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Darren Dopp Sworn Testimony Transcript

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Darren Dopp Sworn Testimony Transcript 1 1 STATE OF NEW YORK COMMISSION ON PUBLIC INTEGRITY 2 ================================== In the matter of 3 An Investigation into the Alleged 4 Misuse of Resources of the Division of State Police 5 ==================================== 6 Commission on Public Integrity 80 South Swan Street, Suite 1147 7 Albany, New York 12210-8004 8 Thursday, October 11, 2007 10:00 a.m. 9 STENOGRAPHIC RECORD of an Investigative 10 Interview under oath conducted pursuant to agreement. 11 12 INTERVIEWEE: DARREN DOPP 13 APPEARANCES: HERBERT TEITELBAUM, ESQ. 14 Executive Director 15 MEAVE M. TOOHER, ESQ. Investigative Counsel 16 JOAN P. SULLIVAN, ESQ. 17 Investigative Counsel 18 PRESENT: ROBERT SHEA, Investigator 19 TERENCE KINDLON, ESQ. 74 Chapel Street 20 Albany, New York 12207 (Appearing for the Interviewee) 21 22 23 REPORTED BY: BETH S. GOLDMAN, RPR 24 Certified Shorthand Reporter 2 1 D A R R E N D O P P, 2 called to testify before the Commission, and being 3 duly sworn/affirmed by the notary public, was 4 examined and testified as follows: 5 EXAMINATION BY MS. TOOHER: 6 Q. Would you state your full name for the 7 record, please. 8 A. My name is Darren Dopp. 9 Q. Mr. Dopp, where are you currently employed? 10 A. I am currently employed at a company called 11 Pat Lynch Communications here in Albany. 12 MR. TEITELBAUM: Let me interrupt you 13 for a second. 14 (A discussion was held off the record.) 15 Q. For the record, are you here voluntarily 16 today? 17 A. Yes. 18 Q. You are accompanied by your attorney? 19 A. I am indeed, Mr. Kindlon. 20 MS. TOOHER: Will you note your 21 appearance for the record? 22 MR. KINDLON: Terence, T-e-r-e-n-c-e, 23 Kindlon, 74 Chapel Street, Albany, New York. 24 Q. And you are currently employed with Pat 3 1 Lynch Communications? 2 A. Yes. 3 Q. Where were you employed previously? 4 A. Previously, I was Director of Communications 5 in the Executive Chamber for Governor Spitzer. 6 Q. When did you leave that position? 7 A. I departed last Friday. 8 Q. Prior to last Friday what were your 9 responsibilities in that position? 10 A. Interacting with the media, advising the 11 Governor on matters concerning the media, 12 addressing all manner of external communication 13 and intersection of policy and communication. I 14 wish I could provide a neat description of the 15 role of Communications Director. But at the given 16 moments you could be confronted by a host of 17 issues that you then confer with your colleagues 18 on in terms of the best approach with the media. 19 Q. And you say confer with your colleagues, who 20 would you usually confer with? 21 A. Basically, the individuals that had the most 22 interaction with the Governor: The secretary to 23 of the Governor -- 24 Q. That is? 4 1 A. Richard Baum. The counsel to the Governor, 2 David Nocente. Those three most regularly and 3 most routinely, but beyond that the entire rest of 4 the administration. 5 Q. And, when you say the intersection of policy 6 and communication could you explain that a little? 7 A. When the administration took over we had a 8 set of, you know, policy goals that we wanted to 9 implement. A big part of your success in 10 implementing those goals involves the 11 communication of your goals. And some people it's 12 all in the communication. But, you know, we set a 13 set of goals and try to implement them both with 14 strategies to interact with the media, the public 15 and lawmakers who ultimately have the decision as 16 to whether or not to approve those policies. 17 Q. Your role in that was the communication 18 aspects of the policy? 19 A. Again, it is not a four-corner type 20 situation, you know. We would consult internally 21 will about the best approach. And, sometimes, as 22 a communications director you sort of recommend 23 possibilities and options for the group to 24 consider. I always considered it my role -- and I 5 1 thought I was good at it -- in terms of saying if 2 we do this, this might result. If we do that, 3 that might result. I was able to do that based on 4 20 years in government as a communications 5 director and as a journalist. 6 Q. And, when you say -- I am going to 7 paraphrase a cause and effect: If we do this, 8 then that might result, who would you be having 9 that communication with? 10 A. The trio; Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Baum and Mr. 11 Nocente. 12 Q. Who was your direct report in the executive 13 chamber? 14 A. I guess if we had to draw a flow chart it 15 would be Mr. Baum. But in reality it was Baum, 16 Spitzer and Nocente who formed the trio. Baum, 17 Spitzer and Dopp formed the trio that had been 18 with the Governor as Attorney General since the 19 beginning. 20 MR. TEITELBAUM: You mean Baum, Spitzer 21 Nocente and yourself. 22 INTERVIEWEE: Baum, Nocente, and Dopp 23 were the trio in the Attorney General's Office and 24 then became the same in the Governor's Office. It 6 1 is not an exclusive process, obviously, when you 2 have others: Policy director, director of 3 administration, you know, other counsel. You 4 know, it was not as though decisions were made by 5 that group alone. Budget Director, obviously, as 6 well, Paul Francis, another key player on just 7 about everything we worked on. 8 Q. What was your relationship with Christine 9 Anderson? 10 A. My employee, my press secretary? 11 Q. Yes. 12 A. The press office is organized as 13 communications director, press secretary, deputy 14 press secretary, and then press officers. She 15 would report to me. 16 Q. What was her title? 17 A. Press Secretary. 18 Q. And, she would report directly to you? 19 A. That's right. Lines of reporting frequently 20 weren't like so rigid. If Christine learned of 21 something that was essential to bring to the 22 attention of the Governor she would do so and 23 apprise me as well. It wasn't so rigid that 24 everything had to come through me. It was rather 7 1 informal, as a matter of fact. 2 Q. What about Marlene Turner? 3 A. Marlene Turner, Director of Administration. 4 Truthfully, she is kind of like the den mother of 5 our office, you know, someone who was responsible 6 for Mr. Spitzer's schedules and a host of other 7 activities that spoke to administration. She 8 performed the same function in the Attorney 9 General's Office and moved with us to the 10 Governor's Office. 11 Q. Did you work with her on any policy issues? 12 A. Marlene Turner wasn't generally involved in 13 policy discussions. She would have been involved 14 extensively in scheduling decisions; where the 15 Governor goes, what and how events were planned. 16 Q. What about Paul Larabee? 17 A. Paul Larabee was our Deputy Press Secretary 18 in the chain of command. It was Dopp, Anderson, 19 and Larabee in the press office. 20 Q. What were his duties? 21 A. Paul's duties would probably be described as 22 the immediate interface with reporters. When 23 calls came into the press office, you know, 24 frequently the secretaries would consult Paul as 8 1 to who should handle a given inquiry. If it was 2 something that was important, dicey, problematic, 3 he would come to me saying: Who do you want to 4 handle this? Do you want to handle it? That kind 5 of thing. He would come to me and say: Here's 6 this inquiry. Who should be handling it? And 7 Christine and I would decide who to hand it off 8 to. 9 Q. How would you make that determination? 10 A. Again, it's hard to generalize for you. The 11 way I structured the press office is to give each 12 press officer an area of specialty and -- not to 13 provide like too much of a tutorial, but you have 14 63 state agencies and authorities. You have press 15 personnel, public information officers in each one 16 of those agencies that I would have hired those 17 individuals. And I had sort of set up a situation 18 with the eight press officers. The eight press 19 officers had a group of public agencies that they 20 would be responsible for. It just so happened that 21 one of Paul's agencies for which he was 22 responsible was everything in the law enforcement 23 and security area, including the State Police. 24 Q. So, Paul Larabee handled all law enforcement 9 1 issues? 2 A. Not all. Well, yes. He would be involved 3 in all. But, as I said in the beginning, it was 4 like when there is a problematic one or 5 potentially one that could rise to the level of 6 having the Governor's attention, he and I would 7 work on it together. Many times he handled things 8 on his own, but he always apprised me of it and I 9 would say sure, take care of it. 10 Q. How would you define a problematic area 11 worth bringing to the Governor's attention? 12 A.
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