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Firefighters suspended after woman charges rape in firehouse
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| FDNY EMS WEBSITE 2004-08-20, 10:29 pm |
| http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...rsexall0820aug2
0,0,5162685.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
Firefighters suspended after woman charges rape in firehouse
Friday, August 20, 2004
Firefighters suspended after woman charges rape in firehouse
The 34-year-old woman called an ambulance early Friday morning and reported
that she had been raped by several firefighters inside the quarters of Engine
75/Ladder 33 in the university Heights section, the officials said, on
condition of anonymity.
Doubts about the woman's story developed during the day and police said there
was insufficient evidence of a crime.
The fire department said it had suspended without pay firefighters Tony Delucca
and Christian Waugh. Departmental charges against the men were still being
prepared. They could involve violations of rules, including conduct unbecoming
a firefighter and bringing a civilian into a restricted area of a firehouse,
the officials said.
Delucca, 34, has been a firefighter for seven years, the department said.
Waugh, 30, is an 8-year veteran. Officials said the woman may have met one of
the firefighters on the Internet.
A spokesman for the Uniformed Firefighters Association said he didn't know
whether the two men had obtained lawyers.
Twelve firefighters who were working during the incident were reassigned to
administrative duties, fire officials said. The firehouse was designated as a
crime scene and shut down for much of the day.
The fire department has been suffering from a string of embarrassing incidents
including dozens of arrests of firefighters on drunk driving charges this year
and a drunken New Year's Eve brawl in a Staten Island firehouse that left one
firefighter with severe facial injuries.
| |
| Alan Erskine 2004-08-21, 2:23 am |
| "FDNY EMS WEBSITE" <fdnyemswebsite@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040820225440.12089.00003866@mb-m01.aol.com...
Brattworst, how much of this did you edit?
--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge
Alanterskine1@bigpond.com
| |
| FDNY EMS WEBSITE 2004-08-21, 7:58 pm |
| Rowdy behavior the
norm at firehouse
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Morris Heights firehouse where sex scandal erupted is usually boisterous,
locals say. One said fireman flirted with woman on roof.
The FDNY units scorched by a sex scandal are known as "Animal House" because
their original Bronx fire station dated back to the time when horse-drawn rigs
parked there.
But neighbors of the Bravest's new headquarters said comparisons to the movie
of the same name - about party-hearty frat boys - weren't far off the mark.
Although Engine 75 and Ladder 33 are regularly among the busiest units in the
city, the men who work there like to let off some steam, residents said.
Until recently, a big Budweiser sign hung on the patio behind the firehouse,
built just four years ago on Walton Ave. and Cameron Place in Morris Heights.
The sound of boisterous behavior was common, and one local teen said he saw a
firefighter flirting with a woman on the roof earlier this week.
"Two days ago, a team of FD inspectors arrived for what we heard was a surprise
inspection - and from the looks on the firefighters' faces, they definitely got
in trouble," said David Baez, 27.
Baez - who is the brother of Anthony Baez, a Bronx man who died in a police
choke hold in 1994 - said he saw the inspectors haul away the sign and some
party gear.
But he never imagined anything more sinister was going on behind the walls of
brick and glass tiles, etched with the names of fallen comrades.
"They're basically good guys with a few hotheads mixed in but they're young
guys. They like to party; they like to have a good time," Baez said.
Orlando Segui, 38, agreed.
"They're a bunch of guys who like to have fun," he said. "You see them hanging
out and going out together, and sometimes they're loud.
"They're usually friendly to us. But they've got their own thing going."
Others in the gritty, working-class neighborhood were disturbed by the report
of sexcapades and angry the investigation had shut down the firehouse for most
of the day.
"This is so shocking that something like that could happen at a firehouse,"
said Regina DeRocco, 29. "How can we feel safe? How can we count on them to
protect us?"
Richard Kirrstetter, who retired from Engine 75 in 1978 and now lives in North
Carolina, also was stunned when he heard the news.
"I don't understand how that could happen. Knowing their history and all the
guys who were there, I don't see how that could happen," he said.
Sex spree at Animal House
Woman charges rape after Bronx encounter
2 Bravest suspended, 12 more get reassigned
This story was reported by:
MELISSA GRACE, BOB KAPPSTATER,
JONATHAN LEMIRE, MICHELE MCPHEE
and CARRIE MELAGO
It was written by:
GREG GITTRICH
Firehouse on Cameron Place in the Bronx after Staten Island woman visiting
Bravest boyfriend said she was gang-raped there yesterday.
A Bronx firehouse known as the Animal House was rocked yesterday by a stunning
sex scandal that exploded after a Staten Island woman paid a booty call to her
Bravest lover, authorities said.
The 34-year-old woman ended up having sex early yesterday with as many as four
on-duty firefighters in the firehouse, NYPD and FDNY sources said.
She gave various accounts of what happened, at first telling authorities she
had been gang-raped.
She recanted that story later in the day - saying the sex was consensual - then
changed back to the gang-rape version by nightfall, sources said.
Two firefighters were suspended without pay in the latest scandal to roil the
department.
Three FDNY officers and nine other firefighters who were in the firehouse at
the time of the incident were put on desk duty.
Police and fire investigators swarmed the busy Morris Heights firehouse about 6
a.m. shortly after the woman - a divorced mother - dialed 911 and leveled the
blockbuster allegations, officials said.
"She said she was having sex with [one firefighter] when she was gang-raped by
other firefighters," said an FDNY official.
Police were continuing to investigate, but no criminal charges had been filed
as of last night.
Firefighter Tony DeLuca, a married 35-year-old father, met the woman in an
Internet sex chat room and exchanged messages with her for three months, but he
had never seen her until yesterday, sources told the Daily News.
DeLuca first tried to cover up the sex mess, telling investigators that he
fooled around with the woman in a parking area, the sources said.
But under questioning, he admitted having sex with her in a vestibule of Ladder
33/Engine 75, at Walton Ave. and Cameron Place, sources said.
"By the time the police got there, the place was neatened and cleaned up," an
NYPD official said.
Outraged by the latest scandal, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta doled out
punishment swiftly.
DeLuca and Firefighter Christian Waugh were suspended.
Waugh - who according to sources is the son of a heroic firefighter who helped
carry the body of FDNY chaplain Mychal Judge away from the World Trade Center -
also admitted to having sex with the woman inside the cinder-block firehouse,
authorities said.
The firehouse, adorned with glass bricks engraved with the names of Bronx
firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty, was taken out of service
about 8 a.m. and remained closed for much of the day as each firefighter was
grilled about the allegations.
Scoppetta said more heads could roll.
"These are very serious allegations," the commissioner said. "The Fire
Department's Bureau of Investigations and Trial, along with our fire marshals,
are working with the Police Department and Department of Investigation to
aggressively investigate these claims."
The disturbing incident began early yesterday when the woman called the
firehouse shortly after leaving a New Jersey nightclub and told DeLuca "she was
lonely," a FDNY source said. After telling DeLuca that her children were with
her ex-husband, the woman was invited by DeLuca to the firehouse. He met her at
a side door and had sex with her in a room off the kitchen, sources said.
Waugh, 32, an eight-year veteran, then allegedly received oral sex from the
woman, several fire and police sources said.
The woman, who sources said has struggled with depression, told investigators
she had sex with as many as four firefighters, sources said.
At one point, she apparently grew concerned because, she said, she has a
sexually transmitted disease, and she eventually told firefighters she wanted
to leave, according to police sources.
"Nothing occurred after the word 'No,' " a police source said about the woman's
rape allegation.
"She goes home and tells mom, 'I'm a little bit tired, 'cause I went out with
some guys or whatever, and one of the guys got ugly,' " the source said.
With her mother's prodding, the woman dialed 911 and charged she was
gang-raped, these sources said.
The woman was later examined at St. Vincent's Medical Center on Staten Island
and released. "By the time the 46th Precinct detectives [in the Bronx] are over
to the firehouse, the Fire Department brass are there already," the source
said.
NYPD Inspector Susan Morley, the commanding officer of the sex crimes squad,
was among the cops who responded to the firehouse.
The woman at the center of the case was looking at photos of firefighters last
night, but prosecutors and cops did not expect to seek criminal charges, law
enforcement sources said. "It seems it was consensual and it got out of hand,"
one high-ranking police official said. Another high-ranking police official
called the sex "more scandalous than criminal."
"I'd put it on the level of the Staten Island firehouse incident," said the
official, referring to a New Year's Eve fight that saw one firefighter bash
another in the face with metal chair during a boozed-up brawl.
Police sources said that no alcohol was believed to be involved in the Bronx
sex scandal. Yesterday evening, a station wagon was parked outside DeLuca's
home on a leafy street in Valley Stream, L.I., near where his father had served
as the Cedarhurst fire chief.
A woman at DeLuca's home said he wasn't there.
"I don't know anything," she said before slamming the door.
On Staten Island, the woman who touched off the sex scandal spoke briefly to
reporters. "I have two small children and I wish the press would respect the
privacy of my family," she said.
A neighbor who gave her name only as Donna said the woman had grown up in the
neighborhood. "That is a very good family," Donna said. "She is a good kid -
always a good kid."
FEELING HEAT
The FDNY has been rocked by scandals this year. Here are some of them, as
described by authorities:
New Year’s Eve: Staten Island firefighter bashed fellow firefighter in the
face with metal chair during an alcohol-fueled argument.
Jan. 18: East Harlem firehouse raided and alcohol confiscated. Two firefighters
tested positive for cocaine.
Jan. 30: FDNY captain and lieutenant suspended for drinking on duty at a
karaoke bar.
Feb. 21: Firefighter high on cocaine slammed his fire truck into another engine
in the Bronx, injuring 13 people.
March 28: Off-duty Staten Island firefighter arrested on charges of sexually
assaulting an 11-year-old girl.
April 9: Off-duty firefighter nabbed driving drunk in crash that killed an
18-year-old man.
May 13: Off-duty Queens firefighter busted with three automatic-assault weapons
in his home.
May 29: Off-duty firefighter arrested for punching a cop.
June 4: Off-duty Bronx firefighter arrested on cocaine charges.
June 8: Off-duty firefighter arrested for choking a cop in Harlem.
Aug. 16: A FDNY captain is the 28th firefighter charged with driving drunk this
year - surpassing the number of Bravest arrested on DWI charges during all of
2003
From grace to disgrace
Father of top figure in scandal a 9/11 hero
The Bronx firehouse housing Ladder Co. 33 and Engine Co. 75 was blessed at its
opening in July of 2000 by the Rev. Mychal Judge, who had counseled enough
members of the department to know they are as human as anybody else.
"Ah, but then the alarm comes in," Judge said. "And then comes the grace."
Judge meant the sanctifying grace that comes when people rush into the most
mortal danger on behalf of strangers. He would demonstrate his own grace to the
whole world 14 months after the opening of this Bronx firehouse.
On the footage shot by an uncommonly plucky French cameraman, we saw Judge
standing in the lobby of the north tower, his lips moving in prayer as
firefighters headed up into the inferno. Nearby stood a tall, graying
firefighter whom Judge knew to be one of those who carried the grace between
alarms.
His name was Chris Waugh and Judge had gotten to know him seven years before,
after three firefighters from a Manhattan ladder company were killed by a fire
started by a pizza box left atop an oven pilot light.
Waugh had helped carry out the firefighter who had been killed immediately
while their comrades filled the blackened windows, removing their helmets and
blessing themselves. A second firefighter died the next day, saying at the
height of his suffering, "I don't care, this is still the greatest job in the
world."
Now, in the north tower of the Trade Center, Waugh stood behind an aluminum
suitcase that rested atop four scissored legs. The outside bore the words
"COMMAND POST" and a battered Fire Department logo. The small metallic
rectangles Waugh calmly arrayed inside each signified an entire company of
firefighters willing to face even danger such as this for the sake of others.
Then the south tower collapsed with a tremendous roar such as this city has
never heard. Waugh and the others knew only to move in the other direction and
they were near the escalators when a hurricane of dust and debris tore through
the lobby's already shattered windows.
They stumbled upon a body.
"This is Father Judge," a voice announced.
Waugh grabbed Judge's belt. Another firefighter took an arm, another the right
leg, another the left. The firefighters carried out his lifeless body as the
burning north tower threatened to collapse like its twin.
Two white-shirted police lieutenants joined in and they trudged on, slowed by
their burden when they could have just left Judge and each fled his own way.
Their bootprints formed a trail of grace in the ash.
They placed Judge in a broken plastic chair and descended from the plaza, two
in front, two behind, the rest coming along. They were joined by someone from
the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management and by a civilian.
As they struggled through the debris, a news photographer took a picture that
some would later call the modern Pieta. Judge would have deemed it perfect that
Waugh was among them.
Waugh had injured his leg, and he limped as he went from funeral to funeral
over the months ahead. His eyes were as sad as any you encountered, but they
still held that grace and you were always left feeling that life is bigger even
than this much death.
All that came rushing back yesterday when you heard that a young firefighter
named Chris Waugh was one of two being investigated in connection with an
incident at the same Bronx firehouse Judge had blessed four years ago. You were
told that this was the elder Waugh's son and namesake.
The allegation seemed to be that young Waugh and his pal acted like the
firehouse was a frat house or perhaps the Clinton White House. The press was
sure to make much of the quarters having been nicknamed "Animal House," though
this referred back to when Ladder 33, Engine 75 were in a decrepit firehouse
dating to when horses pulled the rigs.
The new firehouse has an artwork incorporated into an exterior wall in which
the names of the 75 Bronx firefighters who perished prior to 2000 are inscribed
on glass bricks. There is also a pair of glass hands, replicating those of a
3-year-old girl and her father who were rescued from a fire.
The girl is now 8 and you had to hope yesterday that whatever happened and
however it is reported was not going to make her feel that firefighters were
anything but saviors borne by grace. You were certain only that a young man
could have no better name than Chris Waugh.
"This just floors me. I don't believe it."
| |
| FDNY EMS WEBSITE 2004-08-21, 7:58 pm |
| Rowdy behavior the
norm at firehouse
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Morris Heights firehouse where sex scandal erupted is usually boisterous,
locals say. One said fireman flirted with woman on roof.
The FDNY units scorched by a sex scandal are known as "Animal House" because
their original Bronx fire station dated back to the time when horse-drawn rigs
parked there.
But neighbors of the Bravest's new headquarters said comparisons to the movie
of the same name - about party-hearty frat boys - weren't far off the mark.
Although Engine 75 and Ladder 33 are regularly among the busiest units in the
city, the men who work there like to let off some steam, residents said.
Until recently, a big Budweiser sign hung on the patio behind the firehouse,
built just four years ago on Walton Ave. and Cameron Place in Morris Heights.
The sound of boisterous behavior was common, and one local teen said he saw a
firefighter flirting with a woman on the roof earlier this week.
"Two days ago, a team of FD inspectors arrived for what we heard was a surprise
inspection - and from the looks on the firefighters' faces, they definitely got
in trouble," said David Baez, 27.
Baez - who is the brother of Anthony Baez, a Bronx man who died in a police
choke hold in 1994 - said he saw the inspectors haul away the sign and some
party gear.
But he never imagined anything more sinister was going on behind the walls of
brick and glass tiles, etched with the names of fallen comrades.
"They're basically good guys with a few hotheads mixed in but they're young
guys. They like to party; they like to have a good time," Baez said.
Orlando Segui, 38, agreed.
"They're a bunch of guys who like to have fun," he said. "You see them hanging
out and going out together, and sometimes they're loud.
"They're usually friendly to us. But they've got their own thing going."
Others in the gritty, working-class neighborhood were disturbed by the report
of sexcapades and angry the investigation had shut down the firehouse for most
of the day.
"This is so shocking that something like that could happen at a firehouse,"
said Regina DeRocco, 29. "How can we feel safe? How can we count on them to
protect us?"
Richard Kirrstetter, who retired from Engine 75 in 1978 and now lives in North
Carolina, also was stunned when he heard the news.
"I don't understand how that could happen. Knowing their history and all the
guys who were there, I don't see how that could happen," he said.
Sex spree at Animal House
Woman charges rape after Bronx encounter
2 Bravest suspended, 12 more get reassigned
This story was reported by:
MELISSA GRACE, BOB KAPPSTATER,
JONATHAN LEMIRE, MICHELE MCPHEE
and CARRIE MELAGO
It was written by:
GREG GITTRICH
Firehouse on Cameron Place in the Bronx after Staten Island woman visiting
Bravest boyfriend said she was gang-raped there yesterday.
A Bronx firehouse known as the Animal House was rocked yesterday by a stunning
sex scandal that exploded after a Staten Island woman paid a booty call to her
Bravest lover, authorities said.
The 34-year-old woman ended up having sex early yesterday with as many as four
on-duty firefighters in the firehouse, NYPD and FDNY sources said.
She gave various accounts of what happened, at first telling authorities she
had been gang-raped.
She recanted that story later in the day - saying the sex was consensual - then
changed back to the gang-rape version by nightfall, sources said.
Two firefighters were suspended without pay in the latest scandal to roil the
department.
Three FDNY officers and nine other firefighters who were in the firehouse at
the time of the incident were put on desk duty.
Police and fire investigators swarmed the busy Morris Heights firehouse about 6
a.m. shortly after the woman - a divorced mother - dialed 911 and leveled the
blockbuster allegations, officials said.
"She said she was having sex with [one firefighter] when she was gang-raped by
other firefighters," said an FDNY official.
Police were continuing to investigate, but no criminal charges had been filed
as of last night.
Firefighter Tony DeLuca, a married 35-year-old father, met the woman in an
Internet sex chat room and exchanged messages with her for three months, but he
had never seen her until yesterday, sources told the Daily News.
DeLuca first tried to cover up the sex mess, telling investigators that he
fooled around with the woman in a parking area, the sources said.
But under questioning, he admitted having sex with her in a vestibule of Ladder
33/Engine 75, at Walton Ave. and Cameron Place, sources said.
"By the time the police got there, the place was neatened and cleaned up," an
NYPD official said.
Outraged by the latest scandal, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta doled out
punishment swiftly.
DeLuca and Firefighter Christian Waugh were suspended.
Waugh - who according to sources is the son of a heroic firefighter who helped
carry the body of FDNY chaplain Mychal Judge away from the World Trade Center -
also admitted to having sex with the woman inside the cinder-block firehouse,
authorities said.
The firehouse, adorned with glass bricks engraved with the names of Bronx
firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty, was taken out of service
about 8 a.m. and remained closed for much of the day as each firefighter was
grilled about the allegations.
Scoppetta said more heads could roll.
"These are very serious allegations," the commissioner said. "The Fire
Department's Bureau of Investigations and Trial, along with our fire marshals,
are working with the Police Department and Department of Investigation to
aggressively investigate these claims."
The disturbing incident began early yesterday when the woman called the
firehouse shortly after leaving a New Jersey nightclub and told DeLuca "she was
lonely," a FDNY source said. After telling DeLuca that her children were with
her ex-husband, the woman was invited by DeLuca to the firehouse. He met her at
a side door and had sex with her in a room off the kitchen, sources said.
Waugh, 32, an eight-year veteran, then allegedly received oral sex from the
woman, several fire and police sources said.
The woman, who sources said has struggled with depression, told investigators
she had sex with as many as four firefighters, sources said.
At one point, she apparently grew concerned because, she said, she has a
sexually transmitted disease, and she eventually told firefighters she wanted
to leave, according to police sources.
"Nothing occurred after the word 'No,' " a police source said about the woman's
rape allegation.
"She goes home and tells mom, 'I'm a little bit tired, 'cause I went out with
some guys or whatever, and one of the guys got ugly,' " the source said.
With her mother's prodding, the woman dialed 911 and charged she was
gang-raped, these sources said.
The woman was later examined at St. Vincent's Medical Center on Staten Island
and released. "By the time the 46th Precinct detectives [in the Bronx] are over
to the firehouse, the Fire Department brass are there already," the source
said.
NYPD Inspector Susan Morley, the commanding officer of the sex crimes squad,
was among the cops who responded to the firehouse.
The woman at the center of the case was looking at photos of firefighters last
night, but prosecutors and cops did not expect to seek criminal charges, law
enforcement sources said. "It seems it was consensual and it got out of hand,"
one high-ranking police official said. Another high-ranking police official
called the sex "more scandalous than criminal."
"I'd put it on the level of the Staten Island firehouse incident," said the
official, referring to a New Year's Eve fight that saw one firefighter bash
another in the face with metal chair during a boozed-up brawl.
Police sources said that no alcohol was believed to be involved in the Bronx
sex scandal. Yesterday evening, a station wagon was parked outside DeLuca's
home on a leafy street in Valley Stream, L.I., near where his father had served
as the Cedarhurst fire chief.
A woman at DeLuca's home said he wasn't there.
"I don't know anything," she said before slamming the door.
On Staten Island, the woman who touched off the sex scandal spoke briefly to
reporters. "I have two small children and I wish the press would respect the
privacy of my family," she said.
A neighbor who gave her name only as Donna said the woman had grown up in the
neighborhood. "That is a very good family," Donna said. "She is a good kid -
always a good kid."
| |
| FDNY EMS WEBSITE 2004-08-25, 12:39 pm |
| Rowdy behavior the
norm at firehouse
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Morris Heights firehouse where sex scandal erupted is usually boisterous,
locals say. One said fireman flirted with woman on roof.
The FDNY units scorched by a sex scandal are known as "Animal House" because
their original Bronx fire station dated back to the time when horse-drawn rigs
parked there.
But neighbors of the Bravest's new headquarters said comparisons to the movie
of the same name - about party-hearty frat boys - weren't far off the mark.
Although Engine 75 and Ladder 33 are regularly among the busiest units in the
city, the men who work there like to let off some steam, residents said.
Until recently, a big Budweiser sign hung on the patio behind the firehouse,
built just four years ago on Walton Ave. and Cameron Place in Morris Heights.
The sound of boisterous behavior was common, and one local teen said he saw a
firefighter flirting with a woman on the roof earlier this week.
"Two days ago, a team of FD inspectors arrived for what we heard was a surprise
inspection - and from the looks on the firefighters' faces, they definitely got
in trouble," said David Baez, 27.
Baez - who is the brother of Anthony Baez, a Bronx man who died in a police
choke hold in 1994 - said he saw the inspectors haul away the sign and some
party gear.
But he never imagined anything more sinister was going on behind the walls of
brick and glass tiles, etched with the names of fallen comrades.
"They're basically good guys with a few hotheads mixed in but they're young
guys. They like to party; they like to have a good time," Baez said.
Orlando Segui, 38, agreed.
"They're a bunch of guys who like to have fun," he said. "You see them hanging
out and going out together, and sometimes they're loud.
"They're usually friendly to us. But they've got their own thing going."
Others in the gritty, working-class neighborhood were disturbed by the report
of sexcapades and angry the investigation had shut down the firehouse for most
of the day.
"This is so shocking that something like that could happen at a firehouse,"
said Regina DeRocco, 29. "How can we feel safe? How can we count on them to
protect us?"
Richard Kirrstetter, who retired from Engine 75 in 1978 and now lives in North
Carolina, also was stunned when he heard the news.
"I don't understand how that could happen. Knowing their history and all the
guys who were there, I don't see how that could happen," he said.
Sex spree at Animal House
Woman charges rape after Bronx encounter
2 Bravest suspended, 12 more get reassigned
This story was reported by:
MELISSA GRACE, BOB KAPPSTATER,
JONATHAN LEMIRE, MICHELE MCPHEE
and CARRIE MELAGO
It was written by:
GREG GITTRICH
Firehouse on Cameron Place in the Bronx after Staten Island woman visiting
Bravest boyfriend said she was gang-raped there yesterday.
A Bronx firehouse known as the Animal House was rocked yesterday by a stunning
sex scandal that exploded after a Staten Island woman paid a booty call to her
Bravest lover, authorities said.
The 34-year-old woman ended up having sex early yesterday with as many as four
on-duty firefighters in the firehouse, NYPD and FDNY sources said.
She gave various accounts of what happened, at first telling authorities she
had been gang-raped.
She recanted that story later in the day - saying the sex was consensual - then
changed back to the gang-rape version by nightfall, sources said.
Two firefighters were suspended without pay in the latest scandal to roil the
department.
Three FDNY officers and nine other firefighters who were in the firehouse at
the time of the incident were put on desk duty.
Police and fire investigators swarmed the busy Morris Heights firehouse about 6
a.m. shortly after the woman - a divorced mother - dialed 911 and leveled the
blockbuster allegations, officials said.
"She said she was having sex with [one firefighter] when she was gang-raped by
other firefighters," said an FDNY official.
Police were continuing to investigate, but no criminal charges had been filed
as of last night.
Firefighter Tony DeLuca, a married 35-year-old father, met the woman in an
Internet sex chat room and exchanged messages with her for three months, but he
had never seen her until yesterday, sources told the Daily News.
DeLuca first tried to cover up the sex mess, telling investigators that he
fooled around with the woman in a parking area, the sources said.
But under questioning, he admitted having sex with her in a vestibule of Ladder
33/Engine 75, at Walton Ave. and Cameron Place, sources said.
"By the time the police got there, the place was neatened and cleaned up," an
NYPD official said.
Outraged by the latest scandal, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta doled out
punishment swiftly.
DeLuca and Firefighter Christian Waugh were suspended.
Waugh - who according to sources is the son of a heroic firefighter who helped
carry the body of FDNY chaplain Mychal Judge away from the World Trade Center -
also admitted to having sex with the woman inside the cinder-block firehouse,
authorities said.
The firehouse, adorned with glass bricks engraved with the names of Bronx
firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty, was taken out of service
about 8 a.m. and remained closed for much of the day as each firefighter was
grilled about the allegations.
Scoppetta said more heads could roll.
"These are very serious allegations," the commissioner said. "The Fire
Department's Bureau of Investigations and Trial, along with our fire marshals,
are working with the Police Department and Department of Investigation to
aggressively investigate these claims."
The disturbing incident began early yesterday when the woman called the
firehouse shortly after leaving a New Jersey nightclub and told DeLuca "she was
lonely," a FDNY source said. After telling DeLuca that her children were with
her ex-husband, the woman was invited by DeLuca to the firehouse. He met her at
a side door and had sex with her in a room off the kitchen, sources said.
Waugh, 32, an eight-year veteran, then allegedly received oral sex from the
woman, several fire and police sources said.
The woman, who sources said has struggled with depression, told investigators
she had sex with as many as four firefighters, sources said.
At one point, she apparently grew concerned because, she said, she has a
sexually transmitted disease, and she eventually told firefighters she wanted
to leave, according to police sources.
"Nothing occurred after the word 'No,' " a police source said about the woman's
rape allegation.
"She goes home and tells mom, 'I'm a little bit tired, 'cause I went out with
some guys or whatever, and one of the guys got ugly,' " the source said.
With her mother's prodding, the woman dialed 911 and charged she was
gang-raped, these sources said.
The woman was later examined at St. Vincent's Medical Center on Staten Island
and released. "By the time the 46th Precinct detectives [in the Bronx] are over
to the firehouse, the Fire Department brass are there already," the source
said.
NYPD Inspector Susan Morley, the commanding officer of the sex crimes squad,
was among the cops who responded to the firehouse.
The woman at the center of the case was looking at photos of firefighters last
night, but prosecutors and cops did not expect to seek criminal charges, law
enforcement sources said. "It seems it was consensual and it got out of hand,"
one high-ranking police official said. Another high-ranking police official
called the sex "more scandalous than criminal."
"I'd put it on the level of the Staten Island firehouse incident," said the
official, referring to a New Year's Eve fight that saw one firefighter bash
another in the face with metal chair during a boozed-up brawl.
Police sources said that no alcohol was believed to be involved in the Bronx
sex scandal. Yesterday evening, a station wagon was parked outside DeLuca's
home on a leafy street in Valley Stream, L.I., near where his father had served
as the Cedarhurst fire chief.
A woman at DeLuca's home said he wasn't there.
"I don't know anything," she said before slamming the door.
On Staten Island, the woman who touched off the sex scandal spoke briefly to
reporters. "I have two small children and I wish the press would respect the
privacy of my family," she said.
A neighbor who gave her name only as Donna said the woman had grown up in the
neighborhood. "That is a very good family," Donna said. "She is a good kid -
always a good kid."
FEELING HEAT
The FDNY has been rocked by scandals this year. Here are some of them, as
described by authorities:
New Year’s Eve: Staten Island firefighter bashed fellow firefighter in the
face with metal chair during an alcohol-fueled argument.
Jan. 18: East Harlem firehouse raided and alcohol confiscated. Two firefighters
tested positive for cocaine.
Jan. 30: FDNY captain and lieutenant suspended for drinking on duty at a
karaoke bar.
Feb. 21: Firefighter high on cocaine slammed his fire truck into another engine
in the Bronx, injuring 13 people.
March 28: Off-duty Staten Island firefighter arrested on charges of sexually
assaulting an 11-year-old girl.
April 9: Off-duty firefighter nabbed driving drunk in crash that killed an
18-year-old man.
May 13: Off-duty Queens firefighter busted with three automatic-assault weapons
in his home.
May 29: Off-duty firefighter arrested for punching a cop.
June 4: Off-duty Bronx firefighter arrested on cocaine charges.
June 8: Off-duty firefighter arrested for choking a cop in Harlem.
Aug. 16: A FDNY captain is the 28th firefighter charged with driving drunk this
year - surpassing the number of Bravest arrested on DWI charges during all of
2003
From grace to disgrace
Father of top figure in scandal a 9/11 hero
The Bronx firehouse housing Ladder Co. 33 and Engine Co. 75 was blessed at its
opening in July of 2000 by the Rev. Mychal Judge, who had counseled enough
members of the department to know they are as human as anybody else.
"Ah, but then the alarm comes in," Judge said. "And then comes the grace."
Judge meant the sanctifying grace that comes when people rush into the most
mortal danger on behalf of strangers. He would demonstrate his own grace to the
whole world 14 months after the opening of this Bronx firehouse.
On the footage shot by an uncommonly plucky French cameraman, we saw Judge
standing in the lobby of the north tower, his lips moving in prayer as
firefighters headed up into the inferno. Nearby stood a tall, graying
firefighter whom Judge knew to be one of those who carried the grace between
alarms.
His name was Chris Waugh and Judge had gotten to know him seven years before,
after three firefighters from a Manhattan ladder company were killed by a fire
started by a pizza box left atop an oven pilot light.
Waugh had helped carry out the firefighter who had been killed immediately
while their comrades filled the blackened windows, removing their helmets and
blessing themselves. A second firefighter died the next day, saying at the
height of his suffering, "I don't care, this is still the greatest job in the
world."
Now, in the north tower of the Trade Center, Waugh stood behind an aluminum
suitcase that rested atop four scissored legs. The outside bore the words
"COMMAND POST" and a battered Fire Department logo. The small metallic
rectangles Waugh calmly arrayed inside each signified an entire company of
firefighters willing to face even danger such as this for the sake of others.
Then the south tower collapsed with a tremendous roar such as this city has
never heard. Waugh and the others knew only to move in the other direction and
they were near the escalators when a hurricane of dust and debris tore through
the lobby's already shattered windows.
They stumbled upon a body.
"This is Father Judge," a voice announced.
Waugh grabbed Judge's belt. Another firefighter took an arm, another the right
leg, another the left. The firefighters carried out his lifeless body as the
burning north tower threatened to collapse like its twin.
Two white-shirted police lieutenants joined in and they trudged on, slowed by
their burden when they could have just left Judge and each fled his own way.
Their bootprints formed a trail of grace in the ash.
They placed Judge in a broken plastic chair and descended from the plaza, two
in front, two behind, the rest coming along. They were joined by someone from
the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management and by a civilian.
As they struggled through the debris, a news photographer took a picture that
some would later call the modern Pieta. Judge would have deemed it perfect that
Waugh was among them.
Waugh had injured his leg, and he limped as he went from funeral to funeral
over the months ahead. His eyes were as sad as any you encountered, but they
still held that grace and you were always left feeling that life is bigger even
than this much death.
All that came rushing back yesterday when you heard that a young firefighter
named Chris Waugh was one of two being investigated in connection with an
incident at the same Bronx firehouse Judge had blessed four years ago. You were
told that this was the elder Waugh's son and namesake.
The allegation seemed to be that young Waugh and his pal acted like the
firehouse was a frat house or perhaps the Clinton White House. The press was
sure to make much of the quarters having been nicknamed "Animal House," though
this referred back to when Ladder 33, Engine 75 were in a decrepit firehouse
dating to when horses pulled the rigs.
The new firehouse has an artwork incorporated into an exterior wall in which
the names of the 75 Bronx firefighters who perished prior to 2000 are inscribed
on glass bricks. There is also a pair of glass hands, replicating those of a
3-year-old girl and her father who were rescued from a fire.
The girl is now 8 and you had to hope yesterday that whatever happened and
however it is reported was not going to make her feel that firefighters were
anything but saviors borne by grace. You were certain only that a young man
could have no better name than Chris Waugh.
"This just floors me. I don't believe it."
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