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A posthumous hit to Markman's rep
January 14, 2005
A city judicial officer has hammered a final nail into the reputation of the late Chief of Personnel Michael Markman.
Before his death from cancer last October, Markman spent three years in litigation, attempting to win a three-quarter tax-free disability pension, based on a 1993 police vehicle accident.
Repeatedly turned down by the police pension board, which is comprised of city and union officials, Markman - who as personnel chief had opposed virtually every cop's disability application - charged in court papers that "most union trustees were biased against him as a result of his actions as Chief of Personnel."
On Dec. 28, three months after Markman's death, Special Referee Sue Ann Hoahng issued a final ruling.
First, wrote Hoahng, Markman arranged a secret medical exam in the office of the Police Department's chief surgeon so that no one knew Markman was applying for a disability pension himself.
Second, Hoahng wrote that Markman presented no evidence of any injury resulting from the 1993 accident. Instead, she wrote, "The only document submitted was a line-of-duty report on the occurrence of the accident."
Third, Hoahng wrote that the Pension Board's trustees remanded Markman back to the Medical Board three times because of incomplete information. "Each time the claim was returned to the Pension Board without the requested information."
Finally, Hoahng stated that Markman's injury history, which is supposed to be a summary of official police sick reports, was hand-written and not based on the official sick reports, which were never produced.
Rather than bias, she concluded, the union trustees "demonstrated independence and objectivity."
Buffed out. The FBI has pulled out of the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, a group of wealthy New York police buffs that raise money for the families of slain or injured federal agents as well as city cops.
Rather than bias, she concluded, the union trustees "demonstrated independence and objectivity."
The foundation is headed by Anthony Bergamo, vice chairman of Milstein Brothers Real Estate. It was Bergamo who rented the Milstein-owned, two-bedroom apartment overlooking Ground Zero to former Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik in the months after 9/11. Kerik reportedly rendezvoused there with his girlfriends.
FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette confirmed that the FBI had "disassociated" itself from the foundation but denied the issue had anything to do with Kerik's reported use of the apartment.
"As to what those issues are, we are not comfortable discussing them publicly," he said.
Valiquette said that Bergamo was formally notified yesterday by telephone that the FBI was discontinuing its association.
Milstein spokesman George Arzt attributed the break to "differences of opinion" between Bergamo and the FBI's New York head Pat D'Amuro.
Mysteries and enigmas. A few questions about some unresolved issues at One Police Plaza:
What's the real deal behind the tail and threats to Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman? Zuckerman notified the NYPD, which inexplicably had its Intelligence Division - which under Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has stationed detectives around the globe to investigate terrorism - handle the case. Although Intel investigators put the arm on two retired NYPD detectives, the detectives never revealed for whom they were working or what they were looking to discover.
Unanswered question: Will Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence David Cohen, said to be a pal of Mort's, now bring in Intel's overseas detectives to solve the Zuckerman case?
Where is Kerik's chief bottle washer John Picciano, who knows each closet in which Kerik's skeletons are hidden? Since Kerik's nomination as homeland security director went south, "Pitch" has disappeared. People both in Corrections and at Giuliani Partners, where "Pitch" worked under Kerik, professed no knowledge of his whereabouts. Nor has he been seen at Uncle Jack's, the West Side steakhouse he is said to have an interest in.
Sources close to Kerik say "Pitch" is out of the country. Unanswered question: Is he searching for Bernie's nanny?
