Originally Posted - February 20, 2007

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The curtain is about to go up on the political season in Warren County.

Reliable sources indicate that Bud York of Warrensburg, senior investigator with the State Police's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, will officially retire Wednesday, Feb. 21 and it's likely that within the next week, he will officially announce his candidacy for Warren County Sheriff.

Political aficionados have been waiting for current sheriff Larry J. Cleveland to announce his candidacy for reelection but while there are numerous reports circulating about Cleveland testing the political waters to see what kind of support he may have, Cleveland hasn't officially announced. Perhaps he's finding that his support has seriously declined.

The York-Cleveland match will be a feisty campaign, especially with York's name recognition throughout the county. His wife, Cheryl, formerly did all the alterations of uniforms for the sheriff's department. York is a former member of the Warrensburg Board of Education, that is until the State Police forced him to give up the position, telling him that politics and police work don't mix.

While in uniform on patrol, York worked out of the Chestertown and Bolton State Police substations.

The York-Cleveland match up will likely pit the State Police against the Sheriff's Department with many veteran sheriff's officers supporting York, anxious to move Cleveland on out.

Cleveland is getting more and more albatrosses around his neck. As if the "blow in my face" method of testing for operating under the influence of alcohol and drugs wasn't embarrassing enough for Warren County in his analysis of the operator of the Ethan Allen tour boat after 20 people died when the vessel capsized, Cleveland then decided there was no criminal culpability.

But a Grand Jury negated that determination, indicting both Richard Paris, the captain; and Shoreline Cruises Inc., the owner; on a criminal charge under the Navigation Law for failing to have more than one crew member on board when the vessel sank on Oct. 2, 2005.

The sheriff's department under the reign of Cleveland has become more of a social club than a respected police agency. In fact, the Warren County Sheriff's Department is often the subject of locker room jokes in other agencies and party chatter around the county.

The relationship between Major John Shine and Cleveland is well known and is often the "butt" of jokes. Cleveland and Shine are business partners in Northway Self-Storage and go on vacations together. Where one is, the other isn't often far behind.

Cleveland's promotion of Shine to Major violated Civil Service Law but Cleveland seems to have adopted the attitude that the law, any law, isn't applicable to him. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/122606ContraryToLaw.html

That seems to include ethics law too and for sure, Vehicle and Traffic Law.

Cleveland appointed Warrensburg resident Michael Nissen to the position of civil officer last January even though both the county personnel officer and the state Civil Service examiners said that a transfer of Nissen from his position in the county Social Services Department to the sheriff's department was not possible. A year later, Nissen is still in the sheriff's civil position in violation of Civil Service Law and still has not taken or passed a civil service exam for the position.

Civil Service and merit be damned, seems to be Cleveland's motto. He appoints who he wants to positions, not who is most qualified. The operation of the sheriff's department is all based on favoritism with Cleveland's Rangers holding the supervisory positions with the highest rate of pay.

Nissen, a member of the Warren County Republican Committee, is also the son of Warrensburg town justice Richard Nissen and most interestingly, was reportedly the unauthorized male passenger in the patrol vehicle with then Patrol Officer Larry Cleveland when he drove his patrol car into the side of private passenger car in the late spring of 1985 at The Glen. Cleveland had been traveling at 140 mph prior to the crash according to the state police accident reports. This wasn't too long after he mowed the Canadian tourist pedestrian down in the Village of Lake George during a high speed chase of a motorcycle through the village, killing the woman, obligating the county taxpayers to a huge liability.

The sheriff of Warren County is responsible for the death of an innocent pedestrian. The commander of the marine unit, Lt. Robert A. Smith, is a convicted DWI driver, responsible for killing a man while driving drunk. One of his sergeants, Ralph Bartlett, has had multiple automobile accidents, including with departmental vehicles.

It would certainly seem that the people of Warren County have a right to expect that the people in charge of the county's law enforcement aren't responsible for the deaths of people. The people deserve a sheriff who doesn't play favorites, who has good judgment and complies with the laws and Constitution.

The end of last year, Cleveland tried to elevate Sgt. James (Jamie) LaFarr of the investigative division to lieutenant and give him a pay raise of $10,000. This upgrade met with opposition from the sheriff's committee of the board of supervisors. The investigative division, of which Cleveland's best bud and business partner Shine is "division commander" (Cleveland eats up those titles) has been run for nearly 10 years with a sergeant in the top spot. How is the department going to be run any better by upgrading LaFarr to a lieutenant and giving him $10,000 more a year? What happened to civil service in this situation? Has Warren County abolished Civil Service Law in the staffing of the sheriff's department and it's Cleveland law now? Doesn't anyone have the moxy to challenge Cleveland on violating Civil Service Law? Where's the union in this?

Cleveland had a temper tantrum before the sheriff's committee and while ultimately they approved his request to upgrade a patrol officer to sergeant, LaFarr's $10,000 promotion was left sitting on the table. The supervisors had argued there's a hiring freeze on. So, how can Cleveland justify a $10,000 raise for LaFarr?

Despite the sheriff's committee failing to give Cleveland approval last fall, reliable sources have indicated that Cleveland has indeed upgraded LaFarr to the position of lieutenant effective Monday and has promoted patrol officer Greg Riley to sergeant with a salary increase of $6,000 while the county struggles under a hiring freeze and taxes are at an all time high. Cleveland has handed out $16,000 like candy bars.

Riley's promotion seems to come at an opportune time, considering that his mother-in-law, Joanne Daigle and her husband, Paul Daigle are both members of the Warren County Republican Committee from whom Cleveland will be looking for an endorsement if he stupidly decides to seek reelection.

Hmmm, first Nissen, now Daigle. That's three votes on the GOP committee. Is Cleveland trying to buy a Republican endorsement which insiders say that he's not in line to get this time around?

Cleveland has a dozen sergeants, now 10 in the patrol division, having promoted most of his Rangers to the supervisory position although they are not the most qualified. Cleveland had promoted LaFarr sergeant of the investigative division after Robert Swan left. Many questions have been raised as regarding LaFarr's 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, hardly the experience needed to be an investigator and certainly not to become the head of the investigative division over experienced investigators.

To look at the LaFarr promotion a little closer, it would seem a tad unethical. Cleveland and Shine in business together operating Northway Self-Storage at 32 Northway Lane in Queensbury. And guess who is their receptionist, fielding calls for the storage business? If you guessed Mrs. James LaFarr, you'd be correct. Cozy situation. Call the number listed for the storage business, a woman answers. Asked if it's the LaFarr residence, she answers in the affirmative.

Is it ethical as a sheriff to award promotions and pay raises to his business partners and spouses of his employees?

Sources also tell us that Mrs. LaFarr has been employed by Olive Garden and often reportedly brought food from the restaurant to the sheriff's department so certain "boys" could dine for free. Of course, we don't know who paid for the food, if it was "donated" by the restaurant or came out of Mrs. LaFarr's pocket. That too sounds a little unethical. Perhaps Sgt. LaFarr wouldn't have needed a $10,000 raise if his wife wasn't paying to feed the Rangers.

Reliable sources also indicate that there's an update on the "lap dancing" incident at the Warren County Jail http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/2007/013007LapDancing.html

The incident allegedly involved a female corrections officer who allegedly took it upon herself to dispense Tylenol with codeine, a narcotic analgesic, to an inmate and was also allegedly dispensing lap dances to male inmates.

But instead of getting arrested, sources say that she's back from her suspension, reassigned to the midnight shift so she doesn't have contact with the inmates. Some discipline, now she gets a 10% increase in her pay for the shift differential!!! And word is that she's also still eligible to work overtime too. Great deal. Appears that she got rewarded for her antics rather than punished.

And that's how Cleveland runs the Warren County Sheriff's Department.

What are female inmates doing in with the male inmates? Well, that's the result of a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by two female CO's, Michele LaBarron and Cindy Vanderburgh. They filed discrimination complaints claiming that they were being deprived of overtime and promotions because of the department policy that allowed female officers to supervise only female inmates.

Of course part of the problem at the Warren County Jail was Cleveland's problem with women and refusing to house female inmates, instead shipping most of them out to other facilities at $80 or more per day. Although he had a full staff of women corrections officers, he didn't want any female inmates.

The thing is, now male CO's can guard female inmates which doesn't seem like a real good situation and according to the lawyer who represented the county in the EEOC investigation, this policy change is all Cleveland's idea, not any directive as a result of the EEOC ruling. It doesn't seem to be one of Cleveland's better ideas to have male guards with female inmates and females with the males.

There are a few restrictions in that the CO's can't strip search the opposite gender, can't sit on the one-on-one suicide watches in which inmates are stripped of their clothing, substituting "paper dresses", and can't give medical treatment.

LaBarron has been promoted to sergeant since the EEOC complaint. Vandenburgh remains as a CO. It's expected that the women will be filing lawsuits seeking compensation for back wages that they say they lost because of Cleveland's past policy.

With the jockeying being done by Cleveland, it certainly appears that he's trying to influence votes on the GOP committee, readying himself for another run at the office of sheriff, an office which has to be earned, not bought. However, according to informed sources, he's going to have a real hard time trying to claim that endorsement, even money and intimidation may not work this time around. June Maxam 2-20-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette