Criminal Lawyer Retained by City For Fire Probe; Need Expert, Mayor Says; Denies Feud With DA's Office

By ARI PAUL

Mayor Bloomberg Sept. 18 explained the city's decision to retain a criminal defense lawyer in the Manhattan District Attorney's probe of the fatal Deutsche Bank building fire a month earlier by noting that in-house attorneys rarely deal with criminal matters.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James 'OFFERED LEGAL HELP TO EMPLOYEES': Mayor Bloomberg said the city's retaining of a criminal defense attorney in connection with the Deutsche Bank fire merely reflects its lack of in-house expertise in that area rather than a sign that the Manhattan District Attorney has targeted any employees in its criminal investigation of the blaze. 'We have offered help to any of our employees who need it,' the Mayor said, even as he took issue with reports that the DA's Office was angered by city lawyers' attempts to quiz firefighters just prior to their speaking to prosecutors Sept. 6. To the Mayor's left is his Baltimore counterpart, Sheila Dixon, who had just toured the Department of Education's headquarters.

The Law Department announced a day earlier that it had retained Gary P. Naftalis, a well-regarded criminal lawyer who is a partner at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis and Frankel, after the Manhattan DA's Office subpoenaed documents in its investigation.

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'Not My Bag'

"We don't have a lot of expertise in criminal law, so we've gone outside," Mayor Bloomberg said. "The criminal thing is not my bag."

When asked about a New York Times report of tension between his administration and the DA's Office, he replied, "There's no friction between the DA's Office and the Mayor's Office. We do different things."

But one source familiar with the behind-the-scenes maneuvering said, "Yes, there's been some tension because the city wants to wear too many hats." That was a reference to the Corporation Counsel's effort to question a group of firefighters prior to their interviews with prosecutors Sept. 6. The firefighters declined to talk to city attorneys before speaking to the DA's Office.

A Law Department spokeswoman said that the DA's office had requested thousands of pages of documents relating to the investigation. This is Mr. Naftalis's first time working for the Law Department, and he will give the city a 20-percent discount on his hourly rate for his services.

"It's something that we often do when a case involves a huge workload," said the spokeswoman, Connie Pankratz, in regard to the hiring of an outside attorney. "In this instance a lot of documents have been subpoenaed by the DA's Office, and so we've hired them onboard to assist us in shouldering this workload."

Corporate Defender

Mr. Naftalis, who declined to comment for this story, is known for defending large corporations like Tyco and Bristol-Myers Squibb in government litigation concerning accounting irregularities. He also defended Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner in a shareholder lawsuit. The National Law Journal has called him one of the most influential attorneys in the nation.

Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy has said he has faith in Manhattan DA Robert M. Morgenthau to conduct a thorough investigation of the fire that killed two of his members. A standpipe was found to be non-operational and it was later discovered that FDNY inspections had not been conducted in the building for more than a year.

The DA's investigation is likely to take months, according to one source close to the situation. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is also conducting a probe of the incident.

The UFA and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association have maintained that Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano were aware of problems connected to the building prior to the fire. Last month, the department relieved three officers of duty and they were reassigned to department headquarters, a move both unions criticized.

Mayor: Had to Do It

The Mayor defended the action last week, emphasizing that the officers were neither demoted nor disciplined.

"You can't leave anybody where there's an allegation that they didn't do what was appropriate," he said.

In May, after two Firefighters were injured when a piece of the Deutsche Bank building fell onto the firehouse below, a meeting was convened with high-ranking officials from the Fire Department, the Department of Buildings, the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center and Bovis Lend Lease, the company responsible for demolishing the Deutsche Bank building, which had been badly damaged during the 9/11 attacks.

The FDNY notes from the meeting show that the Department of Buildings would be in charge of inspecting the building.

'Buildings Had Lead Role'

"Nobody from FDNY issued a correction that FDNY had jurisdiction over the demolition, as well as DOB," John Bosco, the lawyer for and brother of Peter Bosco, the Captain who was reassigned, said in an e-mail. "This document on its face went to the FDNY Commissioner."

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owned the Deutsche Bank building, has an advisory committee for the demotion of the building. The committee has representatives from the Department of Buildings and the Department of Sanitation, but not the Fire Department.

For Glenn Corbett, an Associate Professor of Fire Science at John Jay College, the memo cleared up some confusion about the Deutsche Bank building incident as well.

"This shows you that who was in charge was pretty clear; that the Buildings Department was going to take the lead role in that," he said. "Although the Commissioner wasn't there, look at the list: there are some senior Fire Department people there. It was sent to Cassano. It was sent to Scoppetta."