ALBANY — Galway's police chief and two other senior officers were arrested Tuesday on charges accusing them of systematically falsifying records that documented state-mandated training courses for officers on the tiny village police force.

The charges were the result of a two-year investigation by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office. Those arrested included Chief Leslie R. Klein, 72, who allegedly sanctioned the filing of official forms with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services that falsely stated officers completed mandated training courses when they had not. Klein also works as a Broadalbin-Perth school district janitor.

Also charged were Mark E. LaViolette, 49, a former Schenectady officer who is a Galway sergeant and works full-time as Schenectady County's director of emergency management, plus Galway sergeant David Goodwin and Mark Kirker, currently a deputy with the Schenectady County sheriff's office who at the time of the alleged crimes was a Glenville police officer.

PAUL BUCKOWSKI/Albany Times Union

All four pleaded not guilty at their arraignments in Albany City Court.

Attorney general investigators obtained time and attendance records for both Klein and LaViolette from their other jobs, and compared those records with certification forms that stated when they had allegedly conducted training of Galway officers.

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Some of the officers whose training credentials were allegedly falsified have taken jobs at other police agencies, including the Watervliet Arsenal, Saratoga County Sheriff's Department and the Albany Police Department.

The four officers stand accused of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a felony.

As reported last week in the Times Union, the probe by Schneiderman's office was spurred by allegations made by two former Galway police officers — both of whom joined the department after retiring from other police agencies — about misconduct and illegal activity on the small force, including the falsification of documents that certified their officers had received required training.

Through the years, the Galway department has mostly been a landing spot for officers who retired from other agencies and took a job there to keep their police certification active, which allows them to carry a handgun and a badge. Under state law, an officer's certification expires four years after their last police job.

PAUL BUCKOWSKI/Albany Times Union

The Galway police force has also been a training ground for those who joined the part-time force to become certified as a police officer so that other departments would be more likely to offer them full-time positions. The officers must pay their own training academy costs and purchase their own weapons because the village doesn't budget for that.

The Galway department, at its peak, has employed about 10 part-time officers who sporadically patrol a village of less than a square half-mile and has only about 200 residents. There is no police station and the department's headquarters is a rented office on the second floor of a small law firm in the heart of the village.

The rented office is also used by the Village Board for its monthly meetings.

On most days, the two patrol cars owned by the village sit unused in the parking lot of a recreation complex where the local school district's school buses are parked.

Galway Mayor William Hyde said last week he was "aware of an ongoing situation" but had not been provided any information about the imminent arrests. The mayor said he could not recall the department's annual budget. But some officers are paid only a few hundred dollars a year, sources said.

The former officers who made the allegations are Fred Scheidt, who was a State Police sergeant, and Richard Schoonmaker Sr., who retired as a Troy police sergeant in 2009, according to two people briefed on the investigation.

The attorney general's probe has examined allegations that police officers in Galway had destroyed evidence in criminal cases, that one officer unlawfully possessed fully-automatic weapons, and that others illegally voided traffic tickets that carried potential fines worth tens of thousands of dollars, and accessed a state criminal database for unlawful reasons.

Another accusation was that a police officer systematically used a mobile-data terminal to get information about drivers from their license plates — such as outstanding warrants or suspended licenses — before finding a reason to pull them over and make an arrest.

Scheidt retired from the State Police in 2009. He went to work for the Galway police force in 2013 and submitted a letter of resignation about two years later in which he said his decision to leave was a result of the misconduct he said was occurring in the department. The letter was sent to the mayor and the police chief.

Last week, Scheidt and Schoonmaker declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

In a related federal lawsuit filed last year, Schoonmaker — who was hired by the small department in June 2013 -- said he became aware of "illegal and/or improper practices" after Klein promoted him to a captain's position in 2014.

Schoonmaker, a Rensselaer County resident, said he reported his concerns to Klein, who responded by demoting him to patrolman rather than taking any action, according to the lawsuit. His claim seeks $800,000 in damages and was filed against Klein and the village.

In the federal lawsuit, Schoonmaker said he contacted an official at the state attorney general's office about two years ago and the agency opened an investigation. He claims Klein fired him in March 2016 after the chief became aware of the attorney general's involvement.



