SYRACUSE, NY -- Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner touched off a firestorm in her police department this week when she refused to approve a coveted award for a veteran Syracuse officer.
Miner would not sign the commendation for Detective Alp Llukaci to receive the Wallie Howard Jr. Award for his undercover work on drug investigations.
Miner cited a federal court jury verdict in December in which a jury found Llukaci used excessive force against suspect John R. Kelly in a 2001 drug and assault case. The jury awarded Kelly $1, and found that Llukaci (pronounced loo-KAH-chee) should pay an unspecified amount of punitive damages. The city eventually settled that case for $10,000, and had to pay attorneys’ fees of about $7,500, Miner said.
As a result of the mayor’s action, the police union plans to boycott Thursday morning’s annual awards ceremony at the Palace Theatre.
Nineteen other officers who were supposed to receive awards have all agreed to boycott, said Jeff Piedmonte, president of the Syracuse Police Benevolent Association.
“Never have we had a mayor say, ‘This person doesn’t deserve to get a medal,’ ” Piedmonte said. “This is just bizarre.”
The entire police department will not be participating in the ceremony, spokesman Tom Connellan said. Syracuse firefighters are receiving awards at today's ceremony. Their union president, Tom Sexton, said he knew of no plans to join the police protest.
The police union is mulling other protests, including billboard messages and picketing City Hall, Piedmonte said. He received 120 text messages and a slew of phone calls Wednesday from officers expressing outrage, he said.
“This is totally inappropriate and an insult to all of us,” Piedmonte wrote in an e-mail to union members.
The police department’s internal affairs division investigated the 2001 brutality case and filed no departmental charges against Llukaci or any of the other officers, Piedmonte said. Five other officers named as defendants in the lawsuit were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Llukaci was the only officer of the five who wasn’t in court for the trial, Piedmonte wrote. Llukaci was on vacation, and had testified on videotape. The city did not give Llukaci enough advance notice to allow him to testify at the trial, Piedmonte said. Even so, Llukaci offered to cancel his trip so he would be available, but the city’s lawyers told him it wasn’t necessary, Piedmonte said.
All that is beside the point, Miner said. The jury made its decision, and she’s responding to it, she said.
“When I see punitive damages being awarded, I know that a jury or a court has found those facts to be worthy of punishment,” she said. “That, in and of itself, raised a red flag for me.”
Llukaci has been an officer for 17 years. He volunteered to work undercover drug investigations in 2008 for 18 months because the department had no one else, Piedmonte said. Police arrested more than 20 people on more than 80 felony charges because of his undercover work, Piedmonte said.
Llukaci declined to comment through Connellan, as did police Chief Frank Fowler.
Fowler and Deputy Chief Shawn Broton tried in vain to convince Miner not to rescind the award, Piedmonte wrote in his e-mail. Miner disputed Piedmonte’s claim.
She defended her decision as necessary in her mission to change the culture in the police department. That’s especially important in light of three large jury verdicts against the city in lawsuits filed by female police officers claiming the department retaliated against their complaints of discrimination, she said.
“Officer Llukaci was found to have violated the law and was awarded by a jury punitive damages for excessive force,” Miner said. “I thought it would be sending a mixed message shortly after he had this verdict levied against him to be awarding him the Wallie Howard Award.”
Howard was working undercover Oct. 30, 1990, when drug dealers murdered him. “Here we are in the 20th year of Wallie’s death, and no one’s going to get the award,” Piedmonte said.
Kelly accused Llukaci and the other officers of using excessive force against him in the drug case in May 2001. He said Llukaci punched him in the face and used a racial slur during an interrogation. In his deposition, Llukaci denied the accusations, Piedmonte said.
Kelly was convicted of selling crack cocaine and assaulting another officer with his car, Piedmonte said. Kelly was sentenced to eight years in prison.
A committee of 12 members of the police department chose Llukaci and 19 others for the awards. Fowler signed the commendations, Piedmonte said. It’s not the mayor’s job to decide who should get the awards, he said. “Alp should be judged on his undercover career and given the medal that the committee decided he earned,” Piedmonte wrote.
Miner said she’s been working to clean out a minority of police officers whose behavior has been inappropriate. "We are actively changing the culture and that behavior,” she said. “I would not turn a blind eye to that behavior by awarding individuals who have engaged in it.”
Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.