As much as the largely absent disciplinary policies in the Erie County Sheriff’s Office are cause for public concern, an unusual event in the Holding Center offers this fall’s sheriff candidates a useful way to clarify how they would run the operation: as Sheriff Timothy B. Howard did last month by firing a deputy for misconduct or as he did in the preceding 15½ years when he tacitly endorsed lies and even criminality?
They should use the opportunity.
The recent decision to fire Corrections Officer Anil Kawal, while appropriate, is nonetheless unexpected, given that Howard has tolerated – and thus enabled – worse conduct in the past. A deputy can inflict a concussion and break a man’s nose for no legal cause, lie about it in official reports and still win Howard’s unspoken but public support at his trial. Another – Kawal – can inflict pain on an abusive inmate by shutting a cell-door hatch on his arm, also lie about it, and pay with his job.
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Footage from the Erie County Correctional Facility shows Corrections Officer Anil Kawal close the hatch on a cell door on the arm of inmate Keshon D. Thorpe following an offensive verbal tirade by Thorpe, who was locked in the cell. See the full story by Matt Spina here.
What accounts for the difference in consequences? There has been no explanation, but the possibilities include politics as Howard seeks the supervisor’s job in Wales, pressure from the state attorney general with whom he recently signed an agreement and a lack of focus as his term comes to an end.
Leave at this: Voters can be appropriately skeptical of Howard’s motivations while crediting an appropriate decision. There is no reason to tolerate deputies who abuse their authority then lie about it in official reports and, this time, he didn’t. That’s hasn’t often been the case over this sheriff’s four terms.
The most notorious example of Howard’s malfeasance is his conduct regarding former Deputy Kenneth Achtyl, who assaulted a Bills fan who had cursed at him – legally, if not wisely. Not only did Howard fail to discipline his criminally delinquent employee, he sided with him in court.
Charged with misdemeanors, Achtyl was convicted of assaulting Nicholas Belsito and of falsifying his report of the incident – that is to say, lying about it. But it wasn’t because Howard didn’t try to sway the jury.
The sheriff showed up on four of the trial’s five days, sitting in full uniform behind Achtyl and his lawyers. He later claimed he was there simply to learn about the case, but in a deposition earlier this year. Achtyl confirmed what was obvious: Howard had “offered support,” he said. They chatted during the trial, Achtyl said, exchanged texts and even discussed the prospects of appealing the conviction.
There are plenty of other examples of Howard’s tolerance for unprofessionalism that this year’s candidates should shun: his efforts to deceive the state Commission of Correction about suicide attempts in the jail; his support of deputies who filed false reports about their role in an inmate’s death, which state officials classified as a homicide; his failure to respond when the commission determined that the death of another inmate was a homicide due to medical neglect by sheriff’s deputies.
Yet now, on his way out the door, Howard fires a deputy for what a jailhouse video suggests is a lesser offense than Achtyl’s, though both lied about what they did. The lie, alone, made the dismissal appropriate, but why is the sheriff suddenly interested in running a tighter ship, given his impressive tolerance for misconduct and even criminality?
Indeed, Kawal might plausibly have believed Howard would be in his corner. He didn’t break anyone’s nose or inflict a concussion, after all. He just shut – some might say slammed – the cell door hatch on the arm of Keshon D. Thorpe, a grossly misbehaving inmate who had been raining verbal abuse on him. Yes, he lied about the incident in his official report, but so have other deputies Howard has protected.
Whatever led to Howard’s tough stance in this case, he made the right call and that suggests a qualifying question that Erie County voters should ask of the four candidates running for sheriff, Republican John Garcia, Democrat Kim Beaty, Conservative Karen Healy-Case, who lost the Republican primary to Garcia, and independent candidate Ted DiNoto.
Which Howard will you emulate: the one who responds when deputies disregard professional standards – not to mention the law – or the one who doesn’t?
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