Former Scranton cop's leaked internal affairs file shows a slew of derogatory remarks

Nov. 11--SCRANTON -- State police recovered a trove of racist text messages from the cellphone of a former Scranton police officer who was under scrutiny for alleged sexual abuse, according to a leaked copy of his internal affairs file.

State investigators in December gave the city a log of text messages between former Cpl. Tom McDonald and former Patrolwoman Bryanna Gifford where they used derogatory terms for minorities.

Capt. Dennis Lukasewicz conducted the investigation, according to the internal affairs file, and discovered 76 derogatory remarks about Black people, six derogatory remarks about Hispanic people and three derogatory remarks about Middle Eastern people.

The documents from McDonald's internal affairs file were posted publicly on Facebook by Dajuan Saunders, the plaintiff in a federal civil lawsuit against the city. Saunders sued McDonald and the city in 2017 claiming his rights were violated by McDonald during a 2010 arrest for driving under the influence and sought the documents in connection with his case.

City officials this week refused to confirm the identify of the officers. In a statement Monday, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said two officers -- a man and a woman -- were fired in June.

The Times-Tribune previously reported that McDonald was fired in June. Abigail Corrigan, Cognetti's executive assistant, confirmed Tuesday in an email that Gifford "is not currently employed by the city."

The leaked documents did not appear to be in the publicly available docket in federal court. However, in a July 20 response to Saunders' motion to compel the city to produce documents, including McDonald's disciplinary records, attorney Jenna Kraycer Tuzze, who represents the city, wrote they "intend to produce" McDonald's internal affairs file "in the near future."

Tuzze, of the firm Oliver, Price & Rhodes, is the attorney who signed the law firm's cover sheet on the internal affairs file Saunders posted to Facebook.

Saunders is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution in Coal Twp., according to state records. His address on the leaked cover sheet is SCI Coal Twp.

The cover sheet was dated Aug. 7. Cognetti confirmed in her statement Monday that the city provided the documents to an unnamed plaintiff in August. That plaintiff, she continued, posted the documents to social media Sunday, which is the day Saunders posted the information to Facebook.

Attempts to reach McDonald and Gifford were unsuccessful.

McDonald, 46, was identified earlier this year in a separate federal lawsuit filed by Scranton attorney Matt Comerford, which accused him of using his position as a police officer in the department's undercover drug unit to coerce sexual acts from female informants.

McDonald has not been charged for those allegations. He was suspended with pay before the city fired him in June. He made $71,552.39 a year.

Authorities arrested McDonald shortly after his firing on allegations he threatened another officer, Sgt. Thomas Carroll, saying "I am planning to take it to your team. It will be out in the open not a house or building like you always train." In September, he waived his right to a preliminary hearing on charges of terroristic threats and harassment. That case remains pending.

Though he did not name the officers involved, interim Police Chief Leonard Namiotka blasted the actions of the two former officers during a news conference Tuesday.

"I'd like to emphasize that the Scranton Police Department does not condone the acts of the people that were investigated," Namiotka said. "We are not a racist organization. We will not tolerate any comments, anything derogatory, against any individual. That's not our practice. That's not our procedures, and if it is found out, will be investigated. ... As you can see, there were officers that were accused of that and they were terminated for their actions."

Cognetti said that the city will explore establishing an independent police review board and boost funding for police and human resources training in 2021.

According to the internal affairs file, state troopers investigating McDonald found an old cellphone of his in a drug unit vehicle he used while working. The documents do not explicitly state that they were investigating the sex abuse allegations; however, the newspaper had previously reported he was on administrative duty then.

The investigators turned over to former Police Chief Carl Graziano 8,381 pages of text messages recovered from that phone, including the racially derogatory messages found between McDonald and Gifford, who appeared to be romantically involved with McDonald.

On Jan. 17, Lukasewicz had McDonald answer questions about the messages, according to the internal affairs file. In his responses, McDonald confirmed that the messages were authentic and could be "construed" as racist but denied he used them with racist intentions.

He denied that he ever identified suspects or stopped people based on race. He wrote that his record would show that a majority of his contacts, citations and arrests deal with white people.

"I am aware that making those comments were inappropriate and unprofessional and never should have been sent," McDonald wrote. "However, these types of comments are made on a daily basis here ... that is the culture at this department."

Namiotka vehemently denied that allegation, saying that is not something the city Police Department would ever tolerate.

"That's 100% false," Namiotka said. "I believe the officer was trying to cover for himself to make himself look good in this investigation where he was doing wrong. And ultimately, he paid for that by being terminated."

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.

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