Manhattan College Brings Renewable Energy to Puerto Rico

Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski retired from the NYPD during March 2014 after more than 33 years of dedicated service. Phil Pulaski received a Juris Doctor Degree in 1980 from St. John’s University School of Law and a Master of Laws (LLM) advanced law degree from Touro Law School in 2017. He practiced law privately and for the NYPD for more than 35 years. Before going to law school at night, Phil Pulaski received a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1974 and Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering in 1975 from Manhattan College, Bronx NY. Phil Pulaski worked as an engineer for the US Environmental Protection Agency for 4 years prior to joining the NYPD on September 2, 2019.

During June 2013, Phil Pulaski delivered the keynote address at the 61st annual Environmental Engineering Alumni Club dinner at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York, where he was honored for his more than 30 years of public service. In the audience were nearly 100 faculty members, graduate students, and alumni from the Manhattan College School of Engineering.

In 2018, a team of students from the Manhattan College School of Engineering led by chemical engineering professor Gennaro Maffia initiated the Water and Solar Power (WASP) project in Añasco City, an area of Puerto Rico still recovering from the after-effects of Hurricane Maria. The group focused on restoring reliable water and electricity access to Colegio De La Salle, a local school serving students from kindergarten to 12th grade.

During the first phase of the project, engineering students undertook preliminary measurements to ready the site for a solar grid, and developed a plan for installing a water tank. As the chemical engineering department implements plans to offer service learning trips over the next few years to complete the project, Manhattan College students have launched a fundraiser to support WASP and other initiatives in Puerto Rico.

Touro College Launches Child Advocacy Clinic

 

Touro College
Image: tourolaw.edu

Phil Pulaski has 36 years of law enforcement experience and was Chief of Detectives of the NYPD for more than 5 years where he was responsible for 3,600 personnel. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Phil Pulaski managed the NYPD’s counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction operations.

Phil Pulaski holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and master’s degree in environmental engineering from Manhattan College, Bronx, New York. While working full-time as an engineer at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Phil Pulaski attended St. John’s University School of Law, Queens, New York at night, and received a juris doctor degree in May 1980. He passed the New York State Bar examination in July 1980 and was admitted to practice law in New York State. Phil Pulaski was subsequently admitted to practice law in the US Supreme Court, US Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit, and US District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of NY.

Phil Pulaski served as a supervisory attorney in the NYPD’s Legal Bureau for several years and, as he was promoted to higher executive ranks in the department, he continued to closely collaborate with the Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters particularly regarding the law involving search and seizure, arrest, eyewitness identification, interrogation and electronic surveillance. Phil Pulaski also provided a significant amount of legal training to members of the NYPD including 10 New York State Bar Continuing Legal Education courses.

Since retiring from the NYPD in 2014 and continuing to work as a law enforcement executive, Phil Pulaski attended Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg School of Law in Suffolk, New York at night, and received a master of laws advanced degree (LLM) in January 2018. While studying for his LLM degree, he maintained a 4.0 GPA and graduated summa cum laude.

Touro College recently announced the opening of a Child Advocacy Clinic to provide free representation to children involved in family court cases. The clinic will be staffed by upper-level Touro College students who will assist clients with various issues ranging from child abuse, neglect, inadequate supervision, domestic violence, and custody.

The program will be steered by family law attorney and Touro College alumnus Danielle Schwager. Students will be required to be in court for a full day once a week and then spend another 12 hours a week preparing to meet clients so as to ensure their legal needs are met. Clinic hours will be supervised by Touro faculty. Ultimately, the program will benefit clients with free legal representation while giving advanced law students first-hand experience in family law matters.

A False Tip Concerning a Bomb Plot in New York City

Phil Pulaski

Phil Pulaski has 36 years of law enforcement experience, and was Chief of Detectives of the NYPD for more than 5 years where he was responsible for 3,600 personnel. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Phil Pulaski managed the NYPD’s counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction operations. He also supervised, together with his FBI counterpart, numerous terrorism related investigations including the 9-11 World Trade Center attack and October 2001 anthrax attacks. From 2001 to 2006, Phil Pulaski served as NYPD commanding officer of the FBI / NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force, and commanding officer of the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau and the NYPD Intelligence Division. During that time, Phil Pulaski was responsible for the NYPD programs involving (i) counterterrorism investigations (ii) human and electronic intelligence collection operations; (iii) intelligence processing, analysis, and dissemination; (iv) counterterrorism technology evaluation; (v) critical infrastructure protection (vi) counterterrorism training; and (vii) the NYPD officers assigned to 11 cities in 9 foreign countries.

Among the high profile cases Phil Pulaski managed was one that involved a jeweler making a false subway bomb plot report in 2005. Centered on the Fourth of July holiday, the bogus report launched an intensive and expensive terrorist investigation requiring 40 personnel and covert techniques such as 24/7 surveillance. The guilty party was Syrian native Rimon Alkatri, who identified himself on the terrorism tip line as an Israeli citizen and gave details of a plot that cost authorities more than $100,000 to investigate.

With the motivation apparently revenge, Alkatri identified five Syrians working in the jewelry industry as suspects and provided specific details that led authorities to believe him. With charges being brought against Alkatri in 2006, the district attorney was calling for a mandatory seven years sentence upon conviction. Alkatri ultimately received a six month sentence for making the false tip.

Abduction and Murder Case of Etan Patz Resolved after 38 Years

Phil Pulaski

Phil Pulaski has 36 years of law enforcement experience, and was Chief of Detectives of the NYPD for more than 5 years. As Chief Detectives, Phil Pulaski was responsible for more than 3,600 personnel who, during 2013, investigated more than 256,000 felony and misdemeanor crimes (including 335 homicides), and arrested more than 39,000 offenders. While he was Chief of Detectives, he successfully managed scores of major investigations including murdered police officers, shot police officers, serial killers, civilian deaths resulting from police action, quadruple homicides, missing persons, mass casualty incidents and pattern sex assaults. Among the most famous high profile investigations that Phil Pulaski managed involved the 1979 kidnapping and murder of a young boy Etan Patz.

Etan Patz was a six year old boy who disappeared on his way to school in the SoHo neighborhood of lower Manhattan on his birthday, May 25, 1979. His disappearance helped launch the “missing children movement” that resulted in new legislation and new methods for tracking down missing children. The New York Times described the shock from the abduction as “reverberating across America.” Several years after he disappeared, Patz was the first child to be profiled on the “photo on a milk carton” campaigns of the early 1980s. In 1983, President Reagan designated May 25—the anniversary of Etan’s disappearance—as National Missing Children’s Day in the United States.

The breakthrough in the case involved the brother-in-law of suspect Pedro Hernandez contacting the NYPD in April 2012, with the suspicion that Hernandez might be responsible. NYPD detectives from the Major Case Squad and Missing Persons Squad skillfully interviewed Hernandez at a location in New Jersey near his home. The suspect ultimately confessed and described the way he had murdered a boy he had lured from outside the Prince Street bodega, where the parents still live, by offering him a soda. Hernandez was arrested on May 25, 2012, the 33rd anniversary of Etan’s disappearance, and charged with 2nd degree murder and 1st degree kidnapping.

Hernandez’s trial began in January 2015 and ended in a mistrial that May, when one of the 12 jurors held out. The retrial began on October 19, 2016, and concluded on February 14, 2017, after nine days of deliberations, when the jury found Hernandez guilty of murder and kidnapping. Hernandez was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison on April 18, 2017.