ATTORNEYS PREPARE SUBPOENAS

County Probe Includes

‘Multiple Employees’

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – The investigation into the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department involves “multiple” individuals, the chairman of the county board’s Public Safety & Legal Affairs Committee said this evening.

“There are multiple personnel records” being sought, said county Rep. Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla. “There are multiple employees involved.”

As it is being explained, the Public Safety Committee received a complaint regarding violence in the workplace in January and at that point an individual was banned from county property.   A particular individual’s name has surfaced, but no one would go on the record confirming it.

Asked about the new information, county Rep. Keith McCarty, R-East Springfield, said the inquiry involves interactions between correctional officers, and between correctional officers and inmates.  “If something happens to these inmates, we’re liable,” he said, adding, “It’s not a great situation.”

The issue surfaced Wednesday at the end of the county Board of Representatives’ March meeting, when the representatives, after a 45-minute executive session, emerged and voted to empower the committee to issue judicial subpoenas.

Frazier said at the time that his committee had issued “non-judicial subpoenas” for the information, and that Devlin had declined to recognize them.  These new  “judicial subpoenas,” as Frazier understands it, have the full force of law.

The new subpoenas were being drafted today by Matt Ryan, the county’s labor attorney, and County Attorney Ellen Coccoma, and were due to be sent to the sheriff this afternoon, Frazier said. Speaking this evening, Frazier said he hadn’t been told if the subpoenas had actually been sent, but that the documents ask the sheriff to provide the relevant personnel files this coming Tuesday.

The Public Safety Committee is due to meet two days later, on Thursday, and Frazier said what happens then depends on whether the sheriff has complied with the subpoenas.  “If he challenges the subpoenas, there may be an action (by the committee) on Thursday,” the lawmaker said.

“We are co-employers – the sheriff and the county,” Frazier continued.  “We should be able to look at personnel files.  He has the right to discipline, but we should have review on whether or not it was fair. “

He said at another point, “Flat out: If we feel he’s not disciplining appropriately, we are still on the hook if someone brings a lawsuit.  And who pays? That’s where I feel I have a right to review.”

The inquiry has no pre-determined outcome, he said: “If the file says the employees have been equally disciplined and reprimanded, then that’s the end of it.”

Sheriff Devlin said, “I’m certainly not hiding anything.” He said state police have investigated the matter and that to the best of his knowledge the case has been closed.

On receiving the committee’s original request for the files, he continued, “I sought guidance from my sheriff’s association.  They advised me the subpoena was improperly served.”

It was suggested he file a legal action to block the Public Safety Committee from acting, but decided against it.  “I provided the committee with some paperwork,” he said. “I didn’t provide the files.”

Personnel files are confidential under state law, and he was concerned about violating the rights of his employees as specified in Civil Service Law, the sheriff said.