Saving Captain Gatto

The force was expanded from 50 to 120 officers and Gatto was put in command of an East of Hudson unit. But King charges the DEP's numbers don't add up. "The facts are that when he was head of the entire enforcement division there were 15 people, seven of whom were east of the Hudson. Ask how many people are currently patrolling east of the Hudson, because [the force] has been cut down to one person."

Gatto, claims King, is the only officer patrolling the district today. "There are no officers under his command," King declares. "If those detractors could give a justification for this from a law enforcement perspective as to why [the DEP] would decimate the numbers, I would welcome that. But if they can't, and their only reason for doing it is to isolate Captain Gatto and force him to resign from the job he loves, he will never do that."

Mrs. Gatto bristles at the portrayal of her husband as a washed-up maverick who is resistant to change. "It's a farce," she asserts, adding that the DEP is "one big empty agency. It is supposed to protect the watershed so that your children aren't born with three eyes and brain cancer. As long as the Giuliani administration continues to hire puppets to run the DEP and harass my husband, who has dedicated his life to protecting the city's water supply, New Yorkers should drink bottled water."

Additional reporting: Danielle Douglas and wire services<!— This document created using BeyondPress(TM) 4.0.1 For Macintosh —>