Former Saugerties police chief Joseph Sinagra believes he was forced out by the town board earlier this year. “It was a smokescreen,” Sinagra said in an interview with Hudson Valley One. “They just didn’t want me there any longer. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Sinagra primarily spoke about his accomplishments before his abrupt retirement earlier this year, but was also eager to get his side of the story of his departure out as well. As part of his narrative, Sinagra provided a six-page annotated timeline opening in September 2020, but mostly covering the months between May and October of this year, a timeline which he says largely refutes what the public has heard from town supervisor Fred Costello and the town board.
Earlier in the summer, allegations of harassment and sexual assault by Saugerties Police Department (SPD) officer Dion Johnson were made public in a 14-page report by New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office (LEMIO). Published on Friday, July 7, the report maintains that the SPD referred complaints made against Johnson to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) as required by law enforcement agencies for any officer receiving at least five complaints in a two-year period, and that after a thorough investigation, LEMIO concluded that Johnson was subject to disciplinary action by the SPD as a result of his alleged misconduct.
The timeline
Sinagra’s timeline begins on September 9, 2020 with a voicemail message from a member of the public claiming she had video proof of Johnson coming into her apartment, at which point the then-chief assigned Captain Stephen Filak to conduct an internal investigation, which after two months of finding her uncooperative found that allegations of sexual abuse could not be substantiated, but other policy violations could.
Further complaints against Johnson were made by two female officers between July and October 2020, with Sinagra claiming Johnson was disciplined for the first but not the second, as it was deemed unfounded. On November 10, Johnson signed off on command discipline in light of the substantiated complaints, which included forfeiting ten days of accrued time. And on January 24, 2022, Sinagra said that per NYS Executive Law, he reported complaints against Johnson to the OAG.
“The attorney general’s office never accused me of doing anything wrong,” Sinagra said. “All they did in their report is they had opinions: ‘Hey, our opinion is, in the future, you might want to consider going to district attorney’s office with this, which I did…I did a referral. It wasn’t like I was hiding anything.”
Sinagra alleges that his being placed on administrative leave had nothing to do with the handling of complaints against Johnson, but rather due to the department’s handling of lieutenant K.J. Swart. Sinagra said he was notified on May 1 of this year that Swart had submitted retirement paperwork, and then learned on May 17 that Swart had requested that the paperwork be rescinded. On May 2, Sinagra said, Swart — the department’s IT officer — was directed to provide Captain Filak with departmental usernames and passwords. On that same day, Sinagra said he sent out new chain of command notifications and split Swart’s responsibilities between himself, Filak and five sergeants.
Restructuring the department
On May 15, Sinagra said he met with Costello to discuss restructuring the department, including the elimination of a detective-sergeant position and the creation of two lieutenant positions, one connected to patrol, the other to support services. The restructuring plan included promoting Captain Filak to deputy chief. After being notified of Swart’s decision to rescind his retirement, Sinagra said he returned some of the lieutenant’s responsibilities to Swart along with some new responsibilities.
On June 12, Sinagra said that Swart filed a grievance requesting that his job responsibilities be returned to the way they were prior to his submitting his retirement paperwork. The following day, Sinagra said he and Filak met with William Wallens, the town’s labor attorney, and another attorney to review Swart’s grievance and the department’s supporting documentation, and were ultimately advised that there was no violation of the lieutenant’s collective bargaining agreement. After working with the attorneys on several drafts of a Step 1 response denying the grievance, paperwork was filed with PBA president officer Dan Farcher.
Sinagra said he was told on July 7 that Filak would not be promoted until the Swart issue was rectified, and three days later, Sinagra said, he was questioned by the town board about both Filak and Johnson. On July 12, the town board enacted a hiring freeze in the SPD, skipping two promotions Sinagra had on that evening’s agenda.
“Name your price”
On July 14, Sinagra said, he was notified by Costello that the town board wanted him out. “Fred asked me what I needed to leave, name your price,” Sinagra wrote, adding that he wouldn’t immediately leave because he was being sworn in as president of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police (NYSACOP) on July 17 and had to either be an active chief or sworn police commissioner to be president. According to Sinagra, the two agreed to an arrangement that included Sinagra stepping down as chief after being sworn in as police commissioner in title only, with the role not including any authority over daily operations of the SPD; later that day, Sinagra said, Costello informed him that the town board agreed to the terms, and he was authorized to order two police commissioner badges, one each for Sinagra and Costello.
Three days later, Sinagra was sworn in as president of NYSACOP at a ceremony in Albany attended by Costello, who spoke on Sinagra’s behalf.
On July 26, Sinagra said he received a phone call from Costello informing me that he was being investigated, without offering specifics. The following day, Sinagra said he met with Costello and councilman Mike Ivino at SPD headquarters, where he turned over his department cellphone, firearm, police ID and badge, as instructed by the supervisor. He received a letter informing him that he was under investigation and being placed on administrative leave with pay. After turning in his patrol vehicle for use by interim chief Lou Barbaria, Sinagra said he was driven home by Filak.
Still confused
Nearly six months later, Sinagra remains puzzled by Costello’s participation in the ceremony in Albany.
“Probably the most hurtful thing out of all of this was the fact that Fred Costello on July 17th came to my swearing-in as president of (NYSACOP), and then turned around a week later and put me out,” Sinagra said. “He knew when he sat at the table with my family, he knew when he hugged my wife that night and gave her a kiss and sat with my children and my grandchildren at that banquet, he knew what he was going to do to me. And he never said a word. I mean, what kind of person does that? How do you live with yourself knowing that basically you screwed somebody over royally for no other reason than to what?”
In early November, Sinagra said he was let go from his position as a law enforcement liaison for the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee without justifiable cause due to “media interest” after being assigned to the role by NYSACOP. He believes it was another political move related to the town board of Saugerties.
“It’s all rumor, but my understanding was that somebody from Saugerties actually went and spoke to the governor and put the kibosh on my job up there,” Sinagra said. “Well, that’s wrong. Again, that is to defame me and my reputation…If they weren’t out to get me, then why did I lose my job with GTSD after being there for a whole month when they knew about all of this?”
Ulterior motive
Sinagra said he believed there might have been another ulterior motive for the town board to get rid of him.
“They saw me becoming strong,” he said. “I would suspect that a lot of this has to do with they would like to taint my reputation so I don’t run for (Ulster County) sheriff,” a role he admitted he’s considering more and more lately. “It’s definitely in my bucket list of things to do, and especially now, to be honest with you.”
A time for reflection
Sinagra said he only recently began to reflect on his time as police chief in the SPD and his life in law enforcement.
“I enjoyed the eleven years that I was chief of the Saugerties Police Department,” he said. “I’m going to miss the people. This is the unfortunate thing; it’s politics, sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to.”
Sinagra said that he ushered in a period of diversity for a department that when he took over was mostly white and mostly male.
“(The SPD) had one Hispanic officer,” he said. “I brought in the first full-time female police officers ever. It was a part-timer previously, but I brought in full-time police officers, female police officers, we had five. We had a black male police officer. So diversification was a big part of my administration.”
Sinagra noted that within 18 months of his being named chief, the SPD became an accredited police agency. He touted introducing initiatives like warning summonses and the Lights On! Program, both of which are designed to minimize citations for minor offenses.
“We did a lot of good things with policy and procedures,” Sinagra said, adding that his departure was so abrupt that he didn’t realize what he was leaving behind at the time.
“I’m going to miss walking a foot beat,” he said. “I love walking a beat up in Saugerties and visiting our commercial businesses and our private citizens. That was the high point of my job every day, was to actually go and meet with the public and hear from them firsthand what they like about the department, what don’t they like about the department. And we had great morale up until July 26 when I got put on administrative leave.”
Sinagra said being a police officer wasn’t a job for him, it was a way of life.
“I did this for 36 years, and I think when you look back on my career, I was pretty successful at this,” he said. “I did everything from patrol to becoming a police chief. I was a canine handler, undercover narcotics officer, detective. I worked for five different police agencies. I worked for agencies, an agency that was over a hundred men strong to an agency that had just part-timers.”
Town supervisor responds
In response to queries last week about Sinagra, Costello provided the following statement:
“On July 7, 2023, the New York State Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office (LEMIO) released a report, written after a thorough investigation, into civilian and internal complaints of sexual misconduct against one of our officers. The Attorney General’s LEMIO report recommended termination as a proper remedy for the officer’s behavior and indicated that in cases involving potentially serious criminal allegations against an officer, the department should notify and consult with the Ulster County District Attorney’s office. The recommendations identified in the LEMIO report regarding a proper response to this officer’s behavior, are very different from the methods, conclusions, remedies and outcomes offered by the internal investigation which was supervised by then-chief Joseph Sinagra. Unfortunately, I continue to be disappointed that former Chief Sinagra, without any acknowledgment of his own responsibility for the events that led to the unanimous decision by the town board to place him on administrative leave, continues to try to use the press as a forum to discuss his claimed motivations for retiring. I do not understand the former chief’s insistence on trying to use the press in this way. The continued reintroduction of this matter into the news cycle by Mr. Sinagra, does nothing to heal the pain and embarrassment that his handling of this matter has caused. Continuing to renew media attention to this issue will not influence ongoing investigations.”
No regrets
Sinagra said he leaves the SPD without any regrets, in part because he didn’t bend to the will of the town board.
“Because when you said you couldn’t control me, that’s the most interesting thing,” Sinagra said. “That’s when corruption seeps into police agencies. When government can control the police, that’s corruption. And I don’t play those games. I beat to my own drum.”
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