Brian J. Gould, the assistant police chief in Cheektowaga who wants to be the next Erie County sheriff, supervised a half-dozen cops who broke up a fight between feuding neighbors one summer night in 2009.
A man had sworn at the woman across the street, and her son chased after him. When it was over, Sean Trapper, 22, was charged with assault, and a man 30 years older was bleeding from an eye.
The following year, without objection from then-Sgt. Gould, the Cheektowaga Police Department hired Trapper as an officer.
Trapper's story doesn’t end there. While Trapper’s supporters say his police career features examples of valor, the police chief wanted Trapper fired last year because he punched and tackled a supervisor at an off-duty gathering, inflicting a chipped tooth, a black eye and a cut needing stitches. An arbitrator deemed termination too harsh and put Trapper back in the job.
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Police executives must decide how heavy a hand to use in disciplining the ranks, and how fine a filter to apply in screening applicants. Gould said that if elected in November, he will insist on a "rigorous standard of professionalism" for a Sheriff's Office that employs over 1,000 people.
Days ago, Gould explained why he raised no warning in 2010 as his agency considered whether to pin a badge on Trapper, a man he and his officers charged with assault one year earlier.
Gould said there was no need.
The department’s hiring panel had access to the police report about the fracas on Woodland Terrace, he told The Buffalo News. So did the people who would conduct the background investigation required on all prospective hires, he said.
“I made sure that the patrolman who arrested both parties made a thorough report of the incident,” Gould said. “When one of the individuals involved was later considered for employment in the Cheektowaga Police Department, I was confident the report would provide the information the hiring committee required.”
If elected sheriff, however, Gould said he would want his deputies to feel as though they could take a different course than he took more than a decade ago.
He said that as he insists on a “thorough vetting of high-quality candidates,” he will “establish a culture that encourages deputies to step forward with information and concerns that might be important to that process.”
A 'mutual altercation'
To Jason DiPasquale, nothing about the incident from 2009 should have precluded Trapper's hiring. DiPasquale, a lawyer, spoke to The News on Trapper’s behalf.
DiPasquale called the incident a "mutual altercation" with a "problem neighbor." And despite Trapper’s punch to Sgt. Garrett Slawatycki in January 2020, Trapper has turned out to be a good officer, DiPasquale said.
See the video of Officer Sean Trapper punching his sergeant:
"The decision to hire Mr. Trapper as a Cheektowaga police officer has beared out well," DiPasquale said, pointing out that Trapper has served on the town's SWAT team and received commendations for saving lives and helping de-escalate a tense situation.
Trapper, DiPasquale continued, has no complaints from citizens about an abuse of authority, which is confirmed by department records obtained by The News. The attack on Slawatycki is the only disciplinary case in his file.
Theodore Szymecki does not agree he was ever a “problem neighbor.”
Szymecki admits he hurled coarse words at the woman across the street as he drove off to return some library books on the evening of July 9, 2009, but he felt she had provoked him.
As Szymecki neared the end of his street, he looked in his rearview mirror and saw Trapper chasing him, barefoot and shirtless, Szymecki said.
Szymecki got out of his car, he said, and Trapper quickly put him in a headlock. Szymecki, 52 at the time, recalled he then wriggled free to get Trapper in a headlock. But the tide turned. Szymecki said he ended up on the pavement and lost the fight. A picture taken soon after shows blood flowing from his puffy right eye.
Gould, according to Szymecki and the police report, decided both men should be charged. Szymecki was cited with the violation of harassment. Trapper faced a more serious count, intentional assault, a misdemeanor that could have brought jail time. But as the months passed and the temporary orders of protection given to both men expired, the cases were dismissed and the records sealed – before Trapper completed his job application.
Szymecki said no one conducting Trapper’s background check ever asked him about the clash. To him, the department should have viewed it as a sign Trapper lacked the temperament for police work.
“Look what happened last year,’’ Szymecki said of Trapper punching his sergeant – an event that came to light because state leaders in the summer of 2020 decided police disciplinary files should be open to the public.
Asked Szymecki: “How did he get hired as a police officer just months after he jumped me?”
Gould’s record
The decision by state leaders to open police disciplinary files to public view changes the landscape for New York’s police personnel and adds a dimension to the race for sheriff. The News has been gathering records on the candidates with law enforcement backgrounds who want to head the Sheriff’s Office now that Timothy B. Howard has decided not to run again.
One candidate was a Buffalo police narcotics investigator who supervised a flawed drug raid that led to a dog's death and a $110,000 settlement. Another was a Buffalo police officer whose negligence led to an on-the-job auto accident that cost the city $825,000.
Gould, the Democratic Party nominee who is heading into a party primary, has twice been suspended, once in 2014 and again in 2017, records show.
After town police had a difficult time with crowd control at an Independence Day event, Gould posted on Facebook in July 2014: “I really wish that the town leaders would consider cancelling the 4th of July next year. I’m glad we all made it home safe.” With the post, Gould violated an order banning communication about police matters with outsiders, the police chief at the time told him in a letter.
In 2017, Gould shoved and punched a handcuffed defendant who had spit on him in the town’s lockup. “Your right closed hand gave a glancing strike to the offender’s jaw,” the chief’s letter said.
Both cases, first reported this year by WKBW-TV, led to two-day suspensions. Gould was debited four accumulated vacation days to satisfy his penalties.
He said he learned from both incidents.
“I regret that they ever happened,” Gould said. “They were learning experiences for me. And I think it speaks to the way our Cheektowaga Police Department operated in holding our officers to high expectations.” He added: “There’s much more to the story of Brian Gould than just those two incidents.”
Cheektowaga Police have not yet released to The News all of the internal investigative reports related to the cases against Gould.
FOI requests
Gould said he has no problem with police disciplinary records being public documents in New York.
“The expectations of our community have changed. What they expect out of policing has changed,” he said. “If we are running a professional police agency, the fact our personnel files are open to the public shouldn’t be something we fear.”
Still, the Cheektowaga department has been slow to fill Freedom of Information requests for discipline files from The News. The News first asked the agency in October for the electronically stored records it has on hand for dozens of cases. While the request could involve hundreds of pages, other suburban departments, such as Amherst and the Town of Tonawanda, have turned over the same range of records.
In Cheektowaga, Town Attorney John Dudziak said in February that the police agency would need another 30 days to provide the records. Then on April 1, Dudziak said the town would need another 60 days “at a minimum.”
Defending the department, Gould said providing the records isn’t as simple as opening a drawer, copying the contents and mailing them off. Each page must be read to allow for the redaction of private information that can legally be withheld. Those redactions must then be checked by a second person.
Meanwhile, police agencies must meet new requirements in state law to provide prosecutors and defense lawyers more records in the early stages of a criminal case. The Cheektowaga department has promised the town board that it will meet these burdens without adding more staff to its records department, Gould said.
“We are doing our best,” he said.
