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ALBANY - Political interference and favoritism infected the highest ranks of the State Police over more than a decade and under three governors, repeatedly jeopardizing the agency's independence and plunging its leadership into political battles that it should never have been part of, according to a report released Tuesday by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.

The report, punctuating an 18-month investigation by Mr. Cuomo that is continuing, found no significant evidence of wrongdoing by rank-and-file state troopers. But the report describes repeated incidents in which top officials at the agency took actions to benefit political figures and a lengthy record of inappropriate influence wielded by Daniel Wiese, the former State Police colonel who was a focus of Mr. Cuomo's inquiry. In one case, Mr. Wiese assigned troopers to guard the baseball player Darryl Strawberry when he was hospitalized at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.

In one case, the agency's then superintendent, Wayne Bennett, ordered subordinates to erase the official police report of a 2005 domestic violence dispute at the home of John E. Sweeney, then a Republican congressman from the 20th District. Mr. Bennett's order led to the creation of a phony, sanitized police report.

In another instance, Mr. Cuomo found, lawyers for then-Gov. George E. Pataki encouraged two state troopers to divulge grand jury testimony they had given in 1997 in an investigation of whether fund-raisers for Mr. Pataki promised to help arrange pardons in exchange for campaign contributions.

Mr. Cuomo also found that a previous superintendent, James McMahon, had been pressured to appoint David S. Mack, a real estate developer and Pataki fund-raiser, to the uniformed post of deputy superintendent, though Mr. Mack had no law enforcement experience. Mr. Mack, granted the rank of colonel, went on to appear at official functions in a full dress uniform, angering rank-and-file troopers.

The findings were sent on Tuesday to Gov. David A. Paterson, who shortly after taking office in March 2008 asked the attorney general to investigate the possibility that the State Police harbored a rogue unit that was conducting political espionage against elected officials. Mr. Paterson said at the time that rumors of such a group had prompted him to publicly admit to an extramarital affair.

In a letter to Mr. Cuomo released on Tuesday, Mr. Paterson said he was relieved that Mr. Cuomo had found no substantive evidence of wrongdoing among rank-and-file officers but concerned about "troubling politicization of certain actions and decisions that occurred at highest levels of the State Police."

The bulk of Mr. Cuomo's report concerns Mr. Wiese, who rose to command the executive services detail - the governor's bodyguard unit - and became a confidante and friend of both Mr. Pataki and former governor Eliot Spitzer.

Under state law, the detail is responsible for the physical safety of the governor, the lieutenant governor, visiting dignitaries and other elected officials deemed to be at risk. But Mr. Wiese so frequently dispatched members of the detail to other duties that State Police officials came to refer to them as "secret squirrel missions" and "Colonel missions."

In one case, Mr. Wiese, apparently without the knowledge of Mr. Pataki's office, assigned troopers in 1998 to provide security for Mr. Strawberry at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. In 1997, he assigned a trooper to assist the New York Police Department with its investigation into Mr. Pataki's campaign. After learning of Mr. Wiese's involvement, according to the report, federal prosecutors forbade city police from communicating about the case with the State Police.

Though Mr. Wiese retired in 2003 to take a job at the New York Power Authority, he remained closely entwined with the State Police. Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. Wiese was named a special assistant to the superintendent, while still working at the authority. He continued to carry a State Police shield and weapon and even instructed staff at the executive detail's Capitol headquarters to take messages for him.

Mr. Wiese continued to have influence at the agency after Mr. Spitzer became governor in 2007. Roderick Covington, who commanded the executive services detail under Mr. Spitzer, testified that he consulted with Mr. Wiese constantly and regularly sought his advice.