Today, in the second installment of a three-part investigative series on the New York State Athletic Commission, Post columnists Wallace Matthews and Jack Newfield examine the commission’s failure to protect boxers.

THE New York State Athletic Commission has failed to carry out its stated mandate to protect boxers, The Post has found.

Some attribute the agency’s dysfunctional state to ineptitude; others to politics.

Many say it’s a combination of the two.

In October 1998, Tony Russo, the executive director of the New York State Athletic Commission, Bob Duffy, the commission’s director of boxing, and Gary Shaw, a member of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, went to Poland to preside over a heavyweight bout between Andrew Golota and Tim Witherspoon.

All three worked at the fight at the invitation of Main Events, the bout’s promoter, and at the expense of the Polish government.

Three weeks ago, Arturo Gatti, a Main Events fighter, stepped on the scale to be weighed in for his junior welterweight Madison Square Garden bout against Joey Gamache on the Oscar De La Hoya-Derrell Coley undercard.

Duffy, who normally conducts the weigh-ins for fights held in New York, moved in to balance the scale. Russo shoved him out of the way and was overheard saying, “I’ll handle this one.”

“Why?” asked Duffy.

“None of your business,” Russo replied.

Was Tony Russo repaying one favor with another?

That’s a question boxing insiders have been asking ever since Gatti’s weight was announced at 141 pounds — the contracted weight — despite howls of protest from Gamache’s camp that Gatti was considerably heavier.

“Shut up!” Russo was heard telling Gamache’s agent Johnny Bos and his trainer Jimmy Glenn when they demanded that Gatti be reweighed.

“Stop making a fuss!”

The next night Gatti–weighing 160 pounds and looking at least one weight class bigger– nearly killed Joey Gamache in the Garden ring.

The informal weigh-in conducted the evening of the fight by HBO showed Gatti enjoyed a 14-pound weight advantage over Gamache when they entered the ring.

That’s illegal under NYSAC rules and prohibitive for any weight class less than heavyweight.

Joey Gamache, 33, spent the next two nights hospitalized with a severe concussion and subsequently retired from boxing.

Last week, he announced he’s filing suit against the commission, alleging that it conducted a fraudulent weigh-in that almost left him seriously injured by an opponent who was too big for him and could have killed him.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office seized all records pertaining to the weigh-in to see if criminal conduct was involved.

According to the “official” weigh-in, Gatti had only a 12-ounce advantage over Gamache, who weighed 1401/4.

The Gamache camp and others are asking why it was so important for Russo, who rarely conducts weigh-ins, to take control of this one.

Both Main Events and Shaw had suggested Russo to the Polish government for the Golota-Witherspoon fight.

And Shaw, Russo’s traveling companion to Poland, is now the chief operating officer of Main Events.

Insiders wonder if a quid pro quo was involved.

Russo and Melville Southard, the commission chairman, refused repeated Post requests for interviews to discuss the weigh-in and other controversies involving NYSAC.

No one at the commission has been permitted to speak to The Post under orders from Scott Trent, spokesman of the State Department of State, which oversees NYSAC.

And although all commission files are in the public domain, repeated Post requests for documentation also have gone unanswered.

“Nobody talks because nobody knows what to say,” said a source close to the commission.

Because commission officials won’t talk, their record will have to speak for itself. And it shows that the Gatti-Gamache weigh-in fiasco and its near-catastrophic aftermath are just the latest in a series of foul-ups committed by the taxpayer-funded agency.

Over the past two years, NYSAC:

Allowed three unlicensed judges to render a horribly inaccurate decision in the March 13, 1999 heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield before a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.

NYSAC didn’t insist on selecting at least two of the three judges — standard procedure at any strong commission.

It also did not license the officials it accepted from the WBA, the WBC and the IBF, which meant it could not bring disciplinary action against Jean Williams, the IBF judge who inexplicably scored Holyfield the winner, or Larry O’Connell, the WBC judge who scored the bout a draw.

Allowed another Garden heavyweight title fight featuring Holyfield to fall apart just 24 hours before the show when two featured boxers, Henry Akinwande and Ray Mercer, tested positive for Hepatitis B and a female boxer on the undercard was discovered to be five months pregnant.

Holyfield and Johnny Tapia, Louis Del Valle, Christy Martin and Roberto Duran lost paychecks and training outlays because NYSAC did not require that all medical exams be completed at least seven days before the scheduled bouts — the policy of most major boxing commissions.

Failed to realize boxer Edwin Rodriguez had been medically suspended until the day of a small April 1999 show at Yonkers Raceway — even though a suspension list is sent out over the Internet twice a month and Rodriguez had been on it for almost a year.

As a result, Rodriguez’ opponent, Paul Vaden, lost a payday and Vaden’s manager spent $3,000 on unnecessary travel expenses.

Duffy’s explanation at the time was “We’re not on the Internet.”

Has allowed an untalented heavyweight named Richie Melito to fatten his record against fighters with terrible records even though it knew five years ago that one of his opponents was a ringer — an impostor who fought under the name of a jailed boxer.

Just last Tuesday, Melito was allowed to fight Benito Fernandez of Spartanburg, S.C. in the main event at Yonkers Raceway.

Fernandez had been knocked out in his previous three bouts as a light heavyweight. He returned to the ring after taking three years off — reappearing as a 219-pound heavyweight against Melito.

He was knocked out in 2:08.

Insiders were shocked the commission approved such a match.

“The last bastion of protection for the fighters is supposed to be the commission,” said boxing manager Craig Hamilton, “But there’s nobody in New York to protect the fighters. It’s just a bunch of [damn] Pataki appointees running amok.”

Emma Elizondo, Duffy’s predecessor at the commission who was let go after 28 years, agrees: “They follow their own rules.”

“If you ask me, it’s more ineptitude than corruption,” said an official at another boxing commission who requested anonymity.

A commission employee told The Post, “I look around at this place and I’m embarrassed.”

TOMORROW: Cleaning up the commission.