Steve Lieberman, and Christopher J. Eberhart

The Journal News

CLARKSTOWN - A town police sergeant, who said he ran afoul of town officials after investigating a former police sergeant's political donations, resigned a day after being put on administrative leave.

In his resignation letter, Detective Sgt. Stephen Cole-Hatchard, who was put on leave Saturday, said he had become the “scapegoat and sideshow” so people forget about the donations that former police Sgt. Michael Garvey made to political campaigns, including George Hoehmann's successful 2015 run for supervisor.

"While I can withstand this smear campaign, I will no longer allow my family or brother and sister police officers to suffer from this calculated and clever distraction," Cole-Hatchard said in his resignation letter. "Therefore, with all rights reserved and because I am being forced into this decision, I hereby resign effective immediately, and have filed for service retirement."

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Cole-Hatchard had filed a federal civil lawsuit against the town in July alleging that his questioning of Garvey's political donations led Hoehmann to order his removal as director of the Rockland County Strategic Intelligence Unit.

The lawsuit suggests that Clarkstown Police Chief Michael Sullivan was suspended in July in part because of his opposition to re-hiring Garvey, who was fired by the previous administration after a lengthy battle over a disabling knee injury he suffered in 2008. Hoehmann, who was a town councilman at the time, voted against the dismissal.

The town recently filed counter claims, saying a special police unit in the Clarkstown Police Department illegally profiled and investigated two black groups and some elected officials, including Supervisor George Hoehmann and Sheriff Louis Falco. Sullivan and Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe denied the allegations.

Calls to Hoehmann about Cole-Hatchard's resignation were referred to the town's special prosecutor in Sullivan's case, William Harrington, who said: "Sgt. Cole-Hatchard's resignation was not surprising or inappropriate. My investigative team looks forward to conducting a forensic analysis of his computer, which will not only confirm the allegations in the pending federal litigation against him and others but possibly more."

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In disciplinary charges against Sullivan, the town accuses the chief of failing to file annual ethics forms and condoning improper investigations as well as insubordination, dereliction of duty, disobedience, incompetence, conduct that discredits the police department and other violations.

Sullivan denied any wrongdoing and said the allegations against him were "a serious abuse of power" by town officials, who he said were targeting him for firing an officer who donated money to Hoehmann's campaign for office.

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