthful," but the prosecution had not established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Mr. Rogers said it would be "interesting" to see if Mr. Novia would testify to those facts in court. Former Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr., who is not mentioned by name in the deposition, said, "I don't know anything about it. It was a departmental issue. I have nothing to say about it." In the deposition, Mr. Novia said that a number of other officers warned him that he brought "real problems" on himself by arresting Mr. Rogers, and that the department would take its proverbial "pound of flesh" from him. He testified in the deposition that the stomach pains and other physical ailments that he suffered as a result of stress while working for the New Bedford Police Department would go away when he was serving in the military. Since he left the city's employ in spring 2003, he was a private contractor for the State Department in Afghanistan. He lives in New Hampshire. When asked why he did not detail the allegations about the alleged threats until now, five years after the fact, Mr. Novia replied in the deposition, "I didn't feel free to discuss these allegations until the mayor and Chief Moniz were out of power."
Contact Aaron Nicodemus at anicodemus@s-t.com Date of Publication: October 23, 2006 on Page A07
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