Robert Brum

rbrum@lohud.com

Clarkstown has lodged a slew of new charges against Police Chief Michael Sullivan accusing him of deleting the contents of his town iPhone last summer around the time he was suspended with pay from his $270,000-a-year job.

The bulk of the new charges accuse the 33-year law enforcement veteran of wiping the phone despite knowing that an internal investigation and litigation involving two former police officers were pending, and that the device held information that may have been relevant to those cases, according to documents obtained by The Journal News.

Other counts accuse Sullivan of failing to prevent former Detective Sgt. Stephen Cole-Hatchard from deleting information from his department-issued iPhone and computer hard drive.

READ: 19 new charges against the police chief

RESPONSE: Sullivan's lawyer offers a denial

The 19 charges dated Nov. 28, which include multiple counts of misconduct and incompetence, were denied in a Dec. 7 response from Sullivan's lawyer, former Clarkstown assistant town attorney Richard Glickel.

Glickel called the new charges "intentionally false and unfounded." He said personal use of department-issued cellphones is permitted and that phones are always returned to factory settings by the department when they are turned in so they can be re-issued to other officers.

Glickel added that all Sullivan's cellphone emails were backed up on the department’s network, and a record of all calls and phone numbers can be identified through the phone carrier.

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Cole-Hatchard's lawyer, Joe Ranni, has called the cellphone allegations "baseless" and said the town could recover all the information from the device. Cole-Hatchard, who ran the town's Special Investigations Unit, has filed a lawsuit against the town.

"As before, they take an ordinary act and sensationalize it while ignoring that the act was known and consistent with policy and procedure," Ranni said Friday.

The town's special prosecutor in the Sullivan case, William Harrington, said it was "incomprehensible" that Sullivan would reset his phone unless he had something to hide. He also accused Sullivan and Cole-Hatchard of engaging in a coordinated effort to delete the contents of their phones.

The latest allegations are on top of 22 charges lodged against Sullivan since his July 20 suspension ranging from insubordination to condoning improper surveillance operations. Sullivan has denied the charges and called the prosecution a “witch hunt."

Sullivan has accused Supervisor George Hoehmann of targeting him in retaliation for firing police Sgt. Michael Garvey, who helped bankroll Hoehmann’s successful campaign to oust Supervisor Alex Gromack. Hoehmann denies the case has political overtones.

The town and the suspended chief are due to appear before Dennis Vacco, a former state attorney general who was appointed as hearing officer. But the hearing has been postponed pending a judge's decision in a lawsuit Sullivan filed seeking to overturn his suspension.

The Clarkstown Town Board is expected to issue a resolution next week either appointing Vacco or another hearing officer for the new charges.

Harrington estimated the hearings could begin in mid-January. He said that although the 41 separate counts against Sullivan may seem excessive or duplicative, each charge relates to a different violation of Police Department rules.

Stephanie Hausner, the Town Board's lone Democrat, criticized Hoehmann for not notifying her of the new charges. Hausner called into question the "misuse of power, lack of transparency, and lack of procedure followed by the supervisor and his staff" during the process.

Hoehmann's chief of staff Vincent Balascio said board members were updated about the new charges during an executive session following the Dec. 7 Town Board meeting, which he said Hausner did not attend.

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