WATERLOO, N.Y., Aug. 30 — The tiny Finger Lakes towns that make up Seneca County are a scene of rolling pastures and lakeside wineries.
Tourists from throughout the Northeast come for quiet vacations or perhaps to visit the National Women’s Hall of Fame to learn how the suffrage movement gained momentum here, and this economically struggling county would like to promote those images.
But lately, this county is making news around the state because of a scandal. On Tuesday, six members of the Seneca County Sheriff’s Department — including the sheriff himself, Leo T. Connolly — were indicted on criminal charges ranging from theft to retaliatory investigations of people who criticized the department.
“This does not help the image of Seneca County one bit,” said Ford Knight, an employee in the tasting room of Lakeshore Winery in the town of Romulus. He fears the scandal will stereotype the area as a “backwater hick county.”
The indictments, encompassing the sheriff, an undersheriff and four deputies, have left the people here sharply divided. Some people, like Mr. Knight, believe the charges ultimately hurt business owners, who, he said, need competent professionals in charge and not “bozos.”
Others simply do not believe the allegations, especially those made against Sheriff Connolly, whom some described as a friendly and likable figure. “We are in full support of him,” said Allison Wright, a waitress at Abigail’s Restaurant in Waterloo. “I hope that when this all comes out it is not true.”
Some people within the Sheriff’s Department began talking of corruption in late 2005, prompting an internal investigation, said a special prosecutor in the case, R. Michael Tantillo, the district attorney for neighboring Ontario County. Several months later, in February 2006, a fire at a Sheriff’s Department warehouse destroyed potential evidence in that investigation.
The New York State Police took over. A grand jury was impaneled in January. Mr. Tantillo said “a number of citizens” ultimately came forward to testify. “A lot of time and effort was spent on this,” he said of the investigation. “Something needed to be done.”
On Tuesday, indictments were unsealed bringing seven criminal charges against Mr. Connolly, 65, a former agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a long history of public service. Two charges allege that he falsified records to indicate that deputies were at a training conference when they were on vacation in Florida. Three counts allege that he ordered retaliatory investigations against several citizens who criticized him on a local blog, www.fingerlakes1.com. He is also charged with rewarding official misconduct by offering to pay a deputy overtime for his efforts in that matter. Lastly, he is charged with lying to the grand jury.
A former undersheriff, James R. Larson, 46, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny and two counts of criminal possession of stolen property; he is accused of stealing a shotgun.
Mr. Larson was also charged with official misconduct. Two such charges allege that he worked at side jobs when he was supposed to be on duty. Another count alleges that he had other staff members charge blank DVDs to a county credit card and drive to his house to pick up pornographic DVDs to copy them — all when they were supposed to be on duty.
Mr. Larson is also charged with three counts of official misconduct for allegedly ordering an employee to search for information about a couple so he could find something to charge them with, in retaliation for their public criticism of him.
Four deputies — Michael J. Baroody, 28; Scott J. Buck, 34; Christopher R. Constable, 43; and Joshua M. Zona, 28; were all charged with petty larceny. They are accused of stealing property from the county, including two canoes, a snorkel, a filing cabinet and tires.
The men pleaded not guilty and were released without bail. Mr. Connolly’s lawyer, Robert Napier, said in a statement that his client had been indicted on the “flimsiest of evidence” and was actually the victim of “a rogue and now disgraced undersheriff.”
Mr. Baroody was fired last year, and Mr. Larson resigned last year as the investigation gained momentum. After the indictments were handed down, Seneca County placed Mr. Connolly, who was elected in 2003, on paid personal leave. The other deputies have been suspended with pay.
Since the charges were revealed, the county has been grappling with how to proceed. Many business representatives, including those at the National Women’s Hall of Fame, declined to comment. Some said they would not speak until the case was decided in the courts. Others, including the Rev. David Mihalyi, have called on the county’s Board of Supervisors to demand Sheriff Connolly’s resignation.
Alex LaQuitara, who works at a honey stand, said he wished the scandal would just go away. “If they did it they need to be held responsible,” he said. “But this is degrading to us as a county.”
