NEWS > 09 January 2007

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Palm Beach Post - Palm Beach,F
09 January 2007

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Wash. police chief quits over

From his low-profile job as a community policing deputy with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Ira Peskowitz has toppled a police chief 3,300 miles away.

In the latest, perhaps strangest twist in a seamy saga extending from the Village of North Palm Beach to Snohomish, Wash., Gordon Wiborg Jr. resigned Dec. 28 as the police chief of Snohomish. The town of about 8,900 is 26 miles northeast of Seattle.

Wiborg said he relinquished his $93,108-a-year job because, even at the other end of the country, he can't escape nagging accusations by Peskowitz - and maybe Peskowitz himself.

Wiborg, 52, was a police captain in North Palm Beach before taking the chief's job two years ago. He is a defendant in a 2-year-old whistle-blower lawsuit filed by Peskowitz, a former North Palm Beach police officer. The litigation has triggered allegations of police corruption, sexual harassment, suicide and death threats and extramarital affairs.

"Unfortunately, the litigation issues I am involved in from North Palm Beach have become so distracting that I believe my energies and attention are better placed elsewhere," Wiborg said in his resignation letter.

Wiborg quit just days after he took the extraordinary step of obtaining a restraining order prohibiting Peskowitz, 38, from coming within 500 yards of him, his home or the Snohomish Police Department.

"Within the last two weeks, Mr. Peskowitz has stated his intention of flying here from Florida to make harassing statements at the Dec. 19 Snohomish City Council meeting," Wiborg wrote on Dec. 18 in explaining why he sought a restraining order. "I believe he also intends to cause physical harm to me and/or my residence."

Wiborg also says Peskowitz threatened to kill him in September 2004. He and a co-defendant, former North Palm Beach Police Chief Earl "Duke" Johnson, profess to be so scared that they asked a judge to allow them to participate in mediation by telephone so they wouldn't have to be in the same room with Peskowitz.

Peskowitz contends that he became the target of internal affairs investigations for making allegedly false reports, was put on indefinite leave and was sabotaged when he applied for another job after he complained of, and refused to participate in, mismanagement, malfeasance and wasteful spending.

But the bare-knuckles litigation has revealed that Peskowitz has a closet full of his own skeletons: an allegation that he threatened to kill two Miami Beach police officers and their families; a protracted paternity case; and assertions by that woman that he threatened to kill her, their child and himself.

Sexual harassment claimed

Peskowitz joined North Palm Beach police in 1997. He quit to go to the Miami Beach Police Department. He returned to the North Palm Beach force in October 2001, where, among other things, he was the K-9 handler.

His return didn't go well. After less than two years, he was suspended indefinitely, finally resigning after several months. He sued the town, Wiborg and Johnson in 2004.

He contended that Wiborg sexually harassed him late in 2002. Among the captain's purported comments: "When you put your hands in your pockets, are you thinking about me?"

Peskowitz also claimed that Wiborg called him into his office and proceeded to change clothes "down to his underwear" while offering no explanation.

Among the other purported events that Peskowitz said he objected to in vain were:

� Use of excessive force by a fellow officer who he said pistol-whipped a handcuffed man.

� Racially motivated stops of motorists by a sergeant in the department.

� Wiborg's refusal to give him time off for the birth of his daughter in 2003 in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

� Wiborg's sending of a lengthy, harsh and possibly defamatory assessment of him in an e-mail to a psychologist who was to evaluate Peskowitz for employment at the sheriff's office.

The defendants' attorney, Anthony Gonzales, denies Peskowitz's allegations. His claim, for example, that he asked in February 2003 for time off the following month for the expected birth of his daughter is a fraud, he says in court documents.

Scathing mental evaluation

As for the e-mail Wiborg sent the sheriff's psychologist, Gonzales says in court filings that the same man was retained by North Palm Beach to evaluate Peskowitz's fitness to return to duty. He maintains that his clients were unaware that Peskowitz was trying to get a job with the sheriff's office at the time the e-mail was sent.

Whatever the case, Wiborg's Sept. 2, 2003 e-mail about Peskowitz was scathing.

"Since his hiring here, we have observed a consistent pattern of adverse stress reactions and depressed emotional affect which is markedly deteriorating," Wiborg wrote.

The psychologist diagnosed Peskowitz as having a "paranoia adjustment disorder," Wiborg wrote in his petition for the restraining order.

Peskowitz says he had to hire mental health professionals to clear him of Wiborg's allegations.

Peskowitz was hired by the sheriff's department in March 2004. He met or exceeded requirements in every category in his most recent job appraisal.

"Makes a positive first impression and has an excellent attitude toward co-workers and supervisors," his evaluator wrote.

The only complaint internal affairs has probed against Peskowitz was Wiborg's death threat allegation in September 2004. The investigation concluded that the complaint was unfounded.

Wiborg also informed the psychologist in his e-mail of Peskowitz's tumultuous home life with Barbara Bergoli, who had been a reserve officer with the department.

Bergoli gave birth to a baby girl on March 26, 2003. In July that year, Peskowitz twice held a gun to his head, Bergoli said in court records. And in August he threatened to kill her, their baby and himself, she said in an affidavit.

After Bergoli notified Wiborg and another officer of the threats, Peskowitz was put on leave. Peskowitz denies Bergoli's claims, calling her emotionally unstable. Peskowitz and Bergoli filed petitions seeking injunctions against each other. Bergoli now lives in New York.

More dirty laundry to air

Peskowitz's lawsuit is expected to go to trial early this year. Attorney Gonzales is trying to prohibit him from airing additional dirty laundry that he contends was soiling the North Palm Beach force.

He claims that Wiborg sent sexually harassing instant messages or e-mails to a dispatcher; that Wiborg falsified his credentials on his employment application and on the village's Web site; that Johnson got excessive overtime pay; and that Johnson had extramarital affairs.

Those allegations have nothing to do with the issues over which Peskowitz is suing, Gonzales argues. As for Wiborg's job application, any inaccuracies are trivial, he argues.

The defendants have ammunition to use against Peskowitz, too. They say he left Miami Beach under eerily similar circumstances. Peskowitz made claims of corruption there that were unfounded, Gonzales says. And Wiborg said Peskowitz told him he was sexually harassed at Miami Beach and that he was retaliated against for being a whistle-blower.

A year after Peskowitz left Miami Beach, an officer there named John Pereira said he got a call. He recognized the voice as that of Peskowitz, he said in a report.

"I'm coming for you and (officer) Carulo and your families. You're all (expletive) dead!" Then he hung up.

Two hours later, Pereira said he got another call from Peskowitz. The caller said, "Look behind you. Bang!"

"I never made those phone calls," Peskowitz said. The two officers erroneously thought he initiated an internal affairs investigation against them and they retaliated against him, he said. He was not questioned or charged in the incident, he added.

Peskowitz acknowledges that he contacted the Snohomish city clerk to obtain Wiborg's employment application, and indicated he might attend a city council meeting to find out why he was being thwarted. He says he had no contact with Wiborg and scoffs at his obtaining a restraining order.

"His sole intent was he didn't want me to go to the city council meeting and reveal things about his past," Peskowitz said.

Until Peskowitz resurfaced, Wiborg - who was chosen over three dozen other applicants - seemed to be doing fine as Snohomish's police chief. "In many ways he's done a good job," said City Manager Larry Bauman.

Wiborg and Peskowitz weren't always enemies, Bergoli said in an interview. "Wiborg took a liking to Ira. He really took him under his wing."

Neither feels the love now. Peskowitz said he wants money - and something else.

"I want a name-clearing opportunity," he said. "To show that these allegations were untruthful and ... intended to destroy my reputation and my career."

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Article sourced from

Palm Beach Post - Palm Beach,F09 January 2007

Wash. police chief quits over

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Palm Beach Post - Palm Beach,F
09 January 2007