Originally Posted - March 5, 2006

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“Striving to do things ‘exactly right’” was the headline of a puff piece on Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland published last Sunday in the Albany Times-Union.

Larry Cleveland is at the center of one of the biggest firestorms in the history of Warren County right now involving the Ethan Allen boating accident and the cries are becoming increasingly louder for his removal from office. This time though, the controversy isn’t only confined to Warren County---it’s nationwide, particularly in Michigan and Ohio where the relatives of the victims reside.

Suspiciously timed we’d say of the article. Did Cleveland ask for the attempt at damage control or was it initiated by the Times-Union?

The piece was presented as a feature article rather than a commentary or opinion and had to be one of the most unbalanced, one-sided pieces of alleged journalism we’ve ever seen, done from the perspective of Cleveland and his inseparable “friend” John Shine. The reporter from the Times Union was totally hoodwinked.

The only ones apparently interviewed, or those who dared to talk on the record, were Bill Thomas, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors; Kate Hogan, district attorney. For sure, they’re not going to say anything on the record against fellow Republican Cleveland. Cleveland has long been known for his intimidation and retaliation, abuse of his position. Ask Rich Ogden, Tim Tremblay, Fenton Sabo, Kathy Dudley and many others who left the department because of Cleveland and his tactics and attitude and then there’s the EEOC complaints against him.

Shine seemed to be the only one for the department interviewed---was he in the office with Cleveland again as he usually is? Seems Cleveland can’t go anywhere without him---even taking his vacations with him to Disney World. Cleveland says John Shine is his best friend. That’s an understatement.

In the locker rooms and coffee shops around the county, Cleveland, Shine and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department are the butt of jokes. Ask officers of the Glens Falls Police Department---especially the dispatchers---and members of the New York State Police how they honestly feel about Cleveland and his dictatorship.

How appropriate that Cleveland has his office decorated with a framed poster of Abraham Lincoln. It was Lincoln who said that “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar”----not even Larry Cleveland.

The fast talking Cleveland reportedly angered New York Gov. Pataki during a news conference on the Ethan Allen tragedy, as he angers lots of people by his “control” issues. One of the most accurate statements in the TU article was that Cleveland “micromanages his people, allowing them little independence”. The reason that he won’t take a vacation is because he’d have to give up control and someone might uncover some of his secrets while he’s gone. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/113005PerspectivesLosingSteam.html

In commenting about Fred Lamy’s departure as sheriff to become one of the three commissioners on the state Commission of Corrections, Cleveland said he was “stunned”. Give us a break, Cleveland, you were just salivating til you could push Lamy out the door so you could be 001. Insiders know Cleveland had controlled the sheriff’s department----and Lamy----for years because Lamy wasn’t educated enough. Lamy covered for Cleveland for years and likewise---and covered for a lot of political cronies---like Lake George Mayor Robert Blais and alleged wrongdoing involving department members like Lt. Robert A. Smith, now the so-called supervisor of the Marine Division.

Once Lamy became a commissioner of corrections, it didn’t take long for the $24 million new jail and new public safety building to follow---all controlled by Cleveland at the expense of the taxpayer.

Cleveland was quoted in the TU article as being critical of Kate Hogan’s fundraising campaign last year when she was unopposed for reelection. “You would never see me doing that” Cleveland says and likewise we doubt Kate Hogan would ever do what the state Comptroller’s office found that Cleveland had done in misusing the monies from the inmate telephone commissions to furnish his office without obtaining the proper approvals. But that’s the way Cleveland is, he doesn’t think he has to be answerable to anyone.

Mr. Fastidious. So how does he explain the state comptroller’s audit that says accountability is lacking over cash balances in the civil office, including bail money, and fails to comply with county budgetary accounting and purchasing policies in the corrections division. And how about that $165,000 of telephone commissions from the county jail Mr. Pernickety used to furnish his new office without approval from the board of supervisors? And what did he do with the furnishings from his old office? Guess the investigative division of the state comptroller’s office might find out.

What happened to Mr. Exactly Right in his handling of those records from the corrections division?

So, with Cleveland and his buds claiming that he’s so fastidious and “exactly right”, then how does he explain the falsifications in jail records involving North Country Gazette publisher June Maxam? He claims that after the disgruntled Chestertown couple who have harassed Maxam for years stormed his office demanding that Maxam be incarcerated because she had a sign on her property they didn’t like, he “discovered”, albeit incorrectly, she hadn’t finished a sentence from 2000. If he’s so exact, how could he ever have made just a “clerical error”. It’s more like felony offering of false written instruments for filing.

Mr. Fastidious. He couldn’t even get the name of Ethan Allen’s owner correct in his own report. Should Cleveland be arrested for filing a false written report because he had a typographical error, referring to James Quirk as James Quick? Cleveland is so fastidious---how come he didn’t catch that one? (page 18 of Sheriff’s Report of Ethan Allen investigation) How come Cleveland and Shine didn’t sign their reports? http://005a7dc.netsolhost.com/Ethan%20Allen/Warren%20Sheriff%20Report/10-2-2005%20Ethan%20Allen%20Accident%20vol.%201/10-5-2005%20Supplemental%20Reports.pdf

There is evidence of a cover-up in the Ethan Allen case and even more clear and convincing evidence of a cover-up in the eight-year-old case of the North Country Gazette publisher, a longtime critic of Cleveland, Lamy and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department and whose criticism and exercise of Freedom of the Press, Speech and Expression got her arrested over and over by Cleveland, all charges which have now been dismissed except two and those, procured by fraud, are getting closer to dismissal, especially with Cleveland’s current alleged fraudulent actions.

Cleveland knew from the getgo that he had no intention of bringing criminal charges against Ethan Allen boat captain Richard Paris or the owners of Shoreline Cruises. It was a predetermined conclusion from the very beginning as many have charged.

Mr. Fastidious. “Choosy, critical, dainty, difficult, discriminating, finical, finicky, fussy, hypercritical, meticulous, over-nice, particular, pernickety, picky, precise, punctilious, querulous, squeamish” according to Webster’s Thesaurus.

Mr. Fastidious. How could Cleveland’s records in the case of the publisher ever be so wrong and convoluted? How could Cleveland “forget” to include three court orders in his records? That’s all the more basis to bring charges of falsified evidence and felony charges of offering for filing false written instruments with the court with the intent to defraud the state and cause a wrongful incarceration of the publisher.

Intentionally, knowingly----the same elements and criminal standard as in finding criminal negligence in the Ethan Allen boating accident—that’s the criminal standard for false instruments as it is for falsifying evidence.

There goes Cleveland’s defense that a clerical error caused him to attempt to defraud the state and cause serious harm and prejudice to the publisher. When his first documents submitted to Warren County Court judge John Hall were shown to be fraudulent, then Cleveland came back with a sworn affidavit which included an allegedly false computerized booking slip. Allegedly? No alleged about it. It was false. First off, according to corrections officers, bookings weren’t computerized until last spring---two years after the booking. The document he produced contained the wrong charge, the wrong court, the wrong sentence and a myriad of other false and incorrect information. How could someone as fastidious as Cleveland now claim he made an unintentional clerical error?

Don’t forget---that’s the crux of the whole issue. After Cleveland refused to allow the publisher to file a harassment complaint against his campaign contributor and supporter Eleanor Lambert, when the publisher filed her complaint directly with the court, Cleveland himself signed a felony complaint against the publisher, claiming the complaint was false because there were unintentional typographical errors. And then he, the special prosecutor and court refused to allow the publisher to make amendments as allowed by law. The complaint filed by Cleveland never stated what he claimed was false about the publisher’s complaint. Wrongly convicted, wrongly incarcerated previously and now Cleveland is trying for another false incarceration based on falsified evidence, only now instead of involving Saratoga County Court Judge Jerry Scarano, husband of Saratoga’s Republican leader Jennifer Scarano, he’s teamed up with John Hall.

In Troup, Texas, the police chief is free on $500,000 bond after being charged with tampering with and falsifying evidence. The FBI investigated over eight weeks and shut down the department. It’s long overdue in Warren County. So who’s pulling the strings in Warren County and stopping investigations of Cleveland? Has he intimidated that far? Or is Lamy running interference at the state level? The state Commission of Investigation has long turned its head to ANY complaint, no matter how well documented, against the Warren County Sheriff’s Department.

On Feb. 10, the publisher submitted an application to Judge John Hall, returnable Feb. 13, for a subpoena duces tecum which would have ordered Cleveland to produce certain documents required to be filed with the state which would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cleveland is trying to perpetrate a fraud on the court, the state and the publisher. To date, now three weeks past, Hall has refused to sign the subpoena. WHY?????????

And, although the court attorney allegedly indicated privately more than 10 days ago the draft decision and order had been prepared for Hall’s signature, in favor of the publisher, Hall hasn’t signed it which would dismiss Cleveland’s claim. WHY?????? Is he afraid of retaliation from Cleveland? And just what’s the story on the judge’s sister and drugs?

It’s the constitutional mandate of a judge to seek the truth, to engage in the fair administration of justice---not to assist the sheriff and others in a cover-up. The Code of Judicial Conduct states that a judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others, nor shall a judge convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence a judge.

But yet that’s exactly what John Hall has done. By his repeated ex parte communications with Cleveland, by allowing offensive attorney Kurt Mausert to intercede in related matters without standing causing an unreasonable, prejudicial delay for nearly a year gave the appearance that the Lamberts, Cleveland and Mausert controlled Hall, pulled his strings, manipulated and influenced him. And its likely they did and continue to do so.

With Hall refusing to allow the publisher to call witnesses at the purported hearing on Feb. 8, allowing Cleveland to violate the publisher’s rights by refusing to appear in court so she could confront him as the accuser and cross-examine him, refusing to sign the subpoena ordering Cleveland to produce the pertinent records, Hall isn’t trying to learn the truth----he’s engaged in a cover-up and protection of Cleveland. Criminal charges are warranted against Cleveland and for certain, an investigation of Hall and his role is warranted.

There’s a clear and convincing cover-up in Warren County----not only in the Ethan Allen tragedy but in other matters as well.

Cleveland’s due for reelection in 2007---that is if the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI don’t get him first. 3-05-06