Investigation

RE: Ronnie Polaneczky's column: At no time did Warden John Delaney "mishandle" or convert to his personal use any monies entrusted to him. At the hearing on this matter, the city "investigator" was asked a series of questions on this issue and specifically stated that it was not his belief that Warden Delaney stole any of the money entrusted to him or that he used it for other than authorized purposes. After a three-year investigation costing the city likely thousands of dollars, the presenting of more than 15 witnesses by the city's deputy chief integrity officer and a recognition by the commissioner of prisons that this problem could have been resolved three years ago, Warden Delaney was reprimanded.

Delaware state police are investigating allegations of bestiality in Milford after they arrested a woman on charges of having sex with a dog. Police say the acts occurred in the woman's home and that her boyfriend was also arrested for taking photos. The investigation began late last month from a concerned citizen's tip. Troopers arrested 24-year-old Samantha L. Golt, on charges that she had sexual intercourse with a dog. Her 25-year-old boyfriend, James P. Crow, was also arrested.

Authorities yesterday continued their investigation of CNC Trading Co., a Marlton-based firm that they say bilked investors of millions of dollars in a pyramid scheme. When company principals Charles and Nancy Cugliari caught wind of the investigation, they skipped town, according to Daniel Carluccio, Ocean County prosecutor. Investigators said they had an idea of where the couple might be, but declined to elaborate. Company representatives had told potential investors that they brokered meat products to meat and seafood markets and restaurants, and they promised a 40 percent return on their investment, according to Carluccio.

Carnegie Mellon University has suspended a fraternity after finding evidence of sexual pictures and videos taken in the fraternity house and e-mailed to fraternity members. School officials were notified by a student about the pictures and videos taken in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house, situated on campus. "Although I am mindful not to presume guilt while the investigation is still in progress, I was shocked and deeply disappointed when I learned about these allegations," university president Jared Cohon wrote in an e-mail to students.

For two years District Attorney Lynne Abraham, with help from the city controller, has been conducting a grand jury inquiry into the Philadelphia Gas Works. But now City Controller Jonathan Saidel, who called for the investigation more than two years ago, says Abraham's probe has become "unfair" to the company and the former PGW bosses who are the presumed targets. Though the media focus now is on the potential fiscal collapse of the city-owned utility unless it gets a whopping 30 percent rate boost, the issue in 1998 was a litany of Daily News stories recounting the sleazy misuse of corporate perks by top-ranking PGW officials.

The husband of April Kauffman, a South Jersey radio personality and advocate for veterans' causes who was found fatally shot in her master bedroom last week in Atlantic County, has hired a well-known defense attorney, who said his client had "cooperated fully" with authorities. James Kauffman, an endocrinologist, has retained Edwin Jacobs, the Atlantic City lawyer said in an interview Tuesday. "He met the county prosecutor's investigators and answered all their questions," Jacobs said.

Months after the FBI began probing allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), investigators are now looking at whether someone set out to smear him while he was running for reelection last year and then ascending to his new post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to four people briefed on the inquiry. As part of a wider public-corruption investigation into the senator, the FBI has been examining whether Menendez patronized prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

SEVERAL COPS suspected that Gov. Corbett's son-in-law, a veteran narcotics officer, was stealing money and clothing from targeted drug homes as far back as last spring, sources told the Daily News. And Thursday, Gerold Gibson was taken off the street after he "lit up like a Christmas tree" while carrying about $140 in specially treated money he allegedly stole from a car during a sting operation as part of an FBI and police Internal Affairs investigation, a source said. Gibson, 43, a 17-year veteran, has not been arrested or formally charged.

THE MOTHER of the 5-year-old girl abducted from her kindergarten classroom at Bryant Elementary, in West Philadelphia, earlier this week has retained high-profile attorney Tom Kline. Kline on Thursday told the Daily News that Latifah Rashid contacted him Wednesday for help in the ongoing investigation around her daughter's abduction - about which police have reported no new developments. "She wants to turn her attention to taking care of her daughter, and so she thought that she needed help and reached out to me, and I told her that I would undertake the task," Kline said.

For months last winter, rumors swirled in the offices of the Philadelphia Police Department about veteran homicide Detective Kenneth Rossiter, supposedly under investigation for collecting overtime pay for hours he had not worked. Last week, Rossiter, 51, learned that Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey was firing him for an alleged pattern of overtime fraud. Police would not comment on the specifics of the Internal Affairs investigation, but several sources familiar with the case said Rossiter was accused of multiple instances of clocking into court for work, going home for several hours, then returning to clock out of court to indicate he was there all day. He will be formally dismissed after a 30-day suspension.