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 LAKE GEORGE---Last month, a prominent Warren County attorney called for the resignation of Warren County Sheriff Larry J. Cleveland due to Cleveland's handling of the Ethan Allen boating disaster on Lake George last October in which 20 senior citizens were killed.
Now, a group which calls itself "Concerned Members of the Warren County Sheriff's Office" has issued a statement detailing allegations of nepotism, favoritism, wrongdoing and incompetence within the sheriff's department by Cleveland.
In a letter to The North Country Gazette, anonymous members of sheriff's department say that they have informed each member of the Warren County Board of Supervisors of their allegations concerning Cleveland as well as numerous media outlets and several private citizens for the "sole purpose of drawing attention to the numerous issues within the Warren County Sheriff's Office that are having an increasingly detrimental effect on the members of this organization".
"Everything listed is fact", the letter says. "No conjecture, no opinions, no sarcasm".
Last month Cleveland tangled with Warren County district attorney Kate B. Hogan when she was forced to subpoena documents from Cleveland and the sheriff's department in order to continue her office's investigation into the boating accident.
Hogan said that when she tried to obtain the documents from the National Transportation Safety Board and Cleveland, she was denied access with them citing federal statutes.
After the U.S. Attorney's office became involved, Cleveland was forced to give the district attorney access to the needed data.
Cleveland has also come under fire for his failure to test the captain of the Ethan Allen, Richard Paris, for drugs and alcohol following the accident, saying that he had had Paris "blow in his face" and on that basis, he had determined that Paris was not under the influence.
After Cleveland issued a 530-page report of his version of an investigation of the boating accident, concluding that no criminal charges were warranted, the son-in-law of an elderly Michigan couple who died when the tour boat capsized, announced he was staging a boycott of the Lake George area and Warren County because of what he considers is a cover up by Cleveland and the sheriff's department in their failure to bring charges against Paris or the boat's owner, Shoreline Cruises Inc. of Lake George. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/030206LGBoycott.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/041806SeekingJustice.html
Ronald Zdrojewski of Redmond, Mich., says that while his boycott isn't aimed to hurt anyone economically, 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".
Gov. George Pataki and Cleveland also reportedly tangled during a news conference about the Ethan Allen when Cleveland refused to yield the microphone to the Governor. Sheriff Cleveland's Power Play Losing Steam
According to informed sources, the Warren County Republican Committee has already informed Cleveland that they will not be endorsing him for reelection in 2007. His current four year term expires Dec. 31, 2007.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/040106ByeByeLarry.html
A state audit of the civil and corrections divisions of the sheriff's department, released last fall, found that Cleveland had improperly used nearly $165,000 of telephone commissions from the county jail's pay phones for inmates to furnish his own office in the new $24 million Public Safety Building without formal approval by the board of supervisors, in non-conformance with the county's adopted budgeted, purchasing and accounting procedures. http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/2005/counties/warren.htm
Cleveland has also obligated Warren County to a significant federal civil rights suit in the matter of the North Country publisher who was criminally charged by Cleveland as part of his own personal vendetta against the publisher, charges and convictions which have been dismissed for multiple violations of constitutional rights. Additionally, Cleveland failed in his attempt to jail the publisher earlier this year, based on falsified documents. A formal complaint against Cleveland has been filed by the publisher with the district attorney's office as well as the Public Integrity Office of the state Attorney General's office.
The officers' letter containing the allegations follows:
To whom it may concern:
"The general public at large and the Warren County Board of Supervisors in particular may be under the mistaken impression that the Sheriff's Office is operating effectively and efficiently. That is not the case. As members of the Warren County Sheriff's Office, we need to make you aware of the on-going pattern of nepotism, favoritism and incompetence regularly being carried out by Sheriff Larry J. Cleveland.
Over the past several years, at the hands of Sheriff Cleveland, department members have witnessed a dramatic increase in willful violations of department policies, collective bargaining agreements and most recently the laws of New York State. Some of the most flagrant (alleged) violations are detailed below:
In April 2005, patrol officer Josh Lopez was involved in an off-duty motorcycle accident. Lope was injured and was unable to work as a uniformed patrol officer for several months following this accident. Officer Lopez, at the time of his injury, had accumulated approximately 10 days of sick time leave. Officer Lopez stayed on the County payroll receiving full pay and benefits until the end of August 2005. Sheriff Cleveland (allegedly) committed a larceny of public funds by granting full pay to an officer after his accrued time had been used. When later confronted about the issue, Sheriff Cleveland reportedly made Officer Lopez ineligible to receive any holiday leave or vacation benefits for the foreseeable future. "Fronting" leave time has allegedly not been done in the past and has been rejected as an option by the Sheriff when requested by other members. Officer Lopez's father is a very active member of the county Republican Party.
By contract, also in August 2005, Patrol Officer Courtney House requested a light-duty assignment due to pregnancy. Patrol Officer Howse was not afforded the same no-duty pay as Lopez, but was instead taken off of the county payroll. Prior to Officer Howse becoming pregnant, her husband, Officer John Howse spoke with Sheriff Cleveland and he was assured that if she became pregnant he would have "plenty of work for her to do".
In the fall of 2005, Officer Jason Martindale was disciplined by Lieutenant Robert Smith for handling an incident without creating an incident number for it. There was no claim that he handled it incorrectly or unprofessionally, only that he should have reported it because it involved the girlfriend of another department member. At a hearing Officer Martindale agreed to receive a letter of reprimand in his file to end the discipline in this matter. At the end of the hearing, Lieutenant Smith informed Martindale that he was being transferred to the Chester Station. Lt. Smith stated that the transfer was also discipline. The union is suing the county over the transfer. A decision has yet to be rendered in this case.
Also in the fall of 2005, a piece of municipal equipment, known as York rake, owned by the North Warren School was reported missing from the Chester Municipal Center. Sgt. Hill sent an officer that was assigned to the Chester Station to take a report. Lieutenant Smith, while off-duty, had allegedly removed it and used it for his personal property and possibly for profit. When Lt. Smith became aware of the investigation, the rake was returned. No incident was created and no further actions were taken. Lt. Smith allegedly committed the crimes of larceny and official misconduct and nothing happened. Officer Martindale made a judgment error and was disciplined without due process by being transferred to another station. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/123105EthanAllenDWI.html
The Ethan Allen Tragedy. There are some serious questions about how this matter was investigated. First, Sheriff Cleveland has spent more than 20 years as an administrator, not a police officer. He has not made a DWI or BWI arrest in years and should have had someone more experienced in marine law enforcement interviewing the Captain. Sgt. Mike Webster is the department's most experienced boat operator on Lake George but rather than handling the accident scene and participating in the investigation, he was ordered by Cleveland to give several dignitaries "tours" of the accident site. Sgt. Webster's passengers included Congressman Sweeney, State Senator Little, State Assemblywoman Sayward, County Supervisor Caimano and County Chairman William Thomas. What aid did these people render at a possible crime scene? All they did was slow the response of emergency personnel. Allowing certain privileged people unnecessary access to a potential crime scene, simply to appease his political allies, violates all known principle of criminal investigations and demonstrates tremendous contempt for the investigative process.
Sheriff Cleveland said that the navigation law does not allow for the captain of the boat to be ordered to take a chemical test for alcohol or drugs. Article 49 B (2) of the New York State Marine and Navigation Law gives officers the lawful authority to obtain a breath test sample from any person operating a vessel which is involved in an accident.
Even if the Sheriff believed he did not have the authority to require a sobriety test, why didn't he ask Mr. Paris if he would voluntarily submit to a test so that it could not be brought up later as a possible cause of the accident? "He blew in my face" is not an accepted test for intoxication.
Shortly after the Ethan Allen disaster, a Saratoga County deputy sheriff struck and killed a pedestrian in Saratoga Springs. That officer went directly to the hospital and immediately consented to a blood test. Although one person died, at least there is no doubt that alcohol did not play a role.
Sheriff Cleveland's unwillingness to permit qualified people to handle the Ethan Allen investigation caused a great of embarrassment to the members of this organization, particularly after it was determined that Captain Dick Paris lied to authorities regarding his alcohol consumption in the hours prior to the tragedy.
Minimum staffing is another concern. While we have more uniformed employees that we can ever remember, minimum staffing was just cut on each and every shift. The Sheriff leads everyone to believe that staffing is beefed up, but that is not true. The investigation division has also been gutted over the past couple of years by Sheriff Cleveland. He has driven Investigators (Ed) Litwa, (Robert) Snyder and (William) VanNess into retirement as well as Sgt. (Robert) Swan. Investigator Tremblay went back into uniform rather than put up with the ongoing incompetence and day-to-day interference of department leadership. Micro-managing is one thing, obsessive interference in every single aspect of day-to-day operations is quite another.
Other incidents include:
--Cleveland attempted to manipulate New York State Tax Law to the detriment of his employees and contrary to the professional opinion of the County Treasurer
--The Sheriff's office received an abysmal audit from the State of New York wherein it was determined that the Sheriff had improperly allocated funds to furnish his office
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/101205ClevelandWarrenCo.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/010106PoliceFurnishings.html
--Cleveland has sexually harassed male employees and blatantly discriminated against female employees
--Cleveland has purposefully stalled the finalization of the collective bargaining agreement with the PBA by deliberately changing contract language and causing further necessary delays
There are numerous other incidents we could include, but it would take far too long to list item after item.
We suggest that you talk to some of the current employees, corrections and patrol officer, as well as retirees from both divisions to get a real picture of what is going on. We know that several of the retirees would love to tell why they actually left. If the Sheriff's Committee is committed to public safety, they will offer anonymity to department members in order to properly investigate the goings-on within the Warren County Sheriff's Office. Retribution under Sheriff Cleveland comes severely. In his mind, he can do whatever he wants to do. No one seems to question his actions and he takes full advantage of this. Rocking the boat is unthinkable and anyone foolish enough to do so will suffer the consequences.
With the exception of the very small number of people who understand that being Sheriff Cleveland's friend and that being a good and proper "Yes Man" is the only way to promotion and prosperity within the agency, the overwhelming majority of the membership agrees one hundred percent with the content of this message. We have chosen to address this situation now to avoid the Sheriff's predictable false claims of "dirty politics" during an election year.
The lawsuits against the County and the Sheriff will undoubtedly continue as the Sheriff continues to violate our rights under the collective bargaining agreement and the New York State Civil Service law. Public safety should not have to suffer. Enough is enough".
The North Country Gazette is interested in receiving additional information concerning these allegations from retired or current members of the Warren County Sheriff's Department. All identities will be kept confidential. Anyone with information may contact news@northcountrygazette.org to arrange for an interview or to provide factual information which can be substantiated.
5-1-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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