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Matthew Wohl of Congers Receives State Waiver To Collect DA Salary And Police Pension
LEGAL BEAT
A retired NYPD officer who allegedly lied under oath in a trial in 2005 has landed a plum job at the Rockland County District Attorney’s office.
Matthew Wohl, a Clarkstown resident, has landed a $94,000 gig in addition to collecting his police pension. Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh’s office sought a special state waiver to hire Wohl as a confidential investigator, according to The New York Post.
Waivers are required for government workers who want to collect both their pensions and an annual salary of more than $35,000 from government agencies.
The former cop, who retired from the NYPD in July 2021, testified in the 2005 trial of a protester arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention in Manhattan. He said he helped carry the kicking and screaming protester down the steps of the New York Public Library.
But Wohl’s account didn’t track with a video that showed the protester walking down the stairs on his own while the officer was nowhere in sight. This led prosecutors to drop the case and the FBI to investigate. It does not appear Wohl was charged and it’s unclear if he was disciplined, according to The New York Post.
The account stems from a jury trial held after mass arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City in 2005. A defendant in the case produced video and photographic evidence contradicting statements that then police officer Wohl made under oath, according to The Indypendent.
The judge granted a motion to dismiss all charges against the defendant, Dennis Kyne, who was among several people arrested at the New York City Public Library during the RNC.
The motion to dismiss came not from the defense attorneys, but from former New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Morgenthau’s office brought the motion for dismissal after Wohl testified and the defense played a videotape for the prosecutors.
But Wohl landed on a list maintained by the Bronx District Attorney’s office of officers with potential credibility problems.
Wohl is married to Lauren Marie Wohl, who ran unsuccessfully for Clarkstown Town Clerk on the Republican ticket in 2020.
The Rockland County DA’s office contended it needed to hire Wohl because two other applicants did not meet the minimum qualifications for the job, according to a state document analyzing the waiver application obtained by The Post. The document went on to list the minimum qualifications as “N/A.”
State law requires agencies that want waivers to prove they have “undertaken extensive recruitment efforts to fill such vacancy” and that “there are no available non-retired persons qualified to perform the duties of such position.”
Wohl is one of five double dippers in Walsh’s office, according to sources.
Among the others with waivers are Peter Walker, a former detective and the public information officer for the Clarkstown Police Department in Rockland. He is earning a $191,000 salary as the DA’s chief criminal investigator plus $144,000 pension, records show.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said the office does not comment on personnel matters.
