The Southampton Town Board on Tuesday extended the suspension of Town Police Lieutenant James Kiernan for an additional two months, while they address dozens of disciplinary charges leveled against him.
The Town Board also appointed a hearing officer, Roger Maher, to hear the charges and disciplinary case against Lt. Kiernan and make a recommendation to the Town Board on how—or whether—to punish the lieutenant, who is accused by Town Police Chief William Wilson of misconduct while leading the town’s Street Crime Unit.
The board also agreed to retain the services of New York City law firm Bracewell & Giuliani to assist the town attorney’s office with the hearing procedure. A maximum of $50,000 will be spent on the proceedings.
All five board members voted to extend the suspension, which is without pay but allows Lt. Kiernan to use unused sick and vacation days and continue receiving his paychecks and health benefits during the suspension period.
The board initially suspended the 15-year veteran of the force on May 4 after Chief Wilson presented the board with 32 disciplinary charges against the lieutenant, stemming from his years at the head of the Town Police’s undercover drug investigation team. The charges revolve around the lieutenant’s oversight of the Street Crime Unit and his handling of the discovery that one of the unit’s officers, Eric Sickles, had become addicted to prescription narcotics.
Chief Wilson disbanded the Street Crime Unit in November.
In the weeks before the suspension, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office began an investigation of the department’s drug cases and seized reams of documents regarding internal investigations of Town Police personnel. The DA’s office subsequently ordered the release from prison of two men convicted of selling drugs because of problems surrounding the circumstances of their convictions after arrests by officers of the Street Crime Unit.
Lt. Kiernan himself requested that the evidence of his case be addressed through binding arbitration—in which the hearing officer’s decision on discipline would be the final word on his punishment—a choice the Town Police contracts allow. But because the binding arbitration clause of police contracts is the subject of a lawsuit in another municipality, the Town Board opted to appoint a hearing officer instead. The officer will make recommendations but leave the decision of the ultimate disposition of Lt. Kiernan’s case to the board.
Lt. Kiernan’s attorney, Ray Perini, said that he was not surprised that the board extended his client’s suspension and would expect that they will continue it until the case is resolved. He said it is possible that the hearing process could be completed within 65 days, as he hopes, but that such a time frame would be quick for such hearings.
“There is going to be discovery that we’re going to demand, and that could be litigated,” he said of information on the charges against his client that he plans to insist on seeing and may require interim arguments before the hearing officer. “It’s a whole procedural process that is going to eat up a lot of time. But it could be done.”
Mr. Maher is an arbiter for the New York State Department of Labor. “I’ve been told he’s a very fair guy,” Mr. Perini said.
Bracewell & Giuliani, whose partners include former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, will be paid $645 per hour by the town for its services.
on Jun 12, 2012