MBTA Transit Police Academy under investigation

BOSTON — A Team 5 investigation has uncovered disturbing new allegations of hazing at the MBTA Transit Police Academy, a facility that has earned a reputation among local police departments for producing some of the finest police officers in the state. NewsCenter 5’s Kathy Curran reported on Friday that the academy and its instructors are under investigation.
"This definitely concerns me, this is something that needs to be addressed,” said Medford police Chief Leo Sacco. Sacco told Team 5 he’s troubled because the allegations come from his recruit, Mark Cardarelli, a decorated Marine. In a report obtained by Team 5 Investigates, Cardarelli claims training officers called him homophobic slurs and degrading names. He claims there was even negative talk about Chief Sacco’s family.
“Some of the allegations were personal to me and my family so I was somewhat shocked and taken aback, some of the most concerning items were pointed at Officer Cardarelli,” said Sacco.
Some of the allegations detail how recruits were forced to take naked showers while touching each other under freezing water, and being forced to eat multiple Ring Dings before a long run. According to the report, when one recruit got sick, an academy officer snapped pictures. On another occasion, Cardarelli claims he was sprayed with dirty water while on a run through a cemetery.
Cardarelli wrote that he swallowed a mouthful of the dark, Coca-Cola colored water and he believes that’s what landed him in the hospital with a serious infection requiring emergency surgery.
Former Boston police lieutenant and professor of criminal justice Tom Nolan says if true, the behavior is unacceptable. “It’s completely counter-productive. I’m afraid it’s going to send the wrong message if these kinds of officers are coming out of this training setting that they would go out and treat the public in a like or similar manner,” Nolan said.
Cardarelli is the son of MBTA police officer Danny Cardarelli who sued the T for allegedly trying to cover up a murder. The suit was later dismissed because the statute of limitations ran out.
Team 5 Investigates has also discovered in 2010, a 43-year old female recruit from Walpole, Mass. filed a discrimination complaint against the Academy claiming she was called “grandma” and was forced to carry a walker during training. She ultimately withdrew her case. But the instructor she accused happens to be one of those accused in the current investigation.
“I know they won’t condone any bad behavior, if that’s what took place,” said Sacco.
Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the MBTA, told Team 5 Investigates the agency has retained outside counsel to investigate and that no other recruits from the current class have filed any complaints. Medford’s mayor and police chief removed recruit Cardarelli from the academy this week because they were concerned about his safety and didn’t want the allegations to disrupt the class.

Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/investigat...17150302/-/14h8pgz/-/index.html#ixzz2ASjqcCaj

Yawn... Greetings from Camp Hell 2?

'I love that dirty wahtah... Yeah....Boston you're my home.'

Not touching this one....

Looks like the Chief is already banking on his RECRUIT to make it out of the academy by calling him "Officer" in the article. Some of the allegations may be true, who knows, but are you really going to complain about being sprayed with dirty water??

If it were simple whining about getting sprayed with water, I would think it was just that, whining. If he really ingested the water and it caused serious illness and surgery (which should be documented if true) then he may have a legit gripe.

Maybe if he wasn't chain-smoking in violation of MGL, he wouldn't have a problem.

Its Quincy public water! It's the same god damn water restaurants use to cook, convenience restaurants hook up to the soda fountain, and residents wash their clothes in.

Fuck this guy. His father is a pathetic POS, and his kid is too.

The article didn't mention the other 45+ recruits that aren't having issues, including SEVERAL from Medford that weren't yanked.

Not saying it did or didn't happen, but being the only one victimized doesn't make the claims illegitimate.

Jeezus. If I tried to sue the Ranger Training Battalion for this type of hazing I'd be laughed out of the CO's office.

#Nancy

Q5, I wonder if that female BITCH (aka trainee meltdown) that dropped from our class is still a DI at the T Academy???? Last time I checked from reading the report Joseph Sacco is a head coach in the NHL and NOT the son of the Chief!!!

Boo-freaking-hoo. Do these recruits understand what profession they are getting into? Have they heard some of the thing the rats on the street yell at you when you're trying to cuff them? How about rolling around on the deck with some AIDS-infested waste of skin? You going to go crying to the chief then? Grow a sack, son.

There's no standardized test for intestinal fortitude. Wish there was, I might be on the job by now.

Cardarelli claims training officers called him homophobic slurs and degrading names. He claims there was even negative talk about Chief Sacco’s family.

Team 5 Investigates has also discovered in 2010, a 43-year old female recruit from Walpole, Mass. filed a discrimination complaint against the Academy claiming she was called “grandma” and was forced to carry a walker during training.

So the Mayor and chief remove him from the Academy? Boo Hoo! I can't wait to see what happens the first time a perp spits in this kids eyes and call his mommy a whore. Of course, now he probably won't ever be a cop on the street, cuz some layer is going to sue the T-Academy for him and he's probably disabled now! Wahhhh! UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess not everyone is a Marine for life.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Jeez if this goes through, I could sue MY academy? The names I was called and the humiliating way I was treated...wait that's my marriage.

Anyone who has worked the street for any amount of time has suffered far worse than these "hazings". As far as the drink that made him sick, my sources reveal it was nothing more than 7-11 Coffee.

Put on your big boy pants! Cops are required to ignore physical hardships and danger in order to perform our job. Probably the kind of guy who will sit in his car on a detail cuz it's raining

"Earned a reputation as turning out some of the finest police officers in the state"

Anybody think maybe the reason the reputation is so good is BECAUSE of the treatment?

I hated every second of my T Academy experience but I knew there was an endgame and it was ultimately done for a reason.

Art, like training, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

At 17 on Parris Island, with 71 other recruits in my platoon, we were given an offer that only the phony tough and crazy brave would have agreed to... On Day One, behind closed doors, our DI's asked us if we wanted to be trained "The OLD Corps way or the NEW Corps way?" How do you think a squad bay full of testosterone would answer that question? So we got what we asked for, but for better or worse, the DI's got their's too.

On graduation day, 50 of us remained of our platoon's original 72, walking across the parade deck with 3 different DI's leading the way, because the one's who made us that offer on Day One had been removed two months-in, after the big investigation was over.

All it took was a few recruits to have their personal breaking-point crossed. They either sang like a canary to the Chaplain, or wrote to their Congressman and complained about how we were being beaten or subjected to psychological torture, who knows?

Did I agree with everything that the DI's were doing to us? Nope. Did some of it cross the line? Probably. But when the investigators handed us paper and told us to document any of the things we felt the DI's were doing to us that "was wrong"...
I, along with a majority of the platoon raised the possibility that we may have nothing to contribute to their investigation and would be handing in a blank piece of paper.

That Officer, now wearing what looked to me as a smile of understanding on his face, then said to us...
"Very well recruits, if you do not think you were in any way mistreated by your DI's then you may write the lyrics to The Marine Corps Hymn on your sheet of paper and hand them up to the front when you're done."

"From the Halls of Montezuma..." was how it went for most of us.
Unfortunately, once all of us recruits started writing either The Hymn or scribbling some sob story about their mistreatment, we could never really be sure whom the rats were among us.

I guess in the end... every man's line is different.

When I was in the R E A D I N G Reserve Academy the Instructor spoke rudely to me on three different occasions and twice cut our Thurs night 15min break to 10 mins, unnacceptable.

You whiney bitch ass, I really hope you enjoy your reputation wherever you end up. And I just want to thank you and all the other fucking pussies before you, that boo-hooed during their academy time. Now, thanks to you and your pansy ass ilk, the bar continues to be lowered and I have to deal with self centered, whiney fat fucks, coming out on the streets and making my life more difficult. "But Deuce, that's your academy's fault". No, it's not. Because the bar continues to be lowered to accomodate the bitches of the world, certain corrective actions are no longer allowed. Those corrective actions removed (voluntarily or otherwise) or unfucked the undesirables. This job is not for everyone (no just being a cop's kid doesn't mean it's for you) but the all knowing PC douchebags of this country think it should be. End result, more shitty new guys hitting the streets.. You an overly sensitive bitch? Go be a politician, or hair stylist....

Call me crazy... I have never been to any academy of any sort so I can't comment on what I could take or not.... But you better believe it this day and age when each city and town hires less than ten people in two years of the thousands that take the exam I'd where a skirt and lipstick and do pt! I wasn't there but it would be a privilege to have been! I do not know anyone on this site personally or otherwise so my comments are nothing more than a personal opinion. It kills me when I hear this stuff because becoming a cop is something that is on my mind almost every minute of every day and is a reality that more likely than not I will never experience my wife pin my badge that I EARNED on my uniform. It is an academy! You could be KILLED in the street for nothing more than you are a cop!!! Learn from the best and train to be better!! My two cents.... Writing this during my break on my phone so please don't be too rough on my grammar and punctuation

The castration of law enforcement, military, and every other job is the new standard.

I call it the "Oprah-fication" of America. Nobody takes personal responsibility anymore. They just blame everyone else for their lot in life. Sad.

BTW - "Oprah-fication" is copywritten. If used, please remit payment of .05 immediately to SoxRock75. Thank You