Originally Posted - January 30, 2007

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"Your Hometown Newspaper Since 1904"

That's what the Glens Falls Post-Star bills itself.

And if your hometown is Saratoga Springs, you might get some news.

Otherwise, forget it.

Generally speaking, it's what the Post-Star DOESN'T tell you that you should know, especially what's happening in Warren County politics and law enforcement.

The daily newspaper which supposedly covers the Adirondack region has in past years focused more on Saratoga County and Saratoga Springs, disregarding Warren County news, maybe because county leaders told them to do so.

After all, the employer of the chairman of the Warren County Republican Committee just paid for a full-page ad in The Post-Star. Somehow we wouldn't feel too encouraged that we're going to get a real objective report on county politics.

If it's bad news about the Warren County Sheriff's Department and would tarnish the image of Sheriff Larry Cleveland, little will be seen about the issue in the pages of The Post-Star, Cleveland's unofficial public relations newsletter. In fact, when the state Comptroller's office issued a highly critical audit of the fiscal operations of the sheriff's department and took Cleveland to task for his improper handling of civil division monies including bail money and $165,000 commissions from inmate telephone calls to furnish his new office without having obtained authorization from the board of supervisors, The Post-Star failed to report on the findings of the audit.

Can't print any negativity about the sheriff, you know.

Last week, The Post-Star told readers about the 25-year-old corrections officer of the sheriff's department who was arrested over in Washington County for allegedly driving while intoxicated and speeding while off-duty although it didn't say if Matthew Harrington of Lake George was on his way to or from work.

What The Post-Star hasn't reported is the incident within the Warren County Jail involving a female corrections officers who allegedly took it upon herself to dispense Tylenol with codeine, a narcotic analgesic, to an inmate. But, according to reliable sources, that wasn't all. She was also dispensing lap dances to the male inmates.

Word is that she's been suspended.

Suspended? Why haven't criminal charges been lodged and why hasn't The Post-Star reported this one?

The Post-Star had a field day doing PR for Cleveland when he was on his march to terminate patrol officer Jeff Clarke for firing at a fleeing vehicle. Allegedly giving narcotic drugs to inmates could be a federal offense judging from the arrests and prosecutions of other corrections officers who got caught.

Over in Montgomery County, corrections officers were arrested for giving marijuana to inmates. Codeine, in our opinion, should warrant an arrest and termination too.

We're well aware it's an election year and Don Lehman and buds will do whatever possible to insulate Cleveland from bad press, but the public has a right to know what's going on in the sheriff's department that's being funded by more than $12 million of tax dollars, all under the dictatorial control of Sheriff Larry Cleveland.

Whoops, did we say SHERIFF Larry Cleveland? That could be debatable.

One would expect that the person who claims to be the sheriff of the county would comply with the state Constitution and state statutes, at least be legally in office.

However, according to the Warren County Clerk's office, it appears that Cleveland isn't legally in office and is what's known under Executive Law 63 as an usurper in office who could be removed by the Attorney General upon a citizen's action. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/nycodes/c39/a8.html

This issue arose before in 2003 when Cleveland was sued for having failed to file his undertaking as required by law.

A look in the records at the Warren County Clerk's office indicates that Cleveland and Warren County are still thumbing their noses at the law and legally, once again, it appears that Cleveland is not legally entitled to claim the office of sheriff, perform the duties of sheriff OR collect compensation.

Larry Cleveland was first named undersheriff by former sheriff Fred Lamy in 1994 but a review of the county records indicates that Cleveland never filed his oath of office as required by state law until 2003, 10 years later!!!!

That's like operating an unregistered vehicle for 10 years without insurance.

According to Public Officers Law, all public officers, elected and appointed, must take AND file their oath of office in the proper repository within 30 days after the commencement of their term or appointment.

If they don't do so, they automatically vacate the office. No judicial proceeding is necessary. By not filing their oath, they have in essence refused to serve. They can't legally perform the duties of their office as they have no legal authority, nor can they be paid.

Some public officers, including a sheriff, must also file what is known an undertaking or a bond. This is particularly important as without insurance coverage and without having filed his oath, Cleveland is personally liable for any legal actions brought against him and the department.

What is rather humorous in the case of Cleveland who was masquerading as undersheriff for some five years while not legally in office, is that he filed his oath and undertaking as undersheriff in 2003-----although he hadn't held the title of undersheriff for nearly five years!!! The courts have been very specific is that there can be no retroactive filings, nunc pro tunc filings---now for then---even if your name is Larry Cleveland!

Cleveland had been appointed sheriff about June 1, 1999, and according to the county clerk's office, filed his oath with that office within 30 days of the notice of the appointment. However, according to the county clerk, he did not file his official undertaking as required and on information as of this date, still has not done so. Prior to this time, from approximately 1994 to May 31, 1999, Cleveland claimed the appointed position of undersheriff but according to the county clerk, Cleveland had never filed either his oath of office or his undertaking in the office as required by statute and as a matter of law, had vacated the position of undersheriff on or about Feb. 1, 1994. He never lawfully held that position, having vacated the office ipso facto.

The law is very specific. An officer's oath must be filed within 30 days of the beginning of EVERY term as well as his undertaking if required.

According to a statement issued earlier this month by Pamela Vogel, Warren County Clerk, Cleveland failed to file his undertaking for the term beginning Jan. 1, 2000 as well as Jan. 1, 2004. Although records indicate that a Warren County blanket bond was filed in the clerk's office on June 12, 2003, after the county was sued, such filing for Cleveland would be invalid as there can be no retroactive filings and he failed to file any bond for his current term which began Jan. 1, 2004.

Not only does that open a Pandora's box of legal liability for Cleveland but by law, indicates that he cannot legally claim the title of sheriff, perform the duties of sheriff or collect compensation.

Cleveland failed to comply with the law even after the county and Cleveland himself were sued on the same issue in 2003. He must have felt some validity to the suit as he quickly ran, albeit too late, to file.

The clerk's records indicate that Lamy, the former sheriff, had filed both his bond and oath.

The issue of Cleveland failure to file a bond and his vacating the office of sheriff due to his failure to file both a bond and his oath is certain to become an issue in current federal claims against him and the county.

By failing to file the required oath he has in essence refused to serve from 1994 to date. Can you imagine what the county's and state's position would be if you drove for 10 years without a driver's license and without insurance? That is in essence what Cleveland did, performed duties, including causing false arrests, malicious prosecutions and unlawful imprisonments of individuals, for over 12 years without a license and without having filed his insurance as required by the state Constitution.

A review of the minutes of the Sheriff's and Communications Committee of the Warren County Board of Supervisors has been quite revealing. Of course, The Post-Star hasn't reported most of this either.

Seems that Cleveland had one of his infamous temper tantrums before the committee in November after the supervisors told him that he wasn't getting the 12 new patrol officers he wanted.

Cleveland argued that they would be funded by revenue sources outside of tax dollars but the supervisors argued that there was a hiring freeze on and it wouldn't be fair for Cleveland to be able to hire and no other department.

He also became miffed with William VanNess, a retired investigator with the sheriff's department, now Queensbury-at-large supervisor and committee member, blocked Cleveland's attempt to give one of his favorites, Jamie LaFarr, a promotion from sergeant to lieutenant and most significantly, a pay raise of nearly $10,000.

LaFarr is currently a sergeant and heads the investigative division although many questions have been raised as regarding his last promotion and how he was chosen to head the department over more experienced and senior officers.

According to reliable sources, prior to being promoted to the investigative division by Cleveland, while on road patrol, LaFarr made few, if any, criminal arrests, dealing primarily with vehicle and traffic citations and an occasional arrest for driving without a license.

Cleveland, who has been heard to boast that he can get whatever he wants from the Board of Supervisors, found that not to be the case when he waltzed into the committee meeting in November, requesting two upgrades in staff which required increases in salary.

The first he wanted was to promote a patrol officer to a patrol sergeant with a salary increase of $6,000, and the second was the promotion of an investigative sergeant (LaFarr) to an investigative lieutenant including a salary increase of $9,850. He already has nine sergeants in the patrol division. Cleveland said that he anticipated revenue of $105,000 for proposed contractual services with the Village of Lake George for added patrol services, and with the Department of Social Services. Cleveland has named yet another one of his favorite officers, Joseph Affinito, to the newly created position of social services investigator to replace Lillian Hayes who retired from the Social Services Department. Ms. Hayes had had no authority to make arrests.

Hague supervisor Daniel Belden said it was unfair to "appease" Cleveland's request when all requests for additional staff had been removed from the tentative 2007 budget and it had been clearly stated that there would be no new employees hired for 2007.

He added that if an allowance were made for the Sheriff's Department, all other departments would be seeking the same.

This prompted one of Cleveland's famous "hissy fits" and he got caught in a lie.

Cleveland argued that "his" department differed from all others because the positions he was seeking would be funded by revenue generated from outside sources. In addition, he claimed that he had met with Nicholas Caimano, budget officer, and board chairman William Thomas during the previous week to discuss the matter. Cleveland claimed that Caimano had been in favor of his request, advising that a special meeting be called to address it.

But Queensbury Supervisor Dan Stec, nephew of county attorney Paul Dusek, revealed that Cleveland was lying. Stec said that contrary to Cleveland's statement, he had spoken with Caimano more recently and was advised that Caimano did not feel the request should be approved as it would be a bad precedent to set. Stec added that although he had attempted to persuade Caimano by reminding him that the cost of the positions would be offset by the revenues received, he was unable to change his opinion.

Stec's comments caught Cleveland in yet another of his frequent lies and he launched into a blame attack, trying to maintain it was Caimano who had misled him, not that he had tried to mislead the committee.

Cleveland then launched into yet another of his well-known childish behaviors, also known as extortion and threats, saying that if the committee didn't approve his request he wouldn't be willing to supervise the DSS Investigator position as he had previously agreed.

He whined that it was unfair to deny his requests for manpower to fulfill those obligations, but still expect the services to be provided by his "already limited staff".

Joan Parsons, commissioner of administrative and fiscal services, said that if Sheriff Cleveland declined to supervise the program, the SS investigator position would be remanded to the supervision of Robert Phelps, DSS commissioner.

Horicon Supervisor Ralph Bentley added that would defeat the purpose of the position because under Phelps' supervision the investigator would not have the authority to make arrests and would still have to gain the assistance of Cleveland for this result, and that's just what Cleveland likes---he loves the control. He wants it all.

VanNess noted that the DSS Investigator position was fully funded by New York State and all related costs would be reimbursed. He stated that if Cleveland declined to supervise the position, they would have no other option than to transfer supervisory responsibilities to Phelps, who would contact the Sheriff's Department each time an arrest was required.

VanNess stated that although he did not have a problem with the majority of Cleveland's request, he did take issue with the upgrade of the investigative sergeant to investigative lieutenant. He apprised the committee that the investigative division had been run for the past nine years with a sergeant and he did not see the need for a change.

LaFarr had been elevated to sergeant following the retirement of Robert Swan who later became a part-time investigator with the district attorney's office. According to the rumor mills, if State Police investigator Bud York declares his candidacy for sheriff against Cleveland once his retirement his finalized from the State Police, that Swan is likely to become the next undersheriff if York is elected.

Ultimately the committee reached a compromise with Cleveland after his tantrum, approving his amended request to hire two patrol officers, one in January and one in July, and to upgrade a patrol officer to sergeant. LaFarr's $10,000 promotion was left sitting on the table.

The inaccuracy of The Post-Star was once again highlighted when discussion ensued between committee members last fall about an article printed in The Post-Star which had indicated, incorrectly according to Cleveland, that some employees were receiving 73% in fringe benefits. Committee members said there must have been a "miscommunication with the writer of the article". Cleveland "clarified for the committee the fringe benefit amount was approximately 30%, if you want to believe that one.

The high costs of prisoner phone calls and the ripoff of families and friends who must pay excessive rates in order to maintain communications with their loved ones, Cleveland says that he gets $60,000 annually from those calls. He said that that the county gets 45% of the income from collect phone calls made by the inmate.

Minutes from committee meetings during the budget process indicate that Cleveland even wanted to take over the scale detail of weighing commercial vehicles now conducted by the State Police.

Cleveland had tried to budget a set of commercial vehicle scales and once again, the supervisors derailed that scheme. VanNess had asked if the county would receive the fines derived from the use of the equipment. Cleveland said they could if the "correct steps" were taken, saying that currently tickets for overweight commercial vehicles were paid to the state. He wanted a Local Law adopted assigning county law numbers to those violations which most importantly would give him yet another chink in his power chain.

Both Hague supervisor Belden and Thurman Supervisor John Haskell were opposed to Cleveland and his rangers ticketing commercial vehicles for weight, stating that the state police were already ticketing for those violations. The committee voted to have Cleveland remove the cost of the scales from his budget.

Believe it or not, Cleveland has never been held accountable to the sheriff's committee, even though he controls over $12 million of the county's money. It was the consensus of the sheriff's committee in November that Cleveland should provide a budget performance report on a quarterly basis in April, July and October. Those reports will be subject to public review.

Reports from reliable sources have been trickling in that Cleveland is sending patrol officers and a patrol vehicle outside of the county in order to execute warrants for such charges as open container violations and bad checks. The thing is, under Criminal Procedure Law, an arrest warrant issued by a city, town or village court may only be executed in the county of issuance or in any adjoining county unless the local criminal court in the county in which the arrest is to be made issues a written endorsement on the warrant so when endorsed, the warrant is deemed the process of the endorsing court as well as that of the issuing court.

For instance, if Lake George town court has issued a warrant for a violation of the town's open container ordinance and the person is known to be in Clinton County, Cleveland would have no jurisdiction to send officers into Clinton County to execute that arrest UNLESS a Clinton County court endorses the warrant.

According to informed sources, that is not being done but even more importantly, why is Cleveland using two patrol officers, a patrol vehicle and gas to travel outside of the county to execute arrest warrants for non-felonies.

Is it just to fill up the jail, to continue to try to justify the excessive costs of Cleveland's $24 million Taj Mahal?

The supervisors should ask Cleveland to itemize the jail population---how many inmates is he holding for violation arrests, how many for misdemeanors, how many on felony arrests, how many state readies-in other words, they've been sentenced to state prison but not yet transported there. Has Cleveland got the jail filled up with bad check arrests, open containers and low level misdemeanor arrests?

In September, Cleveland told the committee that he was again boarding out inmates to Washington County due to a lack of beds. He claimed that while there are 144 male beds, that he had them all filed, "primarily" with citizens of Warren County. This needs some further investigation by the supervisors.

When he made his sales pitch to the supervisors for the new jail and public safety building, he claimed it would eliminate the boarding out of inmates. Critics said then that Cleveland would fill the jail with jaywalking arrests and other offenses in order to try to justify the excessive spending and it looks as though the prophesy came true.

Cleveland tried to smooze the committee by telling them that the primary reason for the overflow had to do with the aggressive law enforcement system and violators placed in jail over the weekends by the Court system for appearances during the following week.

That practice may be questionably legal, incarcerating people for two and three days before they have an appearance in court, before they are arraigned. According to the minutes, Cleveland failed to apprise why these defendants are jailed and not simply issued appearance tickets.

Cleveland is already posturing to enlarge his empire and its time for the supervisors to play Darth Vader. Cleveland told the committee in September that within the next two years Warren County would be paying monthly again to board their inmates out to other jailing facilities---paying to board out people arrested for low level misdemeanors and even non-criminal offenses.

Geez, if the word gets out that Cleveland's offering lap dances in the jail, people will be eager to break the law to get a ringside seat for the show.
1-30-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette