At a recent village board meeting, Trustee Ron LaScala had harsh words for Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill and made the request about two deputies.

“There are a couple of deputies that we do not want in this community,” LaScala said after the Sept. 25 meeting.

The deputies were not named publicly, but it was discussed that one is a former Tupper Lake Police Department officer whom the sheriff recently hired and was at one point put on road patrol in Tupper Lake. The only deputy who meets that description is Keegan Muldowney, who grew up in Saranac Lake.

Mulverhill said he talked with Tupper Lake Police Department Chief Eric Proulx on Monday about the village’s request, saying he will try to honor it but that it is not an official order.

Ron LaScala is seen in October 2012. (Enterprise photo — Jessica Collier)

“I’m not really sure they have the authority to do that,” Mulverhill said. “I’m not looking for a fight. … If they don’t want them there, I’ll do the best I can not to put them there, but I can’t guarantee that.”

This dispute was incited in late August when Deputy Muldowney was filling in for two members of the Tupper Lake Police Department who were away training to be school resource officers. Muldowney had resigned from the TLPD in May after the completion of an investigation into “accusations of extracurricular activities in a commercial establishment.” He was never charged criminally, sued in civil court or brought up on disciplinary charges, but the investigation tainted his reputation in town.

Franklin County normally does not have its sheriff’s deputies do road patrols, but they come to communities to transport inmates to the county jail in Malone and occasionally help cover when village police are short-staffed. Mulverhill also said he has considered having them do occasional targeted patrols looking for drunk drivers.

He said he has a supervisor and seven deputies, two of which are assigned to the county courthouse and department of social services. A situation might come up where those officers are needed in Tupper Lake, he said.

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Road patrol

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The request from the village of Tupper Lake came after a Sept. 25 board meeting in which LaScala brought up some issues he has with the sheriff’s department at the public meeting.

“I don’t want the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department in the police department,” LaScala said. “He does not hire good people.”

He put a motion on the table to not allow the sheriff’s department to process prisoners inside the village police station, but it was never voted on. The board opted to enter an executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss the employment history of a particular person before they take a vote.

Before that, Proulx said he had been contacted by a sheriff’s sergeant who asked if deputies who have an arrest in Tupper Lake can use his station to process them.

Proulx made mention of a possible sheriff road patrol, citing a third-party individual he said is not in the sheriff’s department.

“I have been told that the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department — this doesn’t come from the sheriff, but I have talked to the sheriff — is running some type of road patrol,” Proulx said at the meeting.

On Tuesday Proulx said, “Things have changed since that conversation.”

Mulverhill said Tuesday that the sheriff’s department will not run road patrols because it would cost money and staff his department does not have.

When asked if there had been a plan to have road patrols, Mulverhill said he has had discussions with the STOP-DWI program, which has extra money available to pay for overtime so deputies can do special driving-while-intoxicated patrols.

“We’re looking to utilize some of those funds,” Mulverhill said. “It makes our community a safer place.”

He said a DWI patrol would not be regular, as it could only happen when his staffing schedule aligns.

“I wouldn’t even consider that a road patrol, per se,” Mulverhill said.

He said a true road patrol would mean having a car out for general complaints and that he wouldn’t do that unless people of the county want it and would pay for it.

“If there are times when there’s an extra deputy, and I only say extra if there’s a deputy in the jail that we’re not utilizing, then we’ll put them out on the road,” Mulverhill said. “We’re kind of a ‘fill in the blank’ agency.”

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Former village patrolman

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Mulverhill said he canceled Muldowney’s last two days of Tupper Lake patrol in August at village officials’ request. Village Mayor Paul Maroun said it was “too soon” to have someone who resigned back on the beat.

“I think (Mulverhill) takes no consideration to the people of this village … after what we went through, to just, ‘Eh. No big deal,'” LaScala said at the Sept. 25 meeting. “Most importantly, I think he’s disrespectful to the people that came forward and said things and did things. They put themselves at risk, just like this village board puts themselves at risk when we have to discipline a police officer. Then to have that police officer come back to this community after we’ve given our word to people, ‘Hey, we’re going to protect you. It’s all right. Come forward and give a statement.'”

Mulverhill said he did not know about all this in August, but he thinks Muldowney is a good deputy.

“I think we all need a second chance,” Mulverhill said. “A lot of that, from what I can gather, are allegations. There were no criminal charges that were filed.”

He said he would hire Muldowney again.

“The type of police work that we’re doing isn’t as intense as what he was doing in Tupper Lake,” Mulverhill said. “If it’s a place where he made a mistake and he has the chance to correct himself, that’s fantastic. If he continues to make that mistake, then I won’t hesitate to let him go.”

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Rough words

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LaScala’s village board address was extensive and harsh, even compared to his former soapbox moments.

“The sheriff should be embarrassed,” LaScala said. “He should be embarrassed to run a department like that.”

While LaScala focused on the Tupper Lake angle, his criticism of the sheriff’s department was much broader.

“We’re not talking about one specific officer down there,” LaScala said. “I’m talking about multiple officers down there (that) are a concern for me to have them running inside this community.”

He did not name any deputies publicly.

Mulverhill said he was not interested in commenting on anything LaScala said.

“He certainly didn’t say it to me,” Mulverhill said. “He can say whatever he wants. I’m the sheriff. I’m gonna be the sheriff for at least three more years. And I’m going to continue to carry out the duties of the sheriff as I feel fit.

“That’s his prerogative; that’s his opinion. The voters obviously didn’t feel that way last year.”

Mulverhill, a Republican, won reelection in November over Jordanna Mallach, a Democrat from Saranac Lake.