A decorated Navy captain who once commanded the Pearl Harbor station is asking why Queens cops treated him like a hardened thug after he tipped a ladder into the yard of his neighbor, a high-ranking police detective.
Michael Clarity, 70, was questioned at the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways, cuffed, booked and held overnight – on a misdemeanor charge that he damaged the deck of Detective John Girdusky.
“I have supervised an entire [military] police force,” Clarity said. “It is inconceivable to me that I could have been brought to this level of degradation.”
Clarity was arrested July 12, two days after he allegedly pushed the wooden ladder onto the deck of 17-year NYPD veteran Girdusky, who provides security for Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau.
Girdusky wasn’t home, but a neighbor saw Clarity “take a wooden step ladder and throw it onto the complainant’s wooden deck causing damage to the deck and railing,” according to court papers.
Clarity said the ladder fell over as he moved it.
After an eight-hour grilling, he stayed at Central Booking overnight – except for a trip to the hospital to check his blood pressure and diabetes. He had a stroke two days later.
A source said Girdusky had requested an order of protection against Clarity.
Girdusky said he had no control over the handling of the incident. “I do not have a personal vendetta against this man,” he said.