Following days of confusion, Commissioner-designate Darryl De Sousa announced he will not be appointing Thomas Cassella as Deputy Commissioner.
RELATED: De Sousa: Leaked memo on proposed Deputy Commish proposal is false
De Sousa sent the following statement:
Thomas Cassella and I have mutually agreed that it is in the best interest of the agency to not move forward with his appointment. Due to the extreme sensitivity of the content of personnel records, I am not at liberty to discuss the matter further. As I mentioned in my statement a few days ago, there is information on the document that was incorrect. I am currently working to address that issue. Personnel records are protected under the Maryland Public Information Act.
The agency will continue to move forward. The delay in selection of a permanent Deputy Commissioner has no bearing on our mission to drive down violent crime. I’ll inform the community of my selection for the position of deputy commissioner in the near future. Until that time, Deputy Commissioner Andre Bonaparte will oversee the operations bureau.
It was originally announced that Cassella would be the Deputy Commissioner in a leaked document that De Sousa said was not real.
He then mentioned in his first press conference last week that the department would be investigating his proposal for deputy commissioner, Thomas Casella, after a sustained equal employment opportunity complaint of racial bias had surfaced from his time on the force in 2006.
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