District Attorney investigating voter intimidation claim

The Nassau County district attorney’s office is investigating claims of voter intimidation in Long Beach on Nov. 8, after an attorney volunteering for the Long Beach Democratic Committee said that residents were met with a “show of force” by Long Beach police outside the polling place at City Hall.

But City Manager Charles Theofan and others strongly dispute the claim, saying that the allegations are “complete nonsense” and are based on several unrelated photos of a detective holding two shotguns.

Ruth Bernstein, an attorney who volunteered as a Democratic poll monitor on Election Day, filed a complaint with the D.A. after she saw a detective holding the guns near the entrance to City Hall, along with other detectives and police officials whose side arms were exposed as voters entered the building.

Additionally, Bernstein claims that a number of Civil Service Employees Association members — the union that endorsed the Republican coalition, a slate that lost to the Democrats — and other Republican supporters were milling around, giving some voters dirty looks, looking over their shoulders and, in some cases, attempting to influence their votes.

“I was working to make sure on Election Day that nothing bad happened and that everything went smoothly and that people were permitted to vote without interference,” Bernstein said. “… [W]e got a call in that there were some problems at City Hall.”

Bernstein, a regular at City Council meetings and a vocal critic of the outgoing administration, said that throughout the day, she saw police officials mingling near the entrance to City Hall in what she called an attempt to intimidate voters.

“So nobody could get into that polling place without passing a foot or two from them,” she said. “They all know who is voting for whom … and who cannot be counted on to vote for them.”

At one point, Bernstein said, she asked a group of police officials to move, but they refused. “The sign says no loitering and no electioneering within 100 feet of the polling place,” she said. “I went inside to see what the situation was. There were a bunch of people hanging inside and out who were not voting, and we had only one Democratic poll watcher at the time — and the Republicans had many. I called [Democratic] headquarters and said they have a lot of tough guys outside the polling place and you have to send more poll watchers.”

At around 3:30 p.m., Bernstein said, she again noticed several detectives congregating outside, one of whom held two shotguns, while others had their side arms visible. At that point, Bernstein said, she began taking photos of the detectives with her phone.

“It was clearly a concerted effort and a strategy being carried out by the commissioner of police and the top officers of the Police Department to intimidate voters and to, at the very least, violate the law against loitering and electioneering within 100 feet of the polls,” Bernstein said, adding that she filed a complaint with the district attorney that Thursday.

Chris Munzing, a spokesman for District Attorney Kathleen Rice, said, “We’ve received a complaint and we are investigating. We’re not commenting on the nature of it, but the investigation does pertain to the election.”

City Manager Charles Theofan and police and union officials strongly dispute Bernstein’s claims of an orchestrated intimidation campaign. Theofan said that the detective handling the guns, Detective Howard Domitz, was taking the weapons, which Theofan said were inoperable, to another room at the adjacent police headquarters to make room for evidence seized in a raid.

“It was a day after a big drug raid, and they needed to put stuff in the property room,” Theofan said. “They were cleaning out the entranceway near the ground level. This is really a non-story. And so far there haven’t been any investigators from the D.A.’s office coming down and asking questions.”

Theofan said that Domitz and the other officers were not “electioneering” that day, and that their presence outside was not meant to intimidate residents. In a letter to Theofan, Detective Lt. James Canner, one of the detectives Bernstein observed, wrote that he was on duty and in “business attire.”

“There were not four cops hanging out in front of the polling place,” Canner wrote. “Det. Sgt. Howard Domitz and Det. Sgt. Karl Hayes were wearing slacks and dress shirts, which was consistent with their assignment. All three members were conducting police business. No one was reprimanded because this is the course of normal business around a police station. No one did anything wrong.”

The Nov. 7 raid included the arrests of four suspects for their alleged involvement in a drug-related loan-sharking operation, and a number of items, such as $100,000 in cash and computers, were seized and secured in the property room.

In his letter, Canner explained that one of the guns Bernstein saw was a replica pellet gun, and the other was an inoperable shotgun. He also wrote that the officers were outside for less than two minutes.

“While organizing the property room the two sergeants were moving the box of long guns, that had been broken down for parts and made inoperable,” Canner wrote. “[They] did not know who had placed the long guns in the property room, which was in their way. They both stepped out of the property room and Det. Sgt. Domitz was holding both long guns … the sergeants approached me and I spoke with him briefly and then we all walked back into the precinct. They were outside in public view for less than two minutes. Domitz and Hayes continued working in the property room.”

Canner added, “This work was being done on Election Day because the previous day we executed five search warrants seizing a large amount of property. This work had to be done with the property regardless of what day it was.”

Bernstein, however, said that according to the two or three voters and a Democratic pollster that she spoke to, there was a general feeling of intimidation at the City Hall polling place. She also said that the length of time the detective was holding the guns — and the fact that officers had their weapons visible — is insignificant because the display sent the wrong message to voters, the majority of whom were members of minorities and from the North Park area.

“He had no business being out there for even 20 seconds,” Bernstein said, adding that she is not convinced by city officials’ explanation. “And if you have somebody who is a city worker, like a sanitation worker … you have your CSEA union chiefs and they’re standing there taking mental notes because they know who is loyal to their cause.”

Mindy Williams, a member of the Concerned Citizens of North Park, echoed Bernstein’s sentiments. “People were being told to vote Row B,” said Williams, who acknowledged that she did not vote at City Hall but came as a representative of her group after learning of residents’ claims. “If I was going in there to vote,” she said, “I would have been very uncomfortable.”

Conversely, Theofan said he had heard reports that some voters were being instructed by pollsters to vote for the Democrats, a claim Bernstein denied.

For his part, CSEA President John Mooney disputed allegations that union members were on hand to influence or intimidate voters. “Under no circumstances did that happen,” Mooney said. “Our union endorsed the coalition because they have a good record with us, but as far as intimidation, that’s totally false. Our members voted for both sides, our voices were heard in the political process and under no circumstances do we allow or condone such behavior.”