- Schenectady Cop Put On Protective Leave -
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Chief acts to `protect' Michael Hamilton Jr.
By MIKE GOODWIN
Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY - A highly decorated member of the Police Department has
been placed on
administrative leave pending the outcome of a still-unfolding federal
investigation of misconduct and
corruption on the force.
Lt. Michael F. Hamilton Jr. went on leave last week to "to protect the
integrity of the investigation
and (Hamilton) from unwarranted accusations," Police Chief Gregory T.
Kaczmarek said. Hamilton
faces no criminal or internal affairs charges, he said.
Kaczmarek said Hamilton was placed on leave - with his consent - as a
way to insulate him from
any potential accusations of wrongdoing in connection with the
investigation.
Hamilton, a 10-year veteran of the Police Department, has been one of
the most active officers on
the force, racking up hundreds of drug arrests and cultivating a large
base of informants.
"Michael is a worker and, just in his normal course of business, he
could be out there, make an
arrest and unbeknownst to Michael, myself or anyone else that the person
was interviewed by
federal agents," Kaczmarek said.
"I'm not going to protect him randomly. (If he is on duty) he's going to
go out and make arrests," he
said. "His name has been thrown around in this investigation, sometimes
irresponsibly so. I thinkthat
if he's talking to someone on the street, someone else is going to turn
around and say, `Who is he
talkingto?' "
Kaczmarek discussed the move with Mayor Albert P. Jurczynski beforehand.
"I'm in concurrence
with what Greg has done," Jurczynski said Thursday. "Greg came to me and
told me what he
wanted to do, and I am in full concurrence."
The U.S. Justice Department, with the help of three high-ranking city
police officers, launched an
investigation of the Police Department about one year ago. A federal
grandjury indicted Officers
Michael J. Siler and Richard D. Barnett on Aug. 10, accusing them of
robbing crack co- caine from
a street person on Aug. 3, 1999, and giving it to someone else. Siler
and Barnett have been on paid
suspension since August 1999.
At the time of their arraignments, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Katko
said Siler and other unnamed
officers had harassed or intimidated potential grand jury witnesses. One
officer, he said, confronted
a grand jury witness at the Schenectady County Correctional Facility.
Katko declined to discuss the allegations of witness tampering Thursday
and would only speak in
general terms about the probe. "It's progressing. It's ongoing," he
said.
Kaczmarek was vague when asked whether Hamilton went on leave as a way
to protect him from
accusations that he contacted witnesses in the case, saying only: "We
don't want to run the risk of
any appearance or any allegation that Michael compromised the
investigation."
"So rather than put Michael at risk of undue suspicion or allegations
and certainly not to cause any
questions about the investigation, we think it was in the best interest
of the investigation and Michael
to do this," he said.
Attempts to contact Hamilton Thursday were unsuccessful.
His brother, Robert Hamilton, the president of the Schenectady Police
Benevolent Association,
defended him. "Mike is one of the most highly decorated and respected
officers in the area," Robert
Hamilton said. "The department has not received any complaints on him.
He's not suspended and
had never been questioned whatsoever in the FBI investigation."
Administrative leave means Hamilton has effectively been given an
open-ended leave of absence.
He will continue to be paid. As a lieutenant, Hamilton receives a base
salary of about $55,000.
Such leave is handed out at the discretion of the police chief.
Frequently, it is given to officers
experiencing personal problems or job-related stress, Kaczmarek said.
Unlike suspension,
administrative leave is not a punitive action.
Hamilton joined the Police Department in 1990. It has been estimated
that he's made more than
1,000 arrests during his career. He started as a patrol officer, was
promoted to sergeant in 1998
and made lieutenant the following January. He has been mentioned by
high-ranking Police
Department officials as a candidate for assistant police chief. As a
sergeant and lieutenant, Hamilton
supervised officers on the 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift, including, until
their suspensions, Siler and
Barnett.
Hamilton, along with fellow Officer Nicola Messere, won the Chief's
Award, the Police
Department's highest honor, in 1998 for their efforts to eliminate
street crime. During the prior year,
Hamilton and Messere made more than 100 felony drug busts and 200 other
arrests for other
crimes.
Later the same year, Hamilton and Messere received the Special Award of
Honor from the
International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association. They were cited
for their work with the
Drug Enforcement Administration's Mobile Enforcement Team in an ongoing
investigation of crack
sales in Schenectady.
But Hamilton has also garnered some notoriety for consistently being
among the highest-paid city
employees. Factoring in overtime, Hamilton's salary has topped $100,000
each of the past three
years.
Fellow officers describe him as a tireless workaholic. "His job is his
hobby," Assistant Police Chief
Louis Pardi once said of Hamilton. "He'd rather be at work than lying on
a beach somewhere."
Kaczmarek has credited Hamilton's work ethic and an overall increase in
arrests as one of the key
reasons Schenectady's major crime rate dropped throughout the 1990s.
Kaczmarek said he hopes Hamilton can return to duty soon.
"If you got bad cops, that's a bad thing," he said. "But I might argue
that it's worse to have good
cops accused of being bad cops when they're not."