By GINGER ADAMS OTIS
June 8, 2008
Deputy Chief Engineer Albert Novak - who is retiring this week after nearly 20 years with the city - was arrested for criminal impersonation of a public servant on March 11 after following another driver into a Westchester gas station to berate him for flicking a cigarette butt out his window.
The driver, Freddy Bencomo, told police he initially thought Novak was a cop when the 64-year-old pulled up behind him in a black Ford Fusion with strobe lights glaring from the grille and windshield. Then Novak yelled through the loudspeaker, demanding he apologize, according to Bencomo's statement to cops. "He was screaming and very upset . . . I asked him if he was going to give me a ticket. I gave him respect," Bencomo said through a translator. "He said to me, 'You don't speak English very good, but you do know the law.' " Bencomo said he turned away and began to walk into the gas-station store, but Novak continued to mock his broken English over the car's loudspeaker. "He yelled after me, asking if I was an illegal immigrant, and did I have any papers," Bencomo said. "I asked to see his badge . . . he pointed to his windshield and asked me if I saw his lights." Novak's lawyer, William Fleming, said Novak followed Bencomo into the gas station only after the motorist's cigarette butt flew through Novak's car window. Novak never pretended to be an officer and when asked if he was a cop, he responded, "No, I'm not, but if you want, I'll call a cop," his lawyer said. "He flashed his lights to let [the other motorist] know he wasn't moving - he was trying to get the cigarette sparks and ashes out of his car," Fleming said. "We will fight these allegations in court," Fleming said.
