Lewis County Sheriff Michael P. Carpinelli faces a county Ethics Board review for using official stationary to write a letter of support for a friend convicted of taking part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Julie Abbass/Watertown Daily Times)

LOWVILLE — Lewis County Sheriff and gubernatorial candidate Michael Carpinelli is facing scrutiny for taking personal action under the guise of his elected office to help a friend who participated in the Capitol insurrection last year.

Using his official sheriff’s letterhead and signing the document using his elected title, Carpinelli wrote a letter requesting a federal judge’s leniency for his friend, William Tryon, after Tryon pleaded guilty to misdemeanor entering a restricted building on Capitol grounds related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

In his short letter to the judge on official stationary, the sheriff wrote: “I am writing this correspondence on behalf of my good friend, William Tryon. Bill and I have known each other since 2016 and have remained a closed relationship in family and our love of country. Sir, I know Bill is remorseful for his actions on January the 6th at the Capital. I do believe and standby Bill’s good character and love of his family. This is why I will put my title and reputation alongside my friend, William Tryon. Thank you.”

He signed the letter “Sheriff M.P. Carpinelli” with “Sheriff Carpinelli” typed below the signature.

His action was in direct violation of his own department’s policy: “Members and employees of the Sheriff’s Department shall not use official Department letterheads for personal or unofficial correspondence.”

Another elected official, Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh, also wrote a letter on Tryon’s behalf, according to Albany’s WNYT television station, but he did not use the town’s stationary to do so.

The Lewis County Board of Legislators issued a statement acknowledging that “the sheriff is entitled to his personal opinion, and as an elected official he is entitled to advocate for issues of interest to him and his department” but using his county position to “advocate for individual interests” gives the appearance that he was speaking on behalf of the county.

The county Ethics Board will review Carpinelli’s use of his position. The Board of Legislators could vote to censure him depending on the Ethics Board’s findings.

Because the sheriff’s office receives federal funding, County Attorney Joan E. McNichol has sought an opinion from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel into a potential violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activities while on duty, although some restrictions apply to both on- and off-duty actions.

In his letter, Carpinelli did not mention or allude to his campaign for governor, which he declared in June 2020, although his campaign website, sheriffcarp.com, uses his position to campaign — as does one of the two Facebook campaign sites, “Sheriff Carpinelli for New York Governor 2022,” which was originally established in 2016 as “Make NY Great Again” and has more than 21,000 members.

Carpinelli has been active for years in Tryon’s conservative activist group, Liberty Bell Alliance, also called Liberty Bell Alliance 76, attending and speaking at various events using his title as sheriff.

In 2016, the year he said he met Tryon, Carpinelli was awarded the New York Oath Keepers’ “Constitutional Sheriff” award in part for being a Second Amendment activist.

CBS News on Monday broke the story of Carpinelli’s letter for Tryon. The letter, according to CBS News, was posted on a federal court website last week but was not made public.

Although Carpinelli spoke to the national media outlet, he did not respond to multiple efforts to contact him locally.

Documents that are publicly available indicate that Tryon’s plea satisfied three other charges against him. The deal also required him to sign the federal prosecutor’s “statement of offense,” acknowledging the proof held against him for the other charges which involved his entering the Capitol despite police specifically refusing his request, getting pepper sprayed when he tried again anyway and ultimately breaching the building by going around to the other side of the grounds.

The “distinctive clothing” Tryon wore, photos and videos he took and others taken in which he could be identified were part of the evidence against him.

Despite Carpinelli’s letter, along with reportedly dozens of others from friends and family, Tryon was sentenced to 50 days in jail, almost two times as long as the prosecutors’ recommendation. He was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.