Meet the DOB's investigator

From DNA Info:

Undercover investigations and online stings are tactics typically used by police and prosecutors, not building inspectors. But there's a new sheriff in town at the city's Department of Buildings — and he comes armed with three decades of law enforcement experience.

Eugene Corcoran, a former United States Marshal and 20-year veteran of the New York State Police took office in May as the buildings department's Deputy Commissioner of Enforcement — a first for the department, which has been plagued by corruption and a string of fraud-linked tragedies, including the Deutsche Bank building fire in 2007 and two deadly crane collapses in 2008.

Since his appointment, Corcoran has been taking the lessons he learned tracking down serial killers and reconstructing plane crashes and using them to crack down on absentee building owners and contractors who don't play by the rules.

"If there's an owner or a landlord or a licensed professional who is violating his oath of office… we'll be looking to hold them accountable," Corcoran said in a soft-spoken but steely tone as he sat in his office overlooking the Lower Manhattan skyline on a recent morning.

He did a great job cracking down on Tommy Huang, didn't he?

Mayhem on the parkway

From the Daily News:

The Buildings Department's top enforcer came to the rescue of a woman being beaten by her deranged husband on a Queens highway Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner Eugene Corcoran was driving by as Ameer Khairullah, 54, attacked his wife, Bebe, and commandeered her SUV on the Grand Central Parkway in Jamaica Hills about 7:30 a.m. officials said.

"He punched the wife, dragged her out of the vehicle," said a police source. "And the car rolls over her leg and breaks it."

Corcoran stopped his Ford Explorer in the center lane and hopped out. Khairullah's 2000 Toyota 4Runner then rear-ended Corcoran's vehicle.

"That sent him flying over the guardrail," Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani said. Corcoran, hired in May as the agency's head of enforcement, wasn't down long. "He gets up, walks toward the vehicle and confronts the suspect and subdues him," Sclafani said.

A former U.S. marshal, Corcoran pinned Khairullah to the ground while Firefighter Edward Tucker pulled up to lend a hand.

Tucker - who completes training today to become a fire marshal - handed Corcoran a pair of cuffs until cops arrived, FDNY spokesman Steve Ritea said.

DOB appoints anti-corruption chief

From the NY Times:

For the first time in its history, the Buildings Department has named a former law enforcement official to serve in the highest ranks of the agency, where corruption and mismanagement have been a persistent embarrassment to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The official, Eugene J. Corcoran, was most recently the United States Marshal in Brooklyn, where for seven years he oversaw the protection of federal judges and witnesses, the pursuit of fugitives and a range of investigations. He was appointed as the building agency’s deputy commissioner of enforcement on Monday, according to a news release.

A low-key and respected former New York state trooper, Mr. Corcoran has more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement, including four years in the No. 2 job at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department. He served 21 years with the State Police.

In the new post, which raises the enforcement job to the deputy commissioner level, Mr. Corcoran will oversee more than 120 lawyers, investigators and inspectors who investigate the work of contractors, developers, architects and others accused of violating the city construction code and who prosecute them at administrative hearings, the news release said.

Mr. Corcoran will also be responsible for the agency’s Office of Internal Audits and Discipline, which investigates employee misconduct and unlicensed construction work, sometimes with the city’s Department of Investigation.