Callahan Cover-Up: Those "Nonexistent" Records Suddenly Appear!

Superbowl Sunday 2007. Just after 1 AM. Dino Cantelmi, who just happens to be Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan's brother-in-law, is tooling along in his female companion's late model Volvo, driving the wrong way on a one-way street. He had been drinking earlier that night and slams right into a Bethlehem police cruiser, sending the injured officer to the hospital.

No field sobriety test. No trip to the DUI center. And most amazing of all, no story in the local papers! Details were kept under wraps for over three years, in an obvious effort to protect Hizzoner.

When I found out about this accident, police brass threw up a stone wall, so I filed a formal Right-to-Know-Law (RTKL) request on July 21. In response, City lawyers supplied information they already knew I had, like the incident report. But they ignored my request for the pictures I knew they had taken at the accident scene. They also refused to fork over cell phone records that day for Mayor John Callahan and the Police Commissioner. City lawyer Chris Cooper tells me, "The City maintains records of cell phone invoices, however individual cell phone records are not kept in the normal course of business. Therefore, the record you request does not exist and the City is not required to compile a non existing record pursuant to Pennsylvania Right to Know Law section 705."

Of course, that's bullshit. I appealed this refusal to the Office of Open Records. Appeals Officer Lucinda Glinn must have thought the City's refusal was bullshit, too. She gave them until yesterday to "clarify what efforts were undertaken to obtain the cell phone records requested from the telephone company and describe the records available as pertain to the numbers assigned to the named individuals on the stated date. Be sure to substantiate all asserted facts regarding the existence and attempts to obtain responsive records. As to the appeal of the allegedly partial incident report, please advise whether any pictures were taken as part of the incident report, and if so, explain why the pictures were not supplied."

Ruh roh.

Well, it's a miracle! It's right up there with the Immaculate Conception and Tang. On July 26, the City may have insisted those records were nonexistent and they have no obligation to produce nonexistent records, but they were just kidding. Yesterday, on the last possible day to come forward City lawyers coughed up those nonexistent records. Chris Cooper now tells me, "we continued to seek all the records you requested." He swears out an Affidavit and everything! Isn't that nice of him?

Of course, he redacts the hell out of the cell phone records, blotting out every private call. But hey, it's the thought that counts.

Callahan's cell phone record indicate he made or received no calls at all on Superbowl Sunday 2007, although there are plenty of calls before and after that date. Commissioner Miller's phone records reveal that someone left three messages for him that day. I'll be looking at them a little more closely over the next few days, but am naturally suspicious there may be even more "nonexistent" records out there. I sure hope Chris keeps looking, and in the meantime, I'll take these records to someone who understands them and can explain them to me. I'm reluctant to post cell phone numbers on this site for obvious reasons.

The pictures you see reveal this was no minor fender bender. But amazingly, Callahan's brother-in-law walked away with two summary citations, which he quickly and quietly paid.

LVR Appeals Refusal to Produce Callahan Cell Phone Records

Superbowl weekends are always an excuse for mid-Winter parties and booze, leading to more than the usual number of accidents. So it's no real shocker that in the early morning hours of Superbowl Sunday three years ago, there was an accident in Bethlehem. No one would be surprised to learn that the driver at fault was driving the wrong way on a one-way street, or that he was speeding, or that he had been drinking, or that the impact of his accident would have him and his companion hanging upside down in an overturned vehicle.

What is a surprise is that the driver slammed into and injured a Bethlehem police officer. Even more surprising is that although the odor of alcohol was detected and a Bethlehem police officer was actually hospitalized, there were no field sobriety tests and no trip to the DUI center. A bigger surprise is that the driver in question was Dino Cantelmi, Mayor Callahan's brother-in-law. Eyebrows go up a little more when the officer assigned to investigate just happens to be one of the Mayor's friends, who was promoted ten months later. But the biggest shocker is that this story never appeared in either of the two daily newspapers, who love to scoop each other on the Bethlehem battleground. Even a week or a month after this accident, this would have been big news.

Instead, everything stayed inside a cone of silence. At least for awhile. It took three years, but the story finally came out. Three years later, my biggest question is what did Mayor Callahan know? Was he involved in keeping this story under wraps?

I filed a Right-to-Know request seeking cell phone records for both the Mayor and Police Commissioner on the day of the accident. Now I can track my own cell phone calls from three years ago, but Bethlehem officials incredibly answer that no records exist.

"The City maintains records of cell phone invoices, however individual cell phone records are not kept in the normal course of business. Therefore, the record you request does not exist and the City is not required to compile a non existing record pursuant to Pennsylvania Right to Know Law section 705."

Dead end? I appealed to the Office of Open Records yesterday.

Here's why. This is exactly what happened in another case, Bartholomew v. Smithfield Tp., AP 2010-0184. In that case, the Appeals Officer ruled that a City has "constructive control of its telephone bill and any records related to its account with the telephone company. Therefore, it is required under the RTKL [Right to Know Law] to retrieve a copy of any records that would include the information requested, if any exist, from the telephone company."

So if the telephone company can produce the cell phone numbers called that day, Bethlehem must turn them over. If City officials want to drag their cling to this invoice argument, they will have to file affidavits indicating what efforts were made with the phone company.

Ruh roh.

My appeal also seeks the photographs of the damaged vehicles. The City just ignored that part of my Right-to-Know request.

The Office of Open Records has thirty (30) days to rule on my appeal.

Callahan Cover Up: Cantelmi Incident Report (Redacted)

Let's try again.

Callahan Coverup: The Cantelmi Police Report

Well over three years ago, at 1:03 AM, a Bethlehem police officer was injured after being struck by a speeding vehicle being going the wrong way on a one-way street. His police cruiser sustained serious damages as well. The driver of this car was Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan's brother-in-law, Dino Cantelmi. I call this the "Callahan Coverup" because someone in his administration obviously made sure this story never reached The Express Times or Morning Call.

Below is the actual incident report prepared by Bethlehem police. I have redacted it to protect the identity of Cantelmi's female passenger, but it's otherwise mostly intact. You might notice things I've missed.

[deleted]

Update (8:59 AM): I have used scribd.com to load documents like this before, but something is wrong today. It could be that the site itself is screwed up, or more likely, there may be something wrong with the way I loaded the incident report. Because of complaints about difficulties loading and seeing this report, I've deleted it. I will try to see what went wrong. If all else fails, I will load jpegs of the ten individual pages so you can still check out the report.

Callahan a Friend of Officer Investigating Cantelmi

In response to The Callahan Cover-up and Right-to -Know Request Filed Over Callahan Cover Up, one of my many astute readers - Lighthouse - raises a very valid point. "I am a little surprised ... that the police would knowingly participate in something like this. That part of the story doesn't make sense and makes me suspicious that there is a part we don't know." A Bethlehem police officer (I'm keeping his name out of this for obvious reasons) has answered Lighthouse's concern. He believes the investigating officer, Derron Henning, may have been unknowingly influenced by his friendship with Mayor Callahan.

If you're a cop, I suppose no job is really safe. But being a DARE officer has to be one of the better gigs. You work steady hours. You're home at night. You're off the streets. Derron Henning was lucky to have that job for fourteen years, the last ten of which he spent at Liberty High School. It must have been very convenient for him, too, because he was an assistant wrestling coach being paid around $4543 per year.

Then Commissioner Randy Miller decided to move Henning out of Liberty High School and onto the streets. Perhaps Miller thought he should give someone else a chance, or maybe he felt an experienced officer like Henning would be more valuable on patrol. Whatever Miller may have thought, he was soon overruled by Derron's friend, another ex-wrestler who graduated from Liberty.

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan.

Callahan personally intervened on behalf of Derron, who was able to stay at Liberty High School, working regular hours, until he decided he'd rather be a sergeant.

On February 4, 2007, when Officer Kennedy was struck by Callahan brother-in-law Cantelmi, there was actually another officer, in another cruiser, behind Kennedy. This officer actually witnessed the collision, and is the person who pulled Dino Cantelmi and his female companion from their Volvo, where they were hanging upside down.

"I asked if they were insured and both stated, 'No.' "

Fortunately, they did have insurance. But neither had any idea that they had just run into a police cruiser. Neither knew where the damaged police cruiser was, even though it was just a few feet away. This could be either the result of alcohol or the shock of the accident.

This officer was asking questions that must have made him suspicious. But while he remained "on scene to assist with the accident investigation," Acting Sergeant Derron Henning arrived and took over with Cantelmi.

Now according to the whistle-blowing officer I spoke with, everything about this accident cried out for a field sobriety test. The admission of alcohol use, speed, driving the wrong way and injury-causing accident, along with some confused statements, warranted this test. A breathalyzer would be administered only after a suspect fails a field sobriety test.

Believe it or not, that's more for medical than law enforcement reasons. Breathalyzer results are notoriously unreliable and inadmissible in Court, but if a suspect blows a life-threatening 0.30, his next stop will be the local hospital. Otherwise, it's the DUI processing center.

This procedure was ignored. Cantelmi was just administered a breathalyzer without any field sobriety tests. Instead of taking him to the DUI processing center, Dino was taken to police headquarters, where he was administered the breathalyzer again, with the same result.

Although I doubt Acting Sergeant Henning "fixed" anything, his friendship with Callahan may have colored his judgment. I believe an officer with no ties to the Mayor would have approached this differently.

Incidentally, Henning is no longer an "acting" sergeant. He was promoted to in December 2007, nine months after this accident.

Coming Up: On Monday, I'll publish a redacted version of the incident report. Every time I look at it, I see something different. Some of you may notice things I've missed.