Before going to federal prison for bribery, former Lt. Paul Dean, once the No. official at the pistol licensing division, created a mini-brouhaha when he detailed in court papers what he called a “culture of corruption” that involved favoring the rich and powerful in granting pistol permits.
The alleged culprits: Dean’s former boss, Deputy Insp. Mike Endall, and former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who when he was appointed in 2014, supposedly asked Endall to stay on. And the most notable recipients of this so-called favoritism? Donald Trump, son Donald Jr. and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, whom Dean said were granted full-carry licenses despite lacking credentials.
Recent testimony in federal court about widespread freebies and favoritism led to the bribery conviction of a businessman-fixer and left the NYPD with egg on its face. Now Dean’s accusations make the NYPD appear even dirtier.
But as with so much in the NYPD, things are even more convoluted. The alleged favoritism to the Trumps represents the binding of longtime department ties.
Unlike Dean and others in the unit, Endall was never accused of taking bribes. But as the freebie scandal widened, he was disciplined for what appeared to be administrative lapses. He took a 45-day rip, waived his comp time, and retired in 2017 with his pension intact.
Recommended by Roy Richter, who once commanded the unit and is now president of the Captains Endowment Association, Endall is now a vice president of Excel Global, a security company headed by Neal Garelik, the son of Sanford Garelik, a former top NYPD official and City Council president.
Excel also sponsors the CEA’s annual Sanford Garelik golf outing. “We pay full boat,” said Richter. “I credit Neal Garelik as one of our biggest benefactors. Last year we raised $70,000 for high school and college scholarships.”
Where has that golf outing been held for the past few years? At Trump’s golf course in the Bronx.
The subject of police corruption won’t go away. The next chapter in the scandal involves the four chiefs and an inspector who at the height of the freebie scandal retired “voluntarily” under pressure from Bratton. They were not charged. Now, they have sued for back pay, accrued leave time and to get their jobs back.
