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QUEENSBURY---A prominent Warren County attorney has called for the resignation of Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland.
H. Wayne Judge, a principal in the Glens Falls firm Judge & Duffy which specializes in municipal affairs, says that Cleveland should resign because of his handling of the Ethan Allen boating disaster occurring on Lake George last October.
Judge’s demand comes days after Warren County district attorney Kate Hogan was forced to subpoena documents from Cleveland and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department in order to continue her office’s investigation into the boating accident.
Hogan said that she needs the documents that are in the hands of the National Transportation Safety Board in order to determine if a grand jury should be impaneled to investigate the accident for criminal conduct.
Hogan says that the day after the boat capsized and sank, killing 20 of the 47 passengers aboard, that NTSB officials, including an attorney for the federal agency, had told her that her office would have access to NTSB’s data gathered as they proceeded with their investigation.
However, she said that when she tried to obtain the documents from NTSB and Cleveland last week, she was denied access, with them citing federal statutes. Cleveland said he couldn’t give her the NTSB documents she needed and requested because he was prevented from doing so by law which prevents him from releasing the information to outside agencies or used as part of a criminal case.
Regular procedure would have been for the district attorney’s office to obtain the records from the sheriff’s office. Cleveland has control of the NTSB findings because he is a party to the investigation but Hogan and the district attorney’s office are not. NTSB regulations prohibited disclosure of the records to anyone who is not a party.
In order to gain access, Hogan was forced to serve a subpoena on the sheriff’s office and Cleveland.
After the U.S. Attorney’s office become involved with Paul Dusek, Warren County attorney once again representing Cleveland at the taxpayer’s expense, access to the needed data was given to Hogan and the DA’s office. Hogan said the subpoena was the last resort.
Cleveland had issued a three volume, 530-page report in early February, determining that no criminal charges would be brought by his department in the accident. The report contained statements from victims and witnesses, including boat captain Richard Paris, a retired state trooper and 20-year friend of Cleveland’s.
The report can be found at www.traverselegal.com.
The NTSB is continuing its investigation of the boating accident, trying to determine the cause. looking at mechanical and structural factors as well as human factors.
In a letter to the editor of The Post-Star, published Saturday, Judge wrote that ‘We have just been treated to the latest serving of double-talk from the Warren County sheriff, Larry Cleveland”.
Judge is a former partner in the Republican entrenched law firm of Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart and Rhodes, founded by Richard Bartlett, virtually the patriarch of the Warren County Republican Party. Bartlett, a former Assemblyman and former dean of the Albany Law School was also the first chief administrative judge of the State of New York.
Amy Bartlett, assistant Warren County attorney in Dusek’s office, is Bartlett’s daughter.
Judge’s letter is the first official sign that Cleveland’s political future may be in jeopardy. His current term expires next December and there have been rumblings that Republican party leaders have told Cleveland that they will not endorse him for another term.
“At the start of his investigation, he claimed to be working with the National Transportation Safety Board in an effort to make a thorough investigation of the Ethan Allen tragedy”, Judge wrote about Cleveland. “He even sent one of his assistants to Washington, D.C., at taxpayers’ expense to share in the information gathered by the NTSB. Now he claims that he used none of that information in his “criminal investigation”, because he was prevented from doing do by federal law. Why then, did the NTSB name the sheriff’s office as an interested party in its investigation? Why did they send the sheriff any preliminary information at all if they did not want him to share it with the district attorney? We paid the country attorney to support this non-sensical position in court? Was there no conflict of interest?
“Warren County law enforcement became a national laughingstock when no Breathalyzer test was administered to the captain of the boat at the time of the incident where 20 people had just lost their lives. Sheriff Larry Cleveland had the captain “blow in my face” instead. He said there was no “probable cause” to compel the test, but he did not ask the captain if he would agree to voluntarily take the test until days later. Then our sheriff publicly criticized the testing procedures used by the NTSB as not up to the standard of local law enforcement. We all assumed he was referring to the “blow in my face” testing that he had performed. How many of The Post-Star’s DWI convicts got the “blow in my face” test.
“Sheriff Cleveland should resign”.
The 38-foot glass enclosed Ethan Allen, owned by Shoreline Cruises Inc. of Lake George, was hosting a group of senior citizens from Michigan on an hour-long fall foliage tour along the Lake George shoreline on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 2. It was a warm, sunny day when the boat capsized and sank, killing 20 of the 47 passengers on board.
The average age of the 20 persons killed, some infirm, was 76.
State officials suspended the operating license of the boat's captain and sole crew member, Paris, 74. The licenses of all boats owned and operated by Shoreline were been suspended after it was determined that the Ethan Allen was in violation of state law because it lacked the second crew member as required on boats with 21 to 48 passengers.
Cleveland reportedly stated at a televised news conference that Paris is a recovering alcoholic who "takes an occasional drink". Paris is a retired state trooper, well-known to Cleveland but Cleveland says there was no favoritism exercised in his decision not to test Paris after the accident.
Police had interviewed Paris almost immediately after the accident and he went to the offices of the Warren County Sheriff's Department two days later to be interviewed by NTSB investigators. According to reports, Paris told investigators that he was trying to steer the boat out of the way of a wave when it flipped. However, there are conflicting reports of what occurred just prior to the boat flipping over and at least one witness says there was no wake, that the lake was calm. (Paris’ statement is below)
Other witnesses claim that a wake from another larger tour boat, the Mohican owned by the Lake George Steamboat Company may have been a factor. Bill Dow, the owner, says that the Mohican was over three miles away at the time of the accident. The captain of the Mohican says the boat was a mile away.
"I know Dick for who he is, he's been on the lake for over 20 years", Cleveland said. "I said to him, Dick, I need to make sure your' not under the influence, blow in my face and he did in fact blow in my face and there was no indication. If Dick Paris had been intoxicated when I went to him, he would have been arrested by me personally right there on the scene". Cleveland, who says he talked with Paris 30 to 40 minutes after the accident, says under state law he must have reasonable cause to demand such testing. Federal law mandates such tests if an accident on federally regulated waterway.
However, state law says that in any boating accident involving death or injury, the captain must be asked to voluntarily submit to testing. Cleveland failed to do so.
Paris voluntarily submitted a blood specimen and urine sample on request of the NTSB, two full days after the accident.
Virtually from the minute that he was informed of the accident, Cleveland had pre-determined that no criminal charges would be filed, saying that "based on everything I know, I can't believe anything will come back". The sheriff said that "so far, there is nothing to indicate that there is any kind of a criminal case here".
As a result of Cleveland’s failure to test Paris, State Sent. Betty Little (R,C,I-Queensbury) sponsored legislation that would require chemical blood tests for operators of public vessels to determine if alcohol or drugs are a factor in accidents in which serious injury, death or disappearance occurs. Gov. George Pataki has endorsed the bill.
The NTSB report indicated that Paris’ urine tested positive for alcohol consumption within 46 hours after the accident, indicating that he had consumed alcohol within the 80 hours previous to the testing.
Cleveland had said that Paris had told NTSB that he hadn't imbibed alcohol since the previous Thursday, about 80 hours before the accident but in a press release issued by NTSB, the agency said that Paris had told them he had ingested alcohol the night before the accident.
Cleveland has said he can't explain the conflict.
There have been numerous lawsuits filed in relation to the accident and controversy swirls about whether Shoreline had any insurance coverage. Gov. Pataki has proposed new legislation that would require all commercial vessels including such tour boats as the Ethan Allen to obtain marine liability insurance coverage.
The son-in-law of two of the accident victims has called for a boycott of the Lake George area and Warren County because of what he says is a cover-up by Cleveland the sheriff’s department.
And he says that he’s going to continue the boycott and urge others to follow suit “until someone goes to jail or the sheriff…..(is) voted out of office”.
Odds are, with political and business leaders given the option of Cleveland or tourism, it’ll be Cleveland who goes.
For a review of The North Country Gazette’s extensive continuing coverage of the Ethan Allen boating tragedy and Cleveland’s precarious political and professional future, visit the sitemap at www.northcountrygazette.org and enter a search for Ethan Allen, Lake George boating accident and/or Larry Cleveland. 4-1-06
Statement of Richard Paris, Captain of the Ethan Allen
The following statement was given by Richard Paris, captain of the Ethan Allen, the the Warren County Sheriff’s Department on the day of the tour boat capsized, Oct. 2, 2005 but despite the deaths of 20 people, Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland determined that there was no probable cause to ask Paris to submit to a alcohol and drug testing.
I am employed by Shoreline Cruises Inc. as a master pilot. I have about 23 years experience piloting boats. On Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005, I was working 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. shift. At 10:30 a.m., I was the pilot of Ethan Allen cruise ship. We run one hour tours to Green Harbor and Plum Point and then down the east side of the lake.
I ran 10:30-11:30 run. Then approximately 11:30-12:30 run. 12:30-1:00 p.m. was lunch. I then did a 1:00-2:00 p.m. run.
At 2:30 p.m., I took on a tour group from a bus. All of the people appeared to be senior citizens. There were a total of 46 passengers on the boat and myself. I departed at approximately 2:40 p.m. I went north, up the west side of the lake, almost at Cramer Point. I started to swing the bow of the boat to the right and immediately encountered strong waves from the wake. They were produced by the Mohican, that was going northbound.
As soon as the boat encountered the first wave, the wave caught the boat on right side (starboard side) of the boat. The wave hit the boat more toward the stern. The entire boat then tipped to the left at first, kept right on going. The boat tipped completely upside down. I got out and hung onto the boat. It happened so quickly, no (sic) of the passengers had the opportunity to put on life preservers. People were screaming and yelling for help after the boat tipped over. There were people trapped under the boat. Some were able to get out through the open windows. I saw people swimming up from under the water and grabbing a hold of the boat. Numerous civilian boats arrived and they were throwing life preservers out to keep the people in the water. I was holding onto the boat for about 15 minutes, until I got picked up by a civilian boat. I saw a good share of the people who were on the boat come up out of the water and hold onto the boat. Unfortunately, some of the people couldn't hang on long enough. Some were holding life preservers and some were holding onto seats. Civillian (sic) boats continued to pick up people from the water. The police and fire department boats arrived and began to help. The first civilian boat I saw with antennas I yelled, “To get some help.'' I got picked up by the Jacobs family (I believe that is who picked me up). I got off their boat, onto Mr. Quirk's pontoon boat. I eventually spoke with the sheriff and told him what I could.
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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