New report highlights transparency failures at Chester Village Hall

A reporter’s investigation into misconduct reports within local police departments may have uncovered severe flaws in how the Village of Chester handles information requests from the public and press.

In November 2023, New York Focus reporter Sammy Sussman filed a public records request with the Village of Chester for all disciplinary records and misconduct complaints against police department staff, as well as misconduct records shared with prosecutors since 2018. After initially not receiving the requested documents from local officials, he filed a lawsuit against the village.

The original request was sent to the village mayor and attorney, who then forwarded the request to Chester Village Police Chief Timothy McGuire, the police chief confirmed in an interview with The Chronicle. At the time of the request, McGuire told Sussman in an email, “There are no records.” But that turned out to be false.

Sussman later followed up with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, which eventually released a draft misconduct report into Chief McGuire. The report against McGuire stemmed from an anonymous letter that was sent to Village Trustee Alan Battiato in January 2023, alleging that, in 2020, when he was still a sergeant, the chief engaged in an affair with a village resident while on duty and with department property.

“The mayor acted quickly, tapping a village lawyer to launch a formal investigation,” Sussman reported. “But 10 months later, after the lawyer drafted his initial investigation report, the Village of Chester Police Department claimed that it didn’t exist.”

The investigation comprised 18 pages and while he admitted to the affair, the investigation ultimately exonerated McGuire of wrongdoing.

In Sussman’s report, he said that further prodding through the DA’s office also released 40 pages of misconduct investigations and disciplinary proceedings into the anonymous letter writer, which the village and Chief McGuire also did not release when requested.

Sussman, who also requested such personal files from over 200 other law enforcement agencies in the state, found a lack of checks and balances in the system to ensure that police departments are telling the truth when they claim to have no misconduct records: “One of the only ways to unearth improperly withheld documents is to file lawsuits, which can be costly and complicated. In September, this reporter filed such a lawsuit against the Village of Chester. The village has not responded, and a tentative hearing has been set for November.”

In his interview with The Chronicle, Chief McGuire admitted to lacking an understanding of how to handle Freedom of Information Law, also known as FOIL, requests from the public. Regarding his own misconduct investigation, McGuire said he did not have those records, since his department did not conduct the investigation, and suspected they were with the village attorney. The draft report Sussman received from the DA’s office did have village attorney Brian Nugent’s letterhead on them. Regarding the misconduct records of the anonymous letter writer, McGuire said that since the officer had already retired and left the precinct, the officer was no longer top of mind and it didn’t occur to him to release those records.

“After the [officer’s] retirement, I wasn’t aware I needed to put those forward... Because he wasn’t there anymore. So that’s why it didn’t even register in my head,” he said.

McGuire claimed that police chiefs are not mandated to take any training on what can and cannot be released — that is something they must find on their own.

“No one really tells you how to be a police chief,” McGuire said. “You kind of have to learn as you go. And I did have online training for records management for New York State a couple months ago. I decided on my own [to seek training] — myself and the police assistant.”

McGuire went on to say that he did not intentionally withhold the misconduct records. “It was just the way I was taught was I never had those records. The complaint wasn’t made to me. That’s why I figured I don’t have it.”

McGuire said most of the FOIL requests he receives are for police blotters or court cases. He also said the village relies on hard copy records for personnel records. There is no digital database for him to simply type in a keyword to pull up all the misconduct records his department may have. The police chief would either have to have memory of an investigation, or task someone with going through all of the hard copy records.

Sussman’s report also noted that New York “doesn’t maintain a statewide police misconduct database, making a department’s claim that they have a perfect disciplinary history hard to verify.” He added, “In the absence of state and police department transparency, district attorneys’ offices can serve as countywide repositories of local police misconduct. The offices must disclose to defendants any evidence that could be used to argue for their innocence. As a result, federal courts and state law have bestowed upon them the difficult task of tracking, and then disclosing, allegations of misconduct against officers involved in cases that move to prosecution. New York does not have a statewide policy for how county district attorneys should maintain the records; instead, each district attorney must reach an information-sharing agreement with each local law enforcement agency.

“In 2023, the Orange County DA’s office obtained a draft report on the Village of Chester’s investigation into the allegations against McGuire and provided it to New York Focus in response to a public records request. If it hadn’t, McGuire’s claim that ‘there are no records’ might have prevented his own alleged misconduct from ever becoming public.”

Village Mayor Christopher Battiato and village attorney Brian Nugent did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Sammy Sussman and New York Focus’s full investigative report can be found at bit.ly/3YHppmF.