State trooper Dane Pfeiffer was sent to administrative Siberia in the spring of 2020 after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, tipped his bosses off about the budding romance between Pfeiffer and Cara Kennedy-Cuomo, the governor’s daughter.
A 32-page report by state inspector general Lucy Lang released Friday reveals new details about Pfeiffer’s transfer to Plattsburgh, near the Canadian border, as officials sought to break up the affair that blossomed amid the COVID-19 lockdown at the Executive Mansion in Albany — where Kennedy-Cuomo was crashing with her powerful dad.
“He was transferred to keep him away from the daughter because the governor didn’t like whatever they were doing,” a source said of Pfeiffer when The Post first revealed the relationship in October 2020.
The trouble in paradise began on May 22, 2020, when DeRosa phoned the commander of the state police’s Protective Services Unit (PSU) responsible for safeguarding Cuomo and his family, and told him of the relationship. Kennedy-Cuomo had come clean to the governor the day before.
After taking DeRosa’s call, the report says, the commander alerted now-State Police Superintendent Kevin Bruen, then the force’s first deputy superintendent. Bruen initially referred the matter to internal investigators, telling them that Cuomo was “very upset” about his daughter’s relationship and that Bruen was getting “several calls from governor staff that are very upset.”
Later that day, Pfeiffer was called for an interview at Division Headquarters in the Albany area where, he said, a fellow trooper gave him a “pat down” even though he was unarmed and wearing shorts.
Pfeiffer told internal investigators that he “had not furthered his relationship while on duty” and had always conducted himself in a “professional” manner. He maintained that he did nothing wrong because state police do not have a policy explicitly barring members from having sexual relations with the people they protect.
At the end of his interview, Pfeiffer was placed on administrative leave, and told not to return to the Executive Mansion.
After taking statements from Pfeiffer and his supervisor — who admitted to knowing of the relationship weeks earlier, but saying nothing — the lead internal investigator told Bruen “he did not believe that Pfeiffer’s conduct constituted a violation of any State Police rule or regulation,” according to the report.
However, the document adds that Bruen, the internal investigator and the PSU commander agreed that Pfeiffer had to be transferred.
“[Y]ou can’t be in this position and have that kind of a relationship with one of the protectees,” Bruen told IG investigators. “You might be supposed to be at a particular assignment, and if there’s a fire in the house, you run to your beloved, right? But that’s not your job.”
“It came down to this kid was in love with the girl. And I cut him a break,” added Bruen, who acknowledged that he “sort of short-circuited” the normal disciplinary process because he didn’t think it “would benefit the Division.”
The next day, hours after DeRosa’s phone call, the PSU commander announced that Pfeiffer had been “reassigned.” But there was still the question of where to send him.
Though Bruen told the state watchdog he could have unilaterally dispatched Pfeiffer to Buffalo, around 300 miles away from the Executive Mansion, he decided to let the trooper submit a transfer request.
Just one problem: Pfeiffer’s initial choice was too close to Albany for his higher-ups’ comfort, according to the report.
On May 24, 2020, Pfeiffer recalled, he took a call from the PSU commander, who told him he was “expected” to ask for a move outside the Albany region.
Pfeiffer formally requested the switch to Plattsburgh – close to the state prison known as “Little Siberia” that hosted the infamous Dannemora escape – but recalled to investigators that he was left “pretty heavily defeated” by the experience.
“On paper I volunteered, but no, I don’t want to go up there, never want to go there again,” said Pfeiffer, who added that he had been “voluntold” where to go. He was formally transferred to the North Country three days after DeRosa flagged the relationship.
“The governor had nothing to do with the transfer — it was requested by the trooper,” a Cuomo spokesman said in 2020.
Other love-struck troopers could be spared such icy situations in the future, according to the IG report, if state police made it officially against the rules for them to date the governor’s daughter or anyone else they’re supposed to protect as part of their day job.
A state police spokesman said Bruen was now working with Lang to adopt such ideas.
Pfeiffer is no longer stuck in Plattsburgh after officials brought him in from the cold and promoted him to a position based in New York City.
But sources could not immediately confirm whether he and Kennedy-Cuomo are still an item.
Now the world knows more about their love thanks to Lang – but not everyone is happy.
“Our Trooper is being used as a political pawn for a power grab by the Inspector General to assert her undue influence on the New York State Police,” New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association Thomas Mungeer said in a statement. “I stand by the decisions made by Superintendent Kevin Bruen and have full faith in his leadership of the State Police.”
