SamPratt.com

Election Roundup for 2021

Local Turnout Plummets

In the 2020 Presidential election, a whopping 35,000 people came out to vote in Columbia County, with Biden winning handily. Data circulated this evening by the Board of Elections indicates that only about 20,000 voted this time around—meaning that 43% of those 2020 voters didn’t show up this time.

Voting is generally lower in local cycles compared with Presidential contests, but the precipitous drop suggests that there are many voters who only care about national politics. That’s something for both parties to work on, since in many ways local races affect our day-to-day lives far more substantially.

The full 2021 Columbia County unofficial results spreadsheet can be found here. These await the counting of absentee ballots, followed by official certification, and thus will change somewhat over time.

No Headway for Dems on Board of Supervisors

Despite a lot of big talk in the past month of a sweep which would take over the Board of Supervisors from Republicans, the Columbia Dems failed to make any progress toward that longterm, elusive goal. Dems lost key races for Super in four large towns (Claverack, Germantown, Ghent and Kinderhook).

In Taghkanic, two Democratic candidates for Town Board both won by a very large margin over the lone Republican opponent, 56% vs. 44%. Yet the Taghkanic Democrats, who enjoy a 4-1 majority there, allowed incumbent Republican Supervisor Ryan Skoda to run unopposed. So that Taghkanic seat would appear to be quite winnable by the Dems; but Town Board member Joyce Thompson has been instrumental in convincing them to leave the Republican Supervisor unchallenged.

In Stuyvesant, Democratic Committee officer Lee Jamison may have set some sort of record by losing yet again, having run repeatedly there over the past 20 decades. Other Supervisor races were uncontested, leaving the balance of power on the Board still firmly in the Republicans’ hands.

Meanwhile, the apparent winner of the Ghent Supervisor position, Craig Simmons, recently appeared in a social media video of a Chatham School Board meeting stating that he does not support vaccine mandates, much as he also “fought against helmet and seatbelt laws here in New York.” Simmons was formerly Chatham’s School Board President, but his nomination to be reappointed apparently received no second from any of his colleagues earlier this year. His term on the School Board expires in 2022, so presumably he will relinquish that position once his Ghent victory is certified.

A Taste of Tammany Hall in Ghent

Also in Ghent... The County Board of Elections decided to add a polling place due to shifts in the population, and chose the Ghent VFW as its extra venue. This raised some eyebrows among Ghent Dems, since the Post is traditionally used by the Republicans as their clubhouse, and also a site for GOP fundraisers.

It seemed an even odder choice given that another polling place, the Town Hall, is just a stone’s throw away, meaning it did not help many voters get closer to the polls. Other rejected suggestions had included a site closer to Hawthorne Valley, or another of the Town’s firehouses not already used for voting.

Of particular concern was the fact that the VFW Post has an active bar downstairs from the main space where the election was being conducted, including both an interior staircase from that room and an exterior entrance as well. This raised the specter of old-school Tammany-style politicking, which in the 19th Century often involved promising voters drinks as an inducement for voting.

That has not been alleged so far, let alone proven. But one Democratic poll watcher noted that the bar’s parking lot was very full in the afternoon and early evening of Election Day, and complained that a Republican inspector was telling some voters they could go downstairs for a beer after they finished.

(Note: This author also served as a poll watcher at the VFW in the early morning hours of Election Day... Much too early for a Budweiser.)

Krapf Holds his Own Party

According to Democratic committee sources, after beating incumbent David Bartlett, the party’s nominee for Sheriff decided to hold his own victory party, separate from the party’s event.

After besting Bartlett, Don Krapf reportedly held his own private (less “transparent”?) event in Hudson at the Power Boat Association, after briefly stopping by the Dems’ event in Chatham.

Krapf is a former Republican, who according to multiple sources voted twice for Trump and said voting for Hillary Clinton would be like voting for “the devil.” Sources have further indicated that his commitment to the platform advanced for him by the Dems is tepid at best.

Dem Committee members may consider this a win, but now seem stuck with a Sheriff with deep conservative roots. The party tends to be reluctant to abandon its own nominees, even if they prove problematic in office. Barring some major scandal, Krapf will now be likely to serve until retirement, unless eventually there were a Democratic primary—which could be bruising and vicious. This site will have some thoughts on the futures of both major parties in a future post.

Statewide Setbacks for Dems

One local Dem Committee member described last night’s results as “a bloodbath across the whole state, really” for the Democrats. Particularly disappointing was New York’s failure to approve ballot access referenda backed by the Dems. These would have loosened requirements absentee voters, as well as allowing same-day registration of new voters.

In better news, a referendum supporting stronger protections for clean air and water in the State did pass. But overall, results across New York suggested that Republican voters still fuming over the 2020 Presidential election were in a mood to strike back. There are national concerns that this foreshadows more trouble in the 2022 mid-terms, which are typically challenging for the party controlling the White House.

Hudson Results are Too Berserk to Parse

Meanwhile in Hudson, where Democrats have had a virtual lock on most offices going back 16 years to the hotly-contested Grandinetti-Tracy mayoral race, the results are so hard to comprehend as to defy analysis by an outside observer—even one with a lot of experience in Hudson politics.

Hudson has a remarkable number of positions: Three citywide offices (Mayor, Council President and Treasurer); 10 Common Council members, a/k/a Aldermen; and five County Supervisors. Sometimes, there are also primaries for Republican and Democratic Committee seats. In the above-mentioned 2005 contest, there were something approaching 50 candidates for various positions.

This time around, some key offices were uncontested, but the subject of (mostly) futile write-in campaigns. Other races involved candidates who had asked too late to be removed from the ballot, at least one of whom appears to have won. For more close-to-the-ground details, try reading coverage at Carole Osterink’s The Gossips of Rivertown.

Hudson seems to be becoming a textbook example of the perils of one-party rule—resulting either in a herd mentality among members of the same team, or else vicious infighting among elected officials and Committee members of the same party.

Multiple factions now exist among the Dems, each jealously defending its piece of the party pie. Despite sharing a party affiliation, there seems to be less not more cohesion and cooperation over time. It almost makes one nostalgic for a time when there were a few moderate Hudson Republican aldermen like Ed Thompson and Kathy Harter, with whom one could have open and reasonable discussions.

Did the Columbia Dems nominate a Trumper for County Sheriff?

Krapf vs. Bartlett described as ‘a Republican primary’

 

Democratic nominee for Columbia County Sheriff Don Krapf voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020, according to three sources who had face-to-face conversations with him earlier this year.

According to one source, Krapf not only admitted voting twice for The Other Donald, but added that he couldn’t support Hillary Clinton in 2016 “because it would have been like voting for the Devil.”

“I wondered about his Trump leanings when I saw his orange campaign signs,” quipped one prominent Democrat who is supporting incumbent Republican David Bartlett for Sheriff, despite the County Democrats’ endorsement of Krapf.

Though Krapf’s campaign slogan is Transparency Creates Trust,* the candidate has refused to confirm or deny his alleged support for Trump, even when asked directly multiple times. Krapf also declined to participate in a telephone interview, asking that questions be submitted instead via Facebook messenger—then ignored all messaged questions.

This reporter finally cornered Krapf at a campaign event this month. But the Dem nominee again dodged the specific question of whether he had voted for Trump in either 2016 or 2020, or both, saying that national politics were not a part of his campaign. (Previously, this site had asked him how national politics could be excluded from a sheriff’s race, when issues crossing local and national boundaries such as ICE raids have been hotly-debated in recent years. Again, no response from the Transparent Candidate.)

“The County Democrats are basically funding a Republican primary in November,” said one party insider. “I don’t know why we couldn’t find an actual Democrat to run, especially since Bartlett seems vulnerable this cycle.”

Bartlett’s campaign has been dogged by the fallout from the savage beating of Harold Handy at the Kinderhook home of Sheriff Deputy Kelly Rosenstrach last year, while Bartlett’s surrogates have have hit back with allegations that Krapf was “disciplined for multiple domestic disturbances.”

Deputy Sheriff Don Krapf

Krapf’s former campaign manager, Sam Donnelly, also dodged the same Trump question shortly before he resigned over the summer. Donnelly was paid out of funds assigned to support the Democrats’ nominees, but was reportedly instructed by then-Dem chair Keith Kanaga to only focus on the Sheriff’s race.

Adding to credible suspicions that Krapf was a Trumper as recently as November 2020, he also declined to respond to the same question during interviews conducted by the Columbia County Democratic Committee. 

According to committee members present at the interviews, Krapf and his Republican incumbent opponent, David Bartlett were both asked about Trump. Bartlett reportedly stated definitively that he did not vote for Trump in 2020. But Krapf refused to answer the committee’s question, leading several present to infer that he had supported Trump—since there would be only upside to telling Democrats he hadn’t.

A number of County Dems further noted that Bartlett seemed much more informed and professional in his presentation to the Committee, while Krapf appeared unprepared and vague. Nevertheless, the committee gave their nod to Krapf. 

No debate has been held between the candidates in advance of Tuesday’s general election.

As of 2019, Krapf was a registered Republican. Donnelly indicated that the candidate intended to switch his registration to Independent after the November election, but not before. Current Board of Elections records indicated Krapf has switched to “NOP,” for No Party enrollment. 

Krapf has also indicated that if elected he would tap Jackie Salvatore, a retired State Police official, as undersheriff. Salvatore was a registered Conservative until recently, also switching to NOP.

Sheriff David Bartlett

The party’s NGP VAN (Voter Action Network) database, which rates voters as to how conservative or liberal they are, shows that Krapf actually has a slightly more right-leaning rating that his Republican opponent, Bartlett.

Meanwhile, two sources said that when speaking face-to-face with Krapf last Spring, he admitted that he not yet vaccinated. Donnelly claimed that on the advice of his doctor, Krapf was waiting to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and eventually did so. This site knows of no reputable doctors who have advised patients to wait for the J&J vaccine over Pfizer or Moderna; indeed, the J&J vaccine has been widely considered the least effective of the three. 

One Democratic source claimed that Krapf was disinvited from a party fundraiser earlier this year due to a lack of vaccination, but believes he is probably vaccinated now. Krapf was maskless at the campaign event noted above, and maskless again when he cast his vote early in Hudson, according to one poll watcher who disapproved.

Any whiff of Trumpism among County Democratic nominees seems especially ironic, given party officials and committee members have harshly condemned any Democrat who has given even mild thanks or praise to local Republicans, let alone supported Trump. Indeed, even the slightest association with Republicans has been grounds for virtual excommunication from party affairs—except when it’s blessed by Democratic party officers. 

Krapf did answer one question: Why didn’t he seek the Republican nomination, since he had been a Republican for so long?

“I didn’t want to divide the party,” he said—meaning the Republican Party. That’s mighty considerate of a Democratic nominee, helping the Republicans to stay united.

Observers are left with a strong impression that the County Dem leadership was so desperate for a win, that they didn’t particularly care whether their nominee was cut from the same cloth as the GOP incumbent.

Krapf’s strategy appears to be to keep his head down, and offer only bland, general policy proposals, in hopes of garnering all the votes of rank-and-file Democrats unaware of his Republican background… while earning just enough GOP votes to put him over the top in a close race.

It might work; some political observers strongly believe that Bartlett has burned too many bridges to get re-elected. But what will the Dems have really accomplished, besides swapping out a law-and-order Republican for a conservative cop of their own?

Update: Since publishing this piece on Thursday, this site has received additional confirmation that Krapf indeed has said he voted for Trump in both of the last two Presidential elections.

 

 

---

* Oddly, Krapf’s slogan seems to have changed slightly over time. The sign in the photo atop this article, taken early in the campaign, says “Transparency Shows Honor.” Later, this morphed into “Transparency Creates Respect,” before settling on “Transparency Creates Trust.” Apparently transparency is transformable.

Dolan disappears from Board of Elections

James J. “Jimmy” Dolan Jr. is no longer working at the Columbia County Board of Elections, where he had served as the Democratic Election Specialist.

On Monday night, multiple sources in both the Democratic and Republican party establishment claimed that Dolan had been fired by Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin, who had hired him several years ago.

However, during a visit to the Board’s temporary offices at 401 State, a visibly tense Martin insisted on Tuesday that Dolan had chosen to resign.

When asked about one source’s claim that Dolan had been fired initially, but then offered an opportunity to quit instead, Martin repeatedly intoned, “I’m not going to comment on personnel.”

Two requests for comment from Dolan, a current Greenport Committeeman and until 1991 the highly controversial Hudson Police Chief, were not returned.

Columbia County Democratic Chair Keith Kanaga said in email that it would be “inappropriate” for him to address the matter.

Local Republicans and Democrats have long had a tacit agreement to not interfere with each other’s BOE appointments. As a general rule, it would be out of character for such moves to be made without an intense discussion happening first among party leadership.

 

---

 

The split between Martin and Dolan doesn’t come as much of a surprise to longtime observers of the County political scene. It seemed less a question of if but when the two would come to loggerheads.

His appointment to the BOE, raised many eyebrows, given the former Chief’s past legal problems.

Dolan’s case in The New York Times in 1991

Dolan was sentenced in 1991 “to five years' probation and fined $8,000 for obstructing justice by interfering with drug investigations by other law-enforcement agencies,” according to reports in The New York Times and many other papers.

At the time of sentencing, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Harris “criticized Mr. Dolan for trying to consolidate all police power in the city in his own hands and setting himself above the law,” according to the Times report.

“He is not psychologically suited for this line of work,” Judge Harris stated at the time.

His prosecution was led by District Attorney Paul Czajka, who per the Times brought charges that Dolan “tried to keep law-enforcement agencies out of Hudson, a city of 8,000, to protect ‘friends, relatives, subordinates and himself,’”.

In 1992, Dolan was briefly remanded to the Columbia County jail by Harris “for failure to pay his fine [and] to perform his mandated community service,” according to a report in the Albany Times-Union.

Along with Dolan’s prosecution, 1991 featured a flurry of other legal action against past and present members of the Hudson Police. An HPD detective was charged in Federal court “with soliciting cocaine and crack for his own use,” and another officer was “accused of lying to a grand jury about drug use.”

A close friend of the then-Chief was also “accused of setting fire to the car of Jill Hazelton, a reporter for a local newspaper who wrote articles containing criticism of Mr. Dolan,” according to the Times.

Asked whether she now regretted hiring Dolan, considering his history, Martin exclaimed “Oh for God’s sake!” before resuming her mantra about not commenting on personnel decisions. Martin absolutely refused to address how much or even whether she knew about Dolan’s past when he was hired.

 

---

 

The most recent episode at the Board of Elections was not Dolan’s first attempt to make a comeback on the area political scene.

In 1998, then-Mayor Richard Scalera appointed Dolan to head up the Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency. His appointment immediately ignited a firestorm of protest, with then-activist Daniel Region pointing out that during his first election campaign Scalera had promised “never” to include Dolan in his administration.

Dolan’s brief tenure at HCDPA was marked by more controversy over inaccurate grant applications and disastrous proposals such as a toxic waste processing plant to be sited in what is now Basilica Hudson.

When later appointed Commissioner of Grants for the City, this reporter was charged with attempting to make sense of HCDPA’s files. Those files were found in almost complete disarray—apart from one neatly-kept file in Dolan’s desk drawer, which contained highlighted articles about public critics at the time, such as Time & Space Limited’s Linda Mussmann.

After resigning from the Hudson Police force, Dolan ran into problems as he sought employment with New York State.

An Appellate Division decision from 2003 found that he twice misrepresented his record on employment forms. In applying for a State job in 1996, the Court found that he “failed to mention that he violated the terms of his probation, which resulted in his incarceration and the imposition of additional community service.”

Finally securing an appointment February 2000, Dolan was dismissed less than 8 months later after his full record came to light. He sued the State for wrongful termination; but according to the court ruling denying his claim, “[T]he Director of Human Resources Management for Taxation and Finance discovered that petitioner had violated probation and had been sentenced to jail. Doubting petitioner's credibility and honesty, the Director contacted Civil Service and requested that petitioner's appointment be revoked.”

Dolan eventually moved to the Carolinas, and was seldom seen in Hudson until his return several years ago (when he actually bought this reporter a beer while we were both watching football at Melino’s).

Dolan appeared to have become much milder and more agreeable, and eager to start anew.

 

---

 

At the time, Martin privately justified Dolan’s appointment to some who questioned it with the notion that “everyone deserves a second chance.” (Some might argue that this was actually his third or fourth chance.)

Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin

There have been only a few known complaints about Dolan’s tenure at the Board, although Dolan reportedly blew up at Czajka earlier this year when the D.A. visited the Board of Elections and greeted him with a sunny “Good morning, Chief!”

Dolan was still on the job as of late morning Monday, if not later, according to one Democratic official.

But during a Tuesday morning visit, his desk chair was conspicuously empty in the Board’s temporary quarters at 401 State. (The BOE has had to move from its usual offices due to a persistent infestation of fleas.)

Democratic Committee Vice Chair Erin Stamper was working at the office on Tuesday, but declined to address Dolan’s situation or his replacement. When asked what her position at the Board is, Stamper replied “part-time Election assistant.”

However, Martin separately affirmed that Stamper is replacing Dolan in his capacity of Election Specialist, the third-ranking position for each party under the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.

It’s unclear whether Stamper will retain her role as the second-ranking CCDC officer given the promotion, which puts her in the dual role of both being the #2 County Democratic party decision-maker, and also processing essential documents related to the outcome of local elections. Kanaga also did not respond to a query about whether such a dual role was proper.

Asked whether Dolan’s disappearance from the Board would leave it in a difficult position with barely six weeks left before Election Day, a tight-lipped Martin said “There is no good time for a transition here.”

The Departed: Jeff Bagnall, a/k/a Sweeps

A visit to Jeff Bagnall’s second-floor office above Sweeps Vacuums involved more layers of security than most government buildings.

First, his wife Patti would go in back to see if he was available. Jeff would amble out in his usual fedora-and-pocketed-vest attire. After a gum-chewing grin and a firm handshake, he’d offer a visitor a coffee from his machine. (Declining was not an option.) If you were deemed trustworthy enough, next came a short trip upstairs in a small, keyed elevator that he’d installed in his 700-block shop.

At last, you reached the inner sanctum: A moderate-sized office crammed with video monitors showing various views of the interior and sidewalk. My understanding was that he was also able to monitor the sound both inside and out of the shop. Before he sold his vacuum domain names—website addresses which he’d cornered in the 1990s—a computer screen kept careful track of web traffic and online sales. (At one point, he was reputedly the largest web retailer of vacuums, but eventually Jeff concluded that it was better to take a lump-sum payment for the domains than to bother with fulfilling electronic sales.)

Jeff was also an aficionado of portable surveillance gear, having a drawer full of handheld and disguised recording devices which could be slipped into a pocket. Even in the protected confines of this command center, Jeff spoke in hushed tones, as if suspicious that his interlocutor might be wearing a wire. He likewise was constantly armed, a precaution which came in handy when a well-known local lunatic randomly slashed him with a knife in front of his store: Jeff drew his gun and held the attacker in place until the HPD arrived to make an arrest. Until his health prevented it, he was fond of venturing across the alley behind Sweeps to the Iron Horse, where he was a regular.

 

Jeff’s humorous side

A retired police Captain who ran the huge Nassau County department for two decades, in the first years of this new century Jeff also was a Freemason, and served as Hudson’s Police Commissioner. Unlike many holders of this appointed position, Jeff was proud to have faced down repeated attempts to politically influence his management of the Department. His tenure was marked, among other things, by the scandal-ridden “retirement” of the then-police chief, whom Jeff had investigated for charging the force for time spent on personal matters—specifically, time spent with a woman not his wife, in a love nest next-door to the station. It was during his time that the police finally began to crawl out from its bad reputation earned in the 1980s and ’90s. One of his Nassau County colleagues wrote at the time of his death that “Jeff was a great guy and would give you the shirt off his back.”

Jeff was mindful that opponents of St. Lawrence Cement had many concerns about the safety of their persons and property, and took steps behind the scenes to reassure those seeking to “stop the plant” that the HPD would look after everyone, regardless of their position on the proposal. When we organized a massive march in Hudson in 2001, Jeff made sure that there was a subtle yet obvious law-enforcement presence: not to intimidate the protestors, but to let us know that they weren’t going to allow the marchers to be harassed.

Jeff prided himself on his integrity as well as his deeply-held skepticism of politicians. He was not afraid to take public stands and back people he believed in. He knew—and kept—a lot of local secrets, while quietly aiding more people than anyone knew. He was someone I felt comfortable turning to whenever I had a big decision to make.

Jeff also seemed to have an endless supply of jokes, many of them unprintable here. (On the more printable side, his storefront for many years featured a straw broom labeled “Economy Model.”)

To this day I expect to turn and see one of his giant SUVs crawling up Warren Street, festooned with spotlights and radar and antennae. Often when he spotted a friend, he would pull over and summon them to a hushed conference in the passenger seat. His steady and unwavering presence is much missed—not to mention having a local place to buy Miele bags or fix an old Electrolux.

County sheriff donations expose GOP schism

The funeral last week for a moderate Republican official may be the last time for a while that the Columbia County GOP  all come together in the same room on a cordial basis. With incumbent sheriff David Harrison not running for reëlection, the upcoming September 10th primary between Capt. David Bartlett and State Police investigator Mazzacano has the potential to get nasty, and already has divided the party ranks.

State campaign finance records tell the story of which prominent Republicans and businesses are lining up on which side.

The Republican caucus endorsed Bartlett, and donations to their man largely coming from Harrison loyalists and other Republicans generally seen as allied with former State Assembly Minority Leader and lobbyist John Faso:

Valerie Bertram, former Stuyvesant Supervisor—$80
Gail Dicosmo, Assistant to the Board of Supervisors — $100
Gary Graziano, Hudson Police Commissioner—$130
Kathy Harter, Deputy Elections Commissioner—$100
John Faso, Lobbyist and Former Assemblyman — $100

Bartlett has also garnered corporate support from a hodgepodge of politically--connected businesses and political groups, including engineers Morris Associates ($250), Valley Oil ($40), Lebanon Valley Auto Racing ($1,000), Harrison for Sheriff ($250) and the Law Enforcement Officers’ Union ($200). Couturier North America, which landed the old bakery building on Route 9 in Livingston with the blessing of County development officials, also donated $100 to Bartlett.

Donations to Mazzacano, meanwhile, largely stem from another faction mainly associated with Richard Koskey’s semi-secret barn confab of conservative insiders: 

Bill Better, former County Attorney—$250
Roy Brown, Germantown Supervisor—$50
Don Kline, former Election Commissioner & Supervisor—$40
Rev. Ronald Grant, Shiloh Baptist Church—$25
Holly Tanner, County Clerk—$50
Kippy Weigelt, Claverack Supervisor candidate—$30
Dick Koskey, Accountant—$50

Corporate donations to Mazzacano include schoolbus operator Ben Funk, Inc. ($75) and mobile home builders John Alvarez & Sons ($125).

New Lebananon Supervisor Mike Benson is said to have hosted a fundraiser for Bartlett attended by GOP chair Greg Fingar, from whom no donations appear in the State database.

Interestingly, Hudson Alderman and Taghkanic resident Cappy Pierro crossed party lines to donate to Mazzacano—passing over fellow Democrat Mike Winnie, who is running for Sheriff from the other side of the aisle. Chatham Deputy Chief Mark Leggett dropped out of the early running, and is said to now back Winnie rather than his former GOP rivals. Democrat Ancram Supervisor Art Bassin donated to Bartlett, rather than Winnie.

The campaigns thus far appear obsessed with sign wars, with pockets of the county featuring alternating Bartlett/Mazzacano lawns. Generally, one tends to see signs for popular judge Jonathan Nichols alongside Bartlett’s. But Mazzacano is clearly winning the who-has-the-most-gigantic-signs-with-huge-photos-of-the-candidate’s-face battle.

If the campaign follows the usual pattern, as we get closer to primary day on the 10th, expect to see a lot more aggressive (and in some cases ghostwritten) letters-to-the-editor. Most will likely feature bland encomiums to their preferred candidate, but a few will contain more personal insinuations of financial or professional impropriety.

Since Bartlett has secured the Conservative and Independence lines, a Mazzacano win in the Republican primary would raise the prospect of a three-way race in November, giving Winnie (whose past campaigns have fallen short) a much stronger chance of prevailing.

As far as law enforcement issues go, it is not clear from the candidates’ statements so far that there are any significant policy differences. The primary seems to be more about personal loyalties and turf.

A Tale of Two Cases

 

New Lebanon Town Justice Jessica Byrne-York (Source: GCN News)

Last week, Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka drew applause from pro-gun quarters for declining to prosecute the first man arrested under New York’s new SAFE Act.

Gregory Dean of Hopewell Junction had faced charges for having nine bullets in his .40-caliber pistol, two more than the new legal limit of seven. Published reports gave no indication of any objection from Town Justice Jessica Byrne-York to Czajka’s exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

Meanwhile, less than an hour to the north, an Albany judge took a very different view of another exercise of such discretion. Assistant District Attorney David Rossi declined to call witnesses against members of the Occupy movement who had camped last summer in a local park.

But the judge in that case, William Carter, did not look so impassively on Rossi’s decision as Byrne-York did on Czajka’s. Instead, Judge Carter warned the Assistant D.A. that he could be charged with contempt of court. (Note that Rossi was understood to be carrying out the wishes of his boss, the progressive Albany County D.A. David Soares, who has refused to prosecute other trespassing cases against Occupy.)

Why the difference in handling? No doubt some legal expert can find some way in which the two situations are “distinguishable,” and don’t present a contradiction. But to a layperson, the principle in play appears to be the same: Does a prosecutor have the right not to press a case following an arrest—whether for ideological, budgetary or other reasons?

In these two cases, it looks a lot like the difference in judicial approach has less to do with differing interpretations of the law, and more to do with either politics or control, or both.

In the gun case, one suspects that the New Lebanon Town Justice shared Czajka’s position on the SAFE Act, and thus did not view the D.A.’s exercise of discretion through a hostile lens. (Byrne-York was in the news early last year after recusing herself from the case of 28 teenagers found drinking at the home of Republican Town Supervisor Michael Benson.) In the Albany case, there is no obvious evidence of any hostility to the Occupy movement from Carter. But the Judge may view the repeat declinations by the D.A.’s office as a threat to his authority.

For Czajka, the issue of prosecutorial discretion is also not a new one. In December, Judge Jonathan Nichols (another Republican, though one generally considered moderate) sided with the Columbia D.A. in his dispute with Kinderhook Justice David Dellehunt, ruling (per The Columbia Paper) that “unfettered discretion to determine whether or not to prosecute an individual and the Courts may not and should not interfere with that discretion.”

UPDATE: A reader points to this editorial a couple days ago in The Albsny Times-Union, which raises the same disconnect between the two cases, and posits another explanation. The paper alleges that Judge Carter has a close affiliation with a candidate that was beaten out by Soares for the D.A. slot, and who still bears him some animosity.

An unexpected apology from the Register-Star

In response to a recent post calling out The Register-Star for swiping a breaking news story and plagiarizing a sentence from this site, an apology has been received from Executive Editor Theresa Hyland for the “copying of your blog entry contents into our story.”

Writing that she was “upset” by the reporter’s actions, which Hyland said “do not meet our journalistic standards and we cannot tolerate such behavior,” she also noted that “we have let the offending reporter go.”

The intent of the post was to put a stop to the predatory use of local blogs as news-gathering sources without crediting them as sources, not to get anyone fired. Though plagiarism is indeed a cardinal sin of journalism—and this example was flagrant—it’s debatable whether it rose to a firing offense.

The apology was appreciated and appears to be sincere. Not knowing what other factors and history played into the paper’s decision, this site is not in a position to judge the full cause and appropriateness of their employment decision. 

(Interestingly enough, the reporter “let go” was himself a replacement for some of the staff lost in the paper’s controversial firing last winter of another Hudson beat reporter, which led to multiple resignations of other news staff.)

Interesting

SamPratt.com, Friday morning around 9:30 am, breaking the news that Lieutenant Richard Paolino is stepping down from the HPD:

“This comes on the heels of the recent retirement of Hudson Police chief Ellis Richardson, and appointment of Ed Moore as the new Chief.”

The Register-Star on Friday evening at 11:55 pm:

“Paolino’s retirement comes on the heels of the recent retirement of former Police Chief Ellis Richardson, the appointment of new Police Chief Edward Moore and ...”

Now, the Register routinely cribs breaking news tips from blogs such as my site and Carole Osterink’s without acknowledging the source. For example, when this site broke the story that Mid-Hudson Cable had returned a much-ballyhooed multimillion-dollar rural broadband grant to the Feds, the Register then reported the story without noting how it had come to light. 

Rarely, however, does the Hudson paper so flagrantly copy the specific phrasing of our items... At least try to paraphrase, y’all, when you’re mining other people’s sites to do the legwork of digging up breaking news.

Resumé for Moore

ABOVE: This photo from the New York State Police Newsroom identifies Sgt. Ed Moore as second from the right.

This site has obtained a copy of the resumé of Sgt. L. Edward (Ed) Moore, whom three well-placed sources now are predicting will soon be named the new Hudson Police Chief. A copy of the resumé can be read as a PDF by clicking here. An excerpt follows below:

I am a thirty two (32) year veteran of the New York State Police.  I have the unique qualification of having been involved in all facets of police management, criminal investigations, and road patrol. As the highest ranking and longest serving non-commissioned officer in the four county region of the Mid-Hudson River Valley of New York State, I have had numerous commendations for public service, personal integrity, administration, and investigative work in organized crime, drug trafficking, bribery, and corruption.

The New York State police have honored me with the rank of First Sergeant of Troop K. Only nine other State Police Members hold this prestigious position – “the Sergeant’s Sergeant.”  As such, I am in charge of the Headquarters facility in Millbrook, responsible for the supervision of 20 civilian staff, developing special details and plans for Troop K’s activities.   I oversee the maintenance of the Troop’s 300 plus vehicles, and the purchases of all supplies and equipment. I have oversight of scheduling, deployment of manpower, safety, overtime expenditures, and discipline. I am in charge of ceremonial details,  and I am particularly proud of assuring the Troop’s adherence to military regulations, proper display of the flag, and the traditions of the New York State Police.

Moore’s resumé cites, among other things: his voluntary service in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; his management of infrastructure and building projects for the Troop K barracks in Livingston, an investigation into illegal dumping which led to the arrest of a mob hit man (including his cross-examination by F. Lee Bailey), and his apprehension of a suspect in a murder which occurred in the Columbia Memorial Hospital parking lot,

The Cross Dossier, Exhibit C

The search for (and failed case against) Quintin Cross and Jamont McClendon engaged the local political class to a remarkable degree. Due to the City’s tangled web of rivalries and allegiances, Cross’s career in electoral politics, as well as the inherently political nature of a City Hall burglary, records show that both the defense and the prosecution received help from various political players.

For example, on the day the burglary was discovered, the email pictured above was sent by former Hudson Democratic chair and four-time Mayoral candidate Linda Mussmann to lawyer Susan Tipograph. The New York City-based attorney, a longtime associate of Time & Space Limited, was already representing Cross regarding legal attempts to compel him to pay restitution for his illegal charges on a City credit card. The email alerts Tipograph that, in Mussmann’s words, “Quintin has screwed up big time.” The next day, Mussmann forwarded a Register-Star article to Tipograph regarding the warrants out for Cross and McClendon’s arrest. A printout of this email exchange was provided by Cross in the box of documents made available for this site’ inspection.

Another local player assisting Cross’s team was former School Board candidate and education blogger Lynn Sloneker, who now serves as news director of radio station WGXC. The documents provided by Cross show that Sloneker responded to his request for media research, providing excerpts of articles covering the current and previous case.

The trove of documents also reveals a hand-drafted (but unsigned) agreement between Cross and Taghkanic residents Dan and Mary Udell, in which they agree to post his bond in exchange for weekly meetings with Cross and regular updates from him about the case. The Udells were honored several years ago by the Columbia County Democrats for their videotaping of Hudson City Council and other local meetings.

On the other side of the case, Cross’s records also show that former Mayor Dick Tracy contacted the Hudson Police Department during his six-week disappearance. Tracy passed along a report that a resident of the Crosswinds housing complex was receiving packages on the former alderman’s behalf. When the HPD investigated, the person in question denied both doing so and knowing anything about Cross’s whereabouts. Tracy also passed along a tip that someone familiar with Cross believed he “was somewhere in Texas.”

A Register-Star employee contacted the HPD on March 21st to say that she thought she saw Cross and McClendon at the Cheesecake Factory in Colonie Center. Investigation by the Colonie police did not turn up any evidence they had been there.

Meanwhile, Cross has responded to widespread talk that recently-resigned HPD chief Ellis Richardson somehow influenced the handling of the case. (During his interview with Detective Funk, the policeman leaves for about 20 minutes after saying, “Let’s see what my boss wants.”) Cross wrote in an email last week that:

I am close with the Chief and I know for a fact he wasn't around that day actually he was in Albany and I know that I was indicted by the time he got back.

In a transcript posted yesterday of his own interview, McClendon asks to speak with the Chief, but Detective Funk says that he is there on the Chief’s behalf and that he should talk to him as such.

The Cross Dossier, Exhibit B

 

As noted in the first post in this series, former Hudson Alderman Quintin Cross has provided this site with access to a large trove of documents his defense collected during the time that authorities tried (but ultimately failed) to prosecute him and a friend, Jamont McClendon, for the much-discussed burglary at City Hall.

Coincidentally, just hours after the first installment was published, the City of Hudson announced that Hudson Police chief Ellis Richardson was retiring.

Below are excerpts of a second key video from that dossier. This site has made a partial transcript of the HPD’s interrogation of McClendon on the night he was arrested in a house on State Street—roughly two weeks after the burglary and after warrants went out for the pair’s arrest.

This wide-ranging conversation covers an extremely diverse set of topics, from the definition of racism, to why he and Cross like to go to the Red Dot, to what McClendon was doing on the night of the burglary, to questions about political influence, to whether “hippies in Harlemville” could be harboring Cross.

The interview runs nearly four times longer than Cross’s, and is far more emotional and far-ranging. Detective John Funk and McClendon have an obvious rapport, and the conversation reveals a great deal about both life on Hudson’s streets and the folks who police it—humanizing both the suspect and the detective. Their dialogue is by turns argumentative, compassionate, lighthearted, tragic or just profane.

McClendon is handcuffed throughout, and complains to Funk of his treatment during his arrest. Later, he was assigned a public defender, John Leonardson, whose role in the case has been very low-profile. But other documents indicate that Leonardson’s thorough research and forceful briefs were instrumental in the outcome. Leonardson argued that this interview should have been disclosed to the defense earlier; that it both contained “Brady” material which would aid the defense, but also was not admissible as evidence against his client; and that McClendon arguably should not have been quizzed without an attorney present.

Detective Funk repeatedly alludes to a legal constraint that he is under, that the interview is supposed to be limited to information regarding the whereabouts of Cross—who at that point was still missing—and not the sealed indictment against McClendon which would be opened in court the next day. (As one legal expert noted to me this week, the pair were not technically fugitives from justice during their disappearance, because they had yet to be arraigned before a judge.)

Funk first reads McClendon his Miranda rights, which McClendon acknowledges, tells him he has a warrant for his arrest and an indictment from Columbia County court, and gives him a bottle of Pepsi. (Later, he offers to let him smoke out the window of the police station office.)

McClendon says that he has been in Hudson, not Albany. Funk says he is not going to ask about the case; but McClendon says he wants to know about the case. He says he doesn’t know what he’s been charged with, and Funk asks why he didn‘t come into talk sooner... From there it’s off to the races:

---

JM: I didn’t partake in anything. Really. I didn’t do nothin’. I just got out of jail... When I called here, you just had me on hold—I don’t know, two, three minutes. I just kept hanging up. What the fuck. If they wanted to talk, we could talk.

FUNK: I’ve been trying to find you since the 19th of March... You didn’t try that hard to come see me. I’ve known you, and I’ve always been straight with you.

---

FUNK: I’m not bullshitting you, I’ve got nothing to gain by lying to you. So since the 19th, when this investigation started, I’ve talked to one person, and I haven’t had a chance to speak with you. And unfortunately for you, you got drawn into it, after I spoke to one person—

McCLENDON: I got drawn into it? How the hell did I get drawn into it?

FUNK: I can’t really discuss the case with you, I can’t ask you specific quesitons. So I’m asking you, what you’ve heard since the 19th, when you heard that the cops are looking for you with a warrant. What did they say?

McCLENDON: I thought it was for, cause I got bailed out of jail, I thought it was for a ticket I had to pay, at first. No, they say, they want you for something serious. [Heard it from a] couple of girls on the street... And then, I saw my face in the paper, and I say, what the fuck? And I read it, and say, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ Then I spoke with Quintin, and he said, ‘Ain’t got nothin’ to worry about—they let me go.’ I was like, what the hell they even speaking to us for, what’d we do?

FUNK: What did he tell you? Plus, what did you read in the newspaper?

McCLENDON: He told me we were wanted for questioning... Not a big deal.

FUNK: Why wouldn’t you want to come here and clear your name?

McCLENDON: Because I’m scared to death. I got a long history.

FUNK: I know your history. You got nothing to be scared of.

McCLENDON: I got a lot to be scared of.

FUNK: Not if you—if you come in here, you ask for me, you could have asked for me specifically.

McCLENDON: Swear to God, you know how many times I came in here and asked for you? 

FUNK: No, I don’t.

McCLENDON: Very many times, you and Delaney. They told me hold on... You know what they did? I’d just end up going to jail, because I just get feisty with them, or I have to get bailed out for somethin’ else.

FUNK: Or you take off running. Did you take off tonight?

McCLENDON: No, they just started off slammin’ me.

FUNK: Oh, jesus. Well.

McCLENDON: They just came in and started slammin’ me around.

FUNK: You alright?

McCLENDON: Yeah, I’m alright.

FUNK: Pissed off?

McCLENDON: Yeah. Yeah, I’m pissed off.

FUNK: You’re in a kind of a little bit of a pickle. What laywer you have representing ’ya? Public defender?

McCLENDON: I don’t have nothin’. I don’t even have a family. I just have me, really.

---

FUNK: Let me ask this. You know where Quintin is?

McCLENDON: Didn’t Quintin—wasn’t Quintin going to get a job in China?

FUNK: He was gone.

McCLENDON: I’m pretty sure he went.

FUNK: No, he didn't.

McCLENDON: I’m pretty sure he went.

FUNK: Really? When did he leave?

McCLENDON: I saw when he got on the bus... I don’t know, a day or two after see— not seeing you, a day or two after he came and tell you. Or did he come and see you? I don’t know who he saw.

FUNK: He saw me. I got stuck with this case. I got the short end on this one. For a while.

McCLENDON: And he got on the bus to go to Albany, said he got to go catch his plane. That was it.

FUNK: That’s the last you saw him and talk with him.

McCLENDON: And we went to go eat. I forgot where we went to eat, I dunno, Baba Louie’s or some shit like that. Somewhere on Warren Street.

FUNK: Hmm... After this all happened. I heard the big joke is that you can, you can literally walk into Hudson P.D. like that because we just let people go.

McCLENDON: What?

FUNK: Someone is putting that on Facebook. Unless you got a neon sign blinkin’ off and on, Hudson P.D. isn’t going to arrest you.

McCLENDON: I don’t know.

FUNK: You never hear that?

McCLENDON: Nah, I just know, I didn’t do shit. I just know that for a fact... I just... All this indictment shit, what happened at the prelim and the hearing? Where’s the evidence at? There can’t, there can’t be no evidence.

FUNK: Why?

McCLENDON: Because I didn’t do shit.

FUNK: Jamont. Let me ask you this... YOu made mre forget what I was going to say. Oh, I know what I was going to say. What I understand is, when they took you into custody, did you ask to speak to the Chief?

McCLENDON: Yeah.

FUNK: Now the Chief has given me the—the Chief trusts me enough to have me come in when I’m done working, to maybe speak to you. So I want you to think, I want you to think to yourself, that if you were going to speak to the Chief, I’m actually working on his behalf. And the Chief trusts me enough to speak to you about what you wanted to speak to him about.

McCLENDON: I was going to ask him the same questions. Like what’s going on, like why am I even in it?

FUNK: Why? What did Quintin tell ya?

McCLENDON: Quintin didn’t tell me shit.

FUNK: He sat right here [points] on his cell phone when I was talkin’to him.

McCLENDON: [Incredulous] What, Quintin did?

FUNK: Yup.

McCLENDON: And he told me somethin’?

FUNK: That’s what he said... He was on his cell phone the whole time.

McCLENDON: Talkin’ to me? I don’t think so.

FUNK: No? Then he was not being truthful to me... Alright.

McCLENDON: Cause know why? 

FUNK: Why?

McCLENDON: I don’t even have a cell phone.

---

FUNK: Let me ask you this. We’re talking man-to-man here. If you don’t do something—

McCLENDON: He definitely... I’m pretty sure he got on that plane. I’m pretty sure.

FUNK: Well, then he must have got under on some other name, because I’m pretty sure we had all our bases covered, unless someone gave me bad info... Have you heard from him since he’s been in China?

McCLENDON: I spoke to him... when we’s on Facebook.  But after that, just, he says he’s shutting his Facebook off.

FUNK: He turned it back on. I saw it on Friday.

McCLENDON: I don’t know... He’s not one of my friends. He probably got a different name.

---

McCLENDON: Me and Quintin, that’s one of my best friends, but we don’t really associate how we used to back in the day. ’Cause... We’re into two different type of things.  You know? He’s not into what I’m into, like—

FUNK: What are you into and what’s he into?

McCLENDON: Basically, I’m broke, living house to house. He got a job and shit and he’s taking care of a home. He wants to go out and party and whatever, and I can’t do that, ’cause I don’t have it. You know? So I always go my other way; but if I ditch him, he'll be mad at me for like two, three weeks. You know?

FUNK: So, why, why does he hang out with you? Are you guys cousins? Or are you just friends?

McCLENDON: Naw, we just friends.

FUNK: Um, and he’s got, he goes to school, he’s got a job...

McCLENDON: Yeah, he got everything going for him.

FUNK: Yup. And what have you got going for you?

McCLENDON: I only have a kid to worry about. I was living good. I was living good, I just didn’t have no money. You know? I had enough to go pay for food and shit like that, I ain’t had enough to go and smoke some blunts and shit like that... I don’t smoke weed anyway, but—

FUNK: You like to tip ‘em back though, I know you like to drink.

McCLENDON: Yeah, I like to drink.

FUNK: You’ve been drinkin’ for  along time.

McCLENDON: I go to Wunderbar...

FUNK: Who you go there with, Jamont, let me ask you?

McCLENDON: Um, a lot  by myself. I know a lot of people, but I’m pretty much a loner.

---

FUNK: So you and Quintin, you’ve been friends, but you don’t really associate like you used to?

McCLENDON: Yeah, like we went out for his birthday, because his birthday was March 11th, and we pretty much hung that whole week... He said he going to fucking China to study and be a teacher. He said you going to hang with me for a couple of days, I’m like yeah, don’t ditch me. He’s like ‘Yo, if you need a place to stay, you can stay here...’ Because I just got out of jail, you can stay here. Mess with your old lady around the corner—he say you better stop messin’ with her, she’s too old. I don’t care.

FUNK: Older woman, that’s OK, that’s good for you... They’ve got that nurturing side, they want to be all nurture—take care of ’ya.

McCLENDON: Yeah. 

FUNK: Now, when I had a chance to speak with him, he said you’re, you guys are around each other all the time.

McCLENDON: Yeah, but not lately, cause I’ve been in jail. Shit.

FUNK: Now he, you know, we both know Quintin, he’s a pretty popular guy—

McCLENDON: I see.. We see each other every day, every day, well almost every day, but we don’t... like, wehn he’s going to hang somewhere, like right now, I’m probably not going with him, I’m probably sitting with them for a few munites until they line up to go somewhere, ’cause where they go, or what they’re going to do costs money. If I’ve only got 50 bucks in my pocket, I’m not spending my last 50 bucks, because I know I got to provide for the next day... You know?

FUNK: If he was going to go hang somehwere right now, where would he go?

McCLENDON: Probably go to Wunderbar, or go... Or he likes to go other places, like Red Dot, American Glory... 

FUNK: OK. Why’s he like to go to those bars?

McCLENDON: We got our hippie friends.

FUNK: Why’s he like to hang out there?

McCLENDON: Because they’re classy, they’re casual.

FUNK: There’s some money there.

McCLENDON: Some money there?

FUNK: They take care of, well, people, You know, classy—you’re going to drink good stuff, people are going to be buying you nice... So, he’s got, he’s got a network of friends that’s got money. He’s got a network of friends that got power. He knows people in the right places.

McCLENDON: Yeah, I don’t know about that.

FUNK: What do you mean you don’t know about that? ... He was a public servant. He got elected into office. And he held a position in city hall, so that tells me—

McCLENDON: So you think they’re hiding him?

FUNK: Who?

McCLENDON:  Is that what you’re thinking?

FUNK: You never know.

McCLENDON: I don’t know.

FUNK: I don’t know about that. But my point being—

McCLENDON: But I think, if he was going to go... I don’t know.

FUNK: Wunderbar, American Glory. Red Dot.

McCLENDON: We got a bunch of hippie friends, shit like that.

FUNK: Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm... Where did you go, where’s his best, most favorite place to hang out.

McCLENDON: Probably at the bars.

FUNK: Which bar? Savoia? Ever hang out at the Savoia?

McCLENDON: Not often.

FUNK: Why?

McCLENDON: ’Cause, I just don’t like to go down there myself, I can’t say why... Too much shit happens there.

FUNK: Like what? [Crosstalk]

McCLENDON: You tell me what kind of stuff that happens there.

FUNK: I don’t go to Savoia!

McCLENDON: You a cop, it ain’t like you don’t know. You been here forever.

FUNK: [Laughs] Seems like forever.

McCLENDON: —that bullshit to me.

FUNK: [Laughs]  Well, I just wanted to find out if that’s why you don’t go down there, too many problems with people down there.

McCLENDON: I don’t really have problems with anybody.

[Funk then tries to turn this conversation toward the upcoming indictment, and use the foundation laid above to pit McClendon and Cross against each other by implying that McClendon will be made to take the fall for his friend. However, McClendon doesn’t bite on the gambit.]

FUNK: Let me ask you this. Knowing who Quintin is, and knowing the people Quintin knows , and let’s just say, this whole indictment thing, when they open up this indictment, you’re going to be the first one. You’re going to be the first one that they’re going to see... Jamont McClendon. What’s he do? He don’t have a job. He’s got a kid. He—and this will be their words—he’s got a kid, he don’t work, he’s just drawin’ off of everybody else. Never had a job, never really amounted to much. And I’m just saying, this is what people are going to start thinking. Then you get—here’s Jamont McClendon, he gets caught up, here’s Quintin Cross. Suit, tie, got a lawyer with him, he was an elected official in Hudson. He’s got friends at the Red Dot. He’s got political friends, he’s got friends with money. What’s he going to say when he comes to court? What are they going to say about him? What? If this really happened, what they said in the newspaper, who are they going to believe? If he says he didn’t do it, and you say you didn’t do something... He didn’t do something, you didn’t do something. Who are they going to believe? The guy who’s goin’ to China, or got a nice political position somewhere, got a job, got this, got that, knows the right way to do it—or this poor kid right here?

McCLENDON: I want to tell you this. We didn’t do shit at all. I don’t even know how we’re linked to this.

FUNK: I’m just saying, Jamont, if—

McCLENDON: Out of all the people in the world, us two? Out of all the people in the world. 

FUNK: Well? My thing is, who are they gonna, when it comes down to a finger-pointing thing, who are they going to believe, Jamont?

McCLENDON: I don’t care what they believe, because I didn't—

FUNK: I’m just saying, I’m just saying. Think of it this way. You just said a little bit ago, you’ve got a family and a wife and a kid to worry about. 

McCLENDON: Yeah, but I’m living good though, so I don’t really care about—

FUNK: How are you going to feel when your own best friend, he going to turn his back on you. Because you’re going to jail, he ain't, right now. Because you’re Jamont, Jamont McClendon. And this is Quintin. The other guy who’s in hiding.

McCLENDON: Well, look in China, and bring him back.

FUNK: And what’s he gonna say?

McCLENDON: I don’t know what he’s gonna say. But I know he’s going to be like, why are we even here?

FUNK: He knows why. He knows why he’s here. He knows why, that’s why he took off, and that’s why he left. He knows exactly why. And I'd be hard-pressed to believe to that you don’t know why.

McCLENDON: So why didn’t I take off then?

FUNK: Because you’re smart enough to come in here and say, I didn’t do something. I didn’t have anything to do with it. You got caught up downstreet, that’s the only reason you’re even here. Because this who thing would have just kept going on and on, and I would have to go sit in front of the church tomorrow, when Leslie’s being laid out, looking for you and him.

McCLENDON: If I was going to run, I could have been left. You guys would’ve never found me. Not in a million years.

FUNK: No? Why do you say that. You’re probably right.

McCLENDON: I know I’m right. You guys would have never found me. But I don’t want to lve my life like that. I do petty shit. I don’t pay fines, shit like that. I don’t really commit real crimes.

FUNK: What’s a real crime?

McCLENDON: Like felonies, shit like that. That’s a real crime.

FUNK: Mmm-hmmm. Why don’t you?

McCLENDON: Because, like, why would I?

FUNK: I don’t know! That’s what I’m here to ask.

McCLENDON: I’m asking questions and you’re not answering none of my questions.

FUNK: Yes, I am.

McCLENDON: No you’re not, you’re beating around the bush. I want to know what’s going on.

FUNK: I, I, I can only tell you so much. I can’t get into specifics. I can call Albany, because Albany P.D.’s looking for you, so’s Troy, and you’re going to be all over the news. You’re going to have your 15 minutes of fame. So... I thought you might have an idea of where Quintin’s hiding out. That’s what I wanted to find out.

McCLENDON: I have no idea. Does Quintin have an indictment?

FUNK:  What’s it say in the paper? There’s a warrant for him, right?

McCLENDON: I don’t know. I don’t read the paper much.

FUNK: Everybody knows. You got to be the only one that don’t know.

McCLENDON: Yeah, cause the paper is fucking depressing. I don’t really read the paper...

FUNK: Hmm. Good news don’t sell.

McCLENDON: First thing you open up to is obituaries.

FUNK: As long as your name ain’t in there. Right? I keep looking for mine. Thank god I ain’t been in there yet. ... I want to find out where Quintin is. Or give me a phone number, or someone who would know wehere he is. He ain’t in China, I can tell you that. I know he’s not in China. 

McCLENDON: I’m pretty sure he is. I was—I sat right there on Front Street when he left on the bus, and I just walked away.

FUNK: I can get on the bus, and drive up to Price Chopper, and get off the bus right there. How do you get out of the country, Jamont? Let me ask you that—

McCLENDON: He got a passport. Alright? He already had it set up and everything. He had a plane ticket and everything. Everything.

FUNK: Mmm-hmm. OK. You ever heard of Homeland Security? You watch the news. They go after terrorists and shit?

McCLENDON: You call Homeland Security?

FUNK: Maybe we did.

McCLENDON: See, there you go, beating around the bush again [laughing].

FUNK: You’re smart. You’re smarter than that. ... You think I’m half-assing what I’m doing here? I know he didn’t go to China, and I know he’s going to be coming back to Hudson, ’cause he put it on Facebook. I just thought maybe you'd go out of your way to help me out, to maybe give me an idea where he might be. Give me a cell phone number... Because I’m going to tell you something kid, and I hate to say this, hear me out. That little scenario I gave you, who they going to believe, Quintin or Jamont. And don’t take this the wrong way. They ain’t going to believe shit you have to say. ’Cause right now is your opportunity to say, well, why should you be sitting in jail, while he’s out going to the Red Dot and trying to be the victim? You’re going to be the bad guy, you’re going to be the street kid, the thug ont he street that got caught. He’s going to come waltzing in, looking like someone he’s not, and he’s going to come out smelling like a rose. You'll go to prison, and he'll get friggin’probation, if it even goes that far. ’Cause you’re Jamont McClendon, and he’s Quintin Cross, and I’m telling you face to face the way I see it. What I see comin'. And I don’t want to see that happen, because you may not necessarily be the culpable, the most culpable person? You know what that means?

McCLENDON: Yeah, I know what that means, but like I said,  I didn’t do nothin’ at all. At all.

FUNK: I’m not asking you what you did. I know what happened. I know what happened that night.

McCLENDON: So what happened that night then?

FUNK: You’re going to find out tomorrow. You don’t want to tell me where Quintin is, I can’t, I’m not going to tell you what I know.

McCLENDON: I really don’t know where Quintin is.

FUNK: Somebody knows where he is. I think you know, I bet you know somebody.

McCLENDON: Why don’t you ask one of his family members?

FUNK: We have. You think they’re going to tell me? ... According to him, you guys do everything together. This is what he said.

[...]

McCLENDON: And know what, when I talk to Ellis, I’s going to tell him that the same thing. He’s out of the country. Cause that’s what he said he was going to do. But I didn’t want to tell nobody but Ellis.

FUNK: Well, I’m here because on Ellis’, the Chief’s be—I got to call him the Chief because he’s my boss and I have respect for him. My job is to find out what I can from you that you would tell him. Because he don’t need to get involved. He’s the Chief of Police, that’s not his job. I’m here to do the job, to make Ellis—

McCLENDON: I’ve known him all my life, though.

FUNK: You don’t think he would look out for you? He wouldn’t put his career on the line, he wouldn’t do anything he’s not supposed to.

McCLENDON: I don’t expect him to. He got a job description...

FUNK: And I’m not kissing his ass, but he’ll give everybody two, three, four chances. If you keep fucking it up, then you’re going to pay for it.

McCLENDON: I never got a chance from you guys at all.

FUNK: That’s what—you ain’t never got a chance from me?

McCLENDON: Yeah, from you, maybe.

FUNK: Maybe! I’ve always been good to you. If you run, I’ve always told you, I’m not going to run after you. I’m going to catch you sooner or later. And I caught you, they got you tonight. And I wanted to talk to you when this all went down, this other thing went down, I says I got to talk to Jamont. And I sat right there, and I sat and told your friend right there, when he sat right there, and I said ‘where’s Jamont’ and he said ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.’ I don’t know. So now guess what. You don’t even have the opportunity he had, the got chance he to come in here and tell me what happened. And he got up, and he walked out the door. You’re sitting here in handcuffs, I can’t get in the dis—to tell you what I know... It would make things that much easier, Jamont, if I had the opportunity—so if he told you, to get the fuck out of here, or other people should get out, then they all fucked you, and you’re sitting here, and he’s out doing whatever he’s doing.

McCLENDON: He never told me to go anywhere. He just told me don’t worry about nothin’.

FUNK: You know what? He didn’t give you good advice. But I’m telling you, you would have come in here that same day, and you would have walked right out of here. Just like he did. Not that I’m playin—not that he got any special favor, he had the opportunity to tell me what happened. You got fucked, and didn’t get the opportunity to come tell me what happened. Because now I gotta watch what I say and ask certain things that you want to say, because my hands are tied now. And I would love to hear what you have to say other than ‘I didn’t do anything.’ Come on, Jamont, I didn’t pick you out of thin air. You know I’ve been around, I been here forever.

McCLENDON: All I know, somethin’s up.

FUNK: Mmm-hmm.

McCLENDON: I need to know what’s up.

FUNK: You need to give me, tell me something, and can tell, I’ll tell you whatever I can. But I can’t tell, I can’t get into detail, and even discuss the other par—I don’t want to talk about Jamont. I want to know where Quintin might be... or I want to know who Quintin might be hanging out with. Or what was discussed after. Because I already know what led up to you, to you and Quintin, or Quintin leaving for CHina, and you just being around town. I know what led up to that on the 19th, I know what happened on the 19th, which was a Monday night, or Monday morning. I know what happened. So does he. Now, you know what? If he didn’t tell you, then he really stuck it to you, because he knows what happened. So you’re on your own to figure out what the fuck happened that night.

McCLENDON: He tell me he was questioned about somethin’, and that was it.

FUNK: Questioned about what?

McCLENDON: He say, he was questioned about somethin’. I don—Somethin’ took place, and I was implicated, and he was implicated. I said what, he say he didn’t want to discuss it now. Then he start talkin’ to his mother, and then he start talkin’ to his baby mother, his kid mother.

FUNK: The one up in Albany?

McCLENDON: Yeah. And then, did you check there? You checked there.

FUNK: First floor apartment, on S—Street?

McCLENDON: I don’t know exactly where she lives... [Crosstalk] And then...

FUNK: But just so you know, all, I’ve got detectives, they’r watching it, they’ve got his picture... But I’m thinking he’s going to come down and pay his respects to Leslie, his aunt. And let me tell you what, if you don’t pay your respects to his dead aunt, what kind of person, what kind of man does that tell you he’s going to be?

McCLENDON: Yeah, but you basically just want to catch him. You don’t care.

FUNK: What?

McCLENDON: You don’t care if he goes there.

FUNK: Yes I do. Yes I do. Cuz, let me ask, if he was incarcerated, and his aunt died, you mean to tell me he wouldn’t want to go? Guys do that shit all the time, Jamont. I know that. Whether they like him or not. But right now, he’s scared, he don’t know what to do. You got caught. Tell me he don’t know. He knows you’re here. He’s sweating right now, being afraid of what you’re going to tell me. You know what? Maybe he should be. I wasn’t there that night, but I know what happened. You guys were there.

McCLENDON: Where were we?

FUNK: At his house on 5th Street.

McCLENDON: Yeah, we were. We were sitting there on the porch, getting drunk. A bunch of people where there—

FUNK: Fryin’ turkeys. Right? Fried turkey?

McCLENDON: How the fuck did you know that?

FUNK: Who the fuck are you talking to, kid? I don’t know everything, but I kn—just so you know.

McCLENDON: So you all were watching this?

FUNK: No-ho. I was home in bed, Jamont. I got called at 6:30 in the morning to come in here. I’m in bed at 10 o’clcok at night on a good night. But I do my job, and I ask questions. And that’s what I gotta do. And unfortunately or fortunately, however, you want to look at it, my direction, I get led to certain places.

McCLENDON: Yeah.

FUNK: I don’t wanna see you in an any worse situation you are right now. I want to know—I would love to know what you know right now. But... What I want to—about what happened that night. Because I’d love to hear your version of it, other than ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’ because I know you know. Anyway. I want to know where Ja—where—if Quintin wasn’t in China, if he was in the, if he wasn’t have this world trip lanned, where he might be, where he might go, other than his baby’s mother’s house up on, up in Albany.

McCLENDON: Check in any one of his family’s house.

FUNK: OK, I can ch—

McCLENDON: We’re not related, people just think we are.

FUNK: I thought you were his cousin.

McCLENDON: No, people just think we are.

FUNK: Are you related to the Chief? I heard you’re his cousin, too.

McCLENDON: The Chief?

FUNK: Chief’s your cousin?

McCLENDON: Nnnnnn...

FUNK: Alright. I tell you what, Jamont, I hear a million different stories.

McCLENDON: Yeah, but that’s what you should do. He got sisters, he got brothers.

[They discuss Cross’s brothers, sisters and other relatives, and where they live]

FUNK: Where would you go?

McCLENDON: I have no place to go.

[Funk again tries the strategy of pitting Cross against McClendon]

FUNK: I wanted to get your version, because I, I would believe you, over, over... And I’m not shittin’ ya. Because you’ve got a lot to—like I said, they’ll look at you, and say fuck him, pardon my French. Fuck, you know what? Jamont, he’s got, what’s he gonna do? What’s he going to amount to in society, where, this kid here is going to go to China, teach people how to speak English. They don’t give two shits about guys like you. I hate to say it.

McCLENDON: I know they do.

FUNK: That’s the bullshit part of it. And I’ll tell you another thing, and this aint me talkin’, I’m just telling you what I see. You don’t, cause, when it boils down to it, it’s, it’s you or me. And I say that hypothet—as a hypothetically, it’s going to be either him or you. You know what, fuck, Jamont, you’re my man, I ain’t gonna, I’m not going, I’m going to use what people I know, and this going is to fall on you. And I’ve seen it for a long time, Jamont, I’ve been around, I’ve been around enough to see guys do it on a regular basis. And I don’t want to see this happen to you. Cause like you say, you get drunk, you might run, get in a fight here or there, get a resist cahrge, whatever. But it’s never been a felony where you’re going to wind up going to prison. You’re not the prison guy. You’re not a prison guy. And I’m not saying Quintin is, iether, But I know Quintin’s smart enough to say, let’s see, me, or Quintin—or, me, or Jamont. You’re going to use everything—

McCLENDON: I don’t even have the type of record he has.

FUNK: It don’t matter, bud. It don’t matter. You know peopl—If you didn’t know Quintin, would you go stand out, hanging out at the Red Dot?

McCLENDON: Yeah, I would actually.

FUNK: Would you really?

McCLENDON: Yeah, that’s just my style. See that’s the thing about you, they gave you wrong because of my appearance.

FUNK: There you go.

McCLENDON: That’s the thing about it.

FUNK: There you go. Because when this comes to court, and it goes before a jury, you’re going to sit there and they’re going to to just that. It aint’ nothing to do with the color of your skin. It ain’t got anything to do but who you know. That’s what it all boils down to in life. It’s who you know, and who, and the connections that you—

McCLENDON: What are even the charges?

FUNK: I don’t know, it’s an indictment.

McCLENDON: You can’t tell me the charges. C’mon, you know you know.

FUNK: It’s charging you with a felony, a sealed indictment number.

McCLENDON: A sealed indictment? Ain’t that drugs?

FUNK: No. Not drugs. What did Quintin tell you?

McCLENDON: Huh? ... Quintin said we took something. He ain’t told me from where, he didn’t ell me where.

FUNK: C’mon, Jamont. You know what he said.

McCLENDON: Quintin is very secretive, and he like, and he smiled about it like, these motherfucking, like they keep tryin’ me, he like, cause he got a lawsuit on it, or some shit like that from the last time, because he got falsely accused—

FUNK: Who did!

McCLENDON: Y’all didn’t falsely accuse him. But y’all sent him upstate illegally.

FUNK: I didn’t send anybody upstate.

McCLENDON: He said, so they trying to get to all of us. He was like, but don’t you worry about it, I got somethin’ for ’em.

FUNK: He’s got something for us?

McCLENDON: Yeah.

FUNK: Uh-oh. Like what?

McCLENDON: That’s what he said.

FUNK: Someone gonna shoot me and kill me?

McCLENDON: Nah.

FUNK: I hope not.

McCLENDON: He’s not like that. He know politics. He’ll play politics, you know.

FUNK: YOu know, the hwole race thing? Cause he told me, the only reason I brought him in was cause I think all black people look alike. You think I’m racist?

McCLENDON: No, I don’t think you’re racist.

FUNK: You think I’m prejudiced?

McCLENDON: Nah.

FUNK: I don’t discriminate against nobody, Jamont.

McCLENDON: I think you got the wrong person. You need to let me up out of thses cuffs. I know that.

FUNK: [Laughs] I can’t do that.

McCLENDON: I know that.

FUNK: I think, I gotta get into it.

McCLENDON: I think the rest of them might be racist, though?

FUNK: Do you really?

McCLENDON: Yeah, especially the—who’s the fuckin’ D.A. again?

FUNK: Who, Czajka?

McCLENDON: Yeah, definitely.

FUNK: He ain’t racist. What’s a racist to you?

McCLENDON: Hate for somethin’ else. It don’t have to be a skin color. It can be a demeanor, it can be a demeanor, it can be anything.

FUNK: Do you hate me?

McCLENDON: No. Why would I even be talkin’ to ya?

[...]

McCLENDON: Been out of jail a couple of weeks.

FUNK: [laughing] Well, guess what, bud? You’re going to be going back tonight. I just wanted to find out what you might know or what you wanted to talk to the Chief about. I think that—go ahead.

[...]

McCLENDON: I would have came here, but my record and everything, sometimes people don’t want to hear shit

FUNK: I’d come pick you up, if you called me... I wanted to find out what happened before I had to get an indictment, before I had to sit in front of the grand jury and presented my evidence. And they found there was enough to indict. You think I like doing what I gotta—there’s days where I hate doing what I gotta do. Cause you’re not a, I don’t think you’re a hardened criminal. You’re just a guy that gets fucked up and then does foolish things.

McCLENDON: This is gonna go very far, cuz I’m not just going to let them accuse me of something that—nah, it’s not gonna happen.

FUNK: ALright. I’ve lost some, I win some, and I don’t consider it a win. I’ve had convictions and I’ve had acquittals. they call them wins and losses. Cause when I put, when someone goes to jail, bad people belong in jail and go to prison.. There are a few bad ones there who should be there that aren’t. You’re not one of the bad ones. Like I said, you get caught up in stuff that you don’t normally, that normally you wouldn’t do. And at times I think that you get led to believe that it’s going to be all right because of who you are, who you’re with. I don’t want this to be one of those situations. I would like to know where Quintin would be...

McCLENDON: You’re asking me all these questions, but you’re not answering none of mine... You gotta know what the charge is. You said you worked the case. You definitely know what the charge is.

FUNK: I was asked questions in front of the grand jury, which I’m not allowed to discuss. The grand jury is a secret preceding. The D.A. and all the grand jurors discuss the evidence, and what can be charged. That’s why it’s a sealed indictment.

McCLENDON: I just want to know what the charge is.

FUNK: What’d the newspaper say.

McCLENDON: [Long pause] I don’t remember what the newspaper said, or I wouldn’t be asking you. I want some for real shit, I just want to know what the charges are.

FUNK: Well, hold on a second...

McCLENDON: You got a newspaper in here?

FUNK: ... I’ve got a copy of it. [To Officer] You got the packet in there? [Funk steps out for several minutes] Now, this is what was in the newspaper. [They sit side-by-side and look at a paper]

McCLENDON: Burglary at the City Hall? What?

FUNK: So there ain’t no drug stuff—

McCLENDON: Can they just say that?

FUNK: That’s what I’m investigating.

McCLENDON: You couldn’t just say that?

FUNK: You asked me what the warrant said. What’s the warrant say?

McCLENDON: How could they say that?

[...]

FUNK: So that’s what’s in the newspaper. ... They’re taking advantage—you’re being taken advantage of, whether you believe it or not. You’re getting bad information. You’re going to be the fall guy on this, Jamont, I’m telling you. I’m telling you as I sit right here—

McCLENDON: Third degree burglary.

FUNK: Yup.

McCLENDON: At City Hall. For third degree burglary. What the hell was taken?

FUNK: Property.

McCLENDON: Like what?

FUNK: What do you think? What are you gonna bur—what are you going to steal when—

McCLENDON: [Incredulous] What the hell could you take from City Hall? Only thing I ever went there for was a birth certificate.

FUNK: I don’t know. I don’t know what goes through people’s heads.

McCLENDON: Oh, my goodness.

FUNK: All I’m saying is, all that stuff I said to you before, I meant what I said. You put these two guys side-by-side, sittin’ in court. You have a right to go to a trial, which would be a good idea. But who are they going to look at, who are they going to believe, who are they going to look at? The former alderman, the scholar going to China? Jamont McClendon, lengthy criminal record. Doesn’t really do much. So when, I say all of that because, when this all comes out, there’s a story to be told. He’s going to have a story, and you’re going to have a story. The jurty’s going to be able to say, let’s see, tlet’s think this over here... He’s got a lot going for him. This guy... Cause at a trial that all gets brought out. He got bad checks, or used a credit card. What’s this guy done? What’s he done? They don’t care?

McCLENDON: Yeah.

FUNK: He’s got a ten-page rap sheet. He’s got a felony. You’re smart. Ahh, credit card. Oh, this guy—assault. Resisting. Assault. Resisting. Escape. Holy shit.

McCLENDON: Yeah, I know.

FUNK: This is a bad... He’s the ringl—he made this guy do something he didn’t want to do. That’s what I’m saying I see coming down the road. That’s what you need to think about in your head. [...] He told you, don’t worry about. I got in a little trouble, and I walked out. Here you sit, and he’s somewhere doing this, wondering ‘what’s Jamont telling the police?’

McCLENDON: I don’t know, man. I wish I knew where he was. Man, oh, man. Lying motherfucker.

FUNK: [...] I feel bad, because you’re in a shitty situation. I don’t want to see you get fucked because of somebody else.

[...]

FUNK: I’m just thinking out loud. As people that don’t do this.

McCLENDON: He told me he’s going to China. That was the whole week. That was the only reason I was with him for the few days. We had a cookout. We had some friends in front of his house, there were a bunch of us, there were people there I didn’t even know. I think a couple days before that we was at Savoia’s, we had the birthday party at Savoia.

FUNK: Kind of like a going-away party.

McCLENDON: Yeah. You know. That was it.

FUNK: So that Monday afternoon, when you were at his mother’s house. After he left here.

McCLENDON: Monday afternoon?

FUNK: That Monday, when he came to the police station, when I talked to him. Alright. What did he say to you after he left here?

McCLENDON: He just said... Well, first of all, he didn’t even tell me he went at first. He just said, ‘Oh, these motherfuckers picked me up for some bullshit.’ I said, what do you mean? And he said, um, he said me and you did something. He’s like, but don’t worry about it. I said, Did what? He’s like, ‘took something.’ He’s like ‘You never took nothing a day in your life, and I know I didn’t take nothing. These crackers is trying to get me again. And I ain’t falling for the bullshit.’ I said what he do then, he said asked questions. I said, what it had to do with me? ... They said you showed him some pictures. Somebody did, said, is that Jamont? He’s like, what you talk about, is that Jamont? That ain’t Jamont. And he was like, well, we think it’s Jamont, you should tell him to come in. And then he said, he said... Or he laughed and made another cracker joke.

FUNK: A cracker joke?

McCLENDON: Yeah.

FUNK: What is it? Tell me.

McCLENDON: He said to me another cracker joke.

FUNK: You can tell, I won’t be insulted.

McCLENDON: No, I don’t like that type of shit, you know. And I was at my aunt’s house, and I go to my girl. Fuckin’ [name redacted]—didn’t tell me no shit. And then he was like, well, we should go out to eat [and] to a movie. ... We left, we went to American Glory, had a few drinks, and then we left and went to Baba Louie’s. And then we partied a little bit, and the next day, he got on a bus.

FUNK: [...] So you went out that night?

McCLENDON: No, we were at people’s houses, though. We weren’t at bars and shit.

FUNK: Did he say anything about worrying about getting picked up, getting arrested?

McCLENDON: No, I wouldn’t be fuckin’ walkin’ around like that.

FUNK: I didn’t think so. And then you saw him get on the bus.

McCLENDON: And that was it.

FUNK: And that was the last time you spoke with him?

McCLENDON: That was the last time I spoke with him. I saw his phone number was [redacted]. But there’s no point [calling], because he turned it off.

[...]

FUNK: So he got on the bus down on Front Street [on Tuesday]?

McCLENDON: On Front Street, yeah.

FUNK: What bus goes down there? [Crosstalk] To go up to Albany?

McCLENDON: Yeah. It only costs $5.50.

FUNK: Oh, so it’s like the commuter bus...

McCLENDON: You didn’t know that?

FUNK: Hell no, Jamont. I never worked in Albany. I’ve been working here my whole life.

---

FUNK: You talked to him on Facebook? ...

McCLENDON: Yeah. But I talked to him through my little brother’s Facebook.

---

FUNK: You know what Jamont, I’m just going to give you a little advice. ANd I give this advice to a lot of people, including my own family. What you decide to do now is a hard decision to make. But. The hardest decisions are usually the right decisions to make.

McCLENDON: Yeah, but, you really think I know where he is, and I don’t.... Why wouldn’t I tell you? At this point, I wouldn’t really give a fuck.

FUNK: Did he tell you everything that you needed to know? Did he tell you all that?

McCLENDON: No, he didn’t.

FUNK: What did he say?

McCLENDON: Selfish bastard. He just said that you showed him a few pictures, and you said that looked like Jamont. He basically gave me the impression that you guys looking for me for somethin’. I said, I didn’t do shit. ... He didn’t exactly tell me. If he exactly told me, with that situation, that shit at City Hall, I’d be like, ‘oh, shit.’

FUNK: City Hall, think about it. That’s high profile. That’s an important thing, that’s the City government.

---

FUNK: When he gets picked up, it’s all going to fall on you...

McCLENDON: If he really went to China, he’s not getting picked up.

FUNK: Well, he didn’t go to China, I can tell ’ya.

McCLENDON: Where the hell that gonna leave me?

FUNK: Yup.

---

McCLENDON: I didn’t do shit. I didn’t. No. I will go all the way with this...

FUNK: I hope you do.

---

McCLENDON: I don’t burglarize. I don’t. ... So you’re saying I broke into a building, but didn’t take nothing?

FUNK: I’m not saying you broke into any building. I’m saying what a burglary is.

McCLENDON: I know what you’re not saying, and I know what you are saying, but I know what’s being said. ... So we broke into a building, but didn’t take anything? Get the fuck outta here... I don’t believe this is going to go very far.

FUNK: Maybe it won’t Jamont.

McCLENDON: But you know, Czajka’s in office, so he’s probably going to want to send us somewhere...

FUNK: Only where the evidence goes...

McCLENDON: I never broke into a building. And there’s no evidence on me.

FUNK: OK.

McCLENDON: None.

---

McCLENDON: Did you collect the evidence?

FUNK: Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.

McCLENDON: Well, I tell you, maybe Mr. Funk, you’re wrong.

FUNK: I’ve been wrong before, bud.

McCLENDON: Huh. You haven’t been wrong much, though.

FUNK: No?

McCLENDON: Oh, that’s the problem. [Points at surveillance camera] We can’t even really talk in here. We can’t even really have a conversation.

FUNK: [Laughs] Yes, we can. That’s here for me, really. So I don’t say anything inappropriate.

---

McCLENDON: I wish I knew where that motherfucker was. Because I would have came when he came. I didn’t think it was that serious, you know? Cause by the way he said it, it was just so... He was just so fluffy with it, that...

FUNK: He wasn’t concerned about it.

McCLENDON: Then a couple days later, when I saw the paper, and he’s in China, I’m like holy shit. I’m like damn, for real? [Pretends to be holding a phone] Said, can I speak to the detective? Who am I speaking to? I have to speak to a detective? Then I hung up. Then I do it again? Can I speak to somebody? Hold on, one minute please? ... Not going to let them GPS where I am. If I’m going to come, I’m going to come. Not going to happen. So then I’m thinking like, damn, what the fuck? Hold up, I didn’t do nothin’, no! ... Then I’m thinking, what am I gonna do? So I said, fuck it. I stayed at my girl’s house, but then I said, I’m not gonna stay here, I don’t want to get you in trouble. ... Everybody don’t have the same heart as you [meaning Funk]. They gonna send somebody else there, and it’s gonna turn into something else. ...

FUNK: That ain’t true.

McCLENDON: You cops are grimy... I know I ran a lot, but what would you do if I jumped in my car and just started running toward you.

FUNK: I’d probably run, too.

McCLENDON: They provoke it. [...]

FUNK: They’ve got a job to do, too, Jamont. ... If everyone was like me, guys would be getting away with stuff all the time. Because I like to believe what people tell me. Believe it or not. I’m naïve enough to believe that guys are being honest to me. That’s my fatal flaw. And I’ll always be the way I am.

---

FUNK: I know you kept your head down low because you didn’t want it to escalate to what you said. As soon as someone saw ’ya, this is what was going to happen.

---

McCLENDON: I’m really being arrested because y’all haven’t seen us. It went to the grand jury because you haven’t seen us. Is that it? Basically?

FUNK: No! No.

McCLENDON: Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah. That’s basically it. Cause you put your back to the wall, and you’re like, fuck, you know?

FUNK: Put my back to the wall? Nah.

McCLENDON: Or whatever. ‘Fuck, let’s send the paperwork further, I think we should do it.’ You probably had everybody else up your asses, saying this, and that, and this and that. And just got tired of it. That’s probably what happened.

FUNK: I look at it this way. Nobody got killed. Nobody—You didn’t rob a bank. The building didn’t get blown up... What happened, happened. It could have been a heck of a lot worse. By my whole point was to talk to you to find out what you knew that day when I spoke to Quintin, my next person to speak to, you can ask anybody, I need to speak to Jamont. You can ask anybody. I wanted to talk to you more than I wanted to talk to him. Because I believed that you would have been honest, more honest to me, than Quintin was honest to me that day. I’ve never dealt with Quintin. That was the first time I had a face-to-face conversation. I can talk to you. Cuase I gain nothing by bullshitting or lying to you.

McCLENDON: Right. ... He said that you showed him a picture of me. Like, somebody took a picture of something... And said it was me. And I said, ‘What?’ I said, yeah, right, I never left your house. But he said, well that’s what he said. The way he acts, you’ve got to laugh about what he does, but...

FUNK: Listen, I have a good sense of humor. However it was said. I have a job to do, I have evidence that I collect and I pick up and I go where the evidence leads me. Now... No, I can’t even go there.

McCLENDON: Yes, you should.

FUNK: Nah. I can’t. I can’t. I don’t want to jeopardize anything. And I don’t want to get you in trouble, and I definitely don’t want to get me in trouble.

---

McCLENDON: There’s nobody here [in Hudson]. It’s a bunch of little kids, or people from fuckin’ New York, or—

FUNK: Why do they all come up here, may I ask you? You ever hear them talkin’, why they like it here so much?

McCLENDON: Yeah.

FUNK: Why?

McCLENDON: Because the drugs are cheaper down there and they can sell them more for up here.

FUNK: Still? That’s still the #1 reason?

McCLENDON: Some people, it’s just for better livin’. Because like us, they don’t want to go through the bullshit down there.

FUNK: There’s bullshit no matter where you go.

McCLENDON: It’s cheaper to live here.

FUNK: Yeah, I’ll give them that. I’ll give them that. So listen, you don’t want to tell me no more? Because I’m going to call the D.A. when I’m done talking to ya. Let him know that, you know, you talked to me for a good hour-and-a-half.

McCLENDON: I don’t know, I’m trying to think on it now. Could I have a tissue please?

FUNK: Hang on to that.

McCLENDON: [blows nose] ... I need my last cigarette before I go to jail forever.

FUNK: I can get you a cigarette. You ain’t going to jail forever.

McCLENDON: Yeah, it seems like it.

FUNK: It just seems like it now.

[They move next to the office window, where McClendon smokes a cigarette]

FUNK: When this talk started about leavin...

McCLENDON: I wasn’t talkin’ bout going to leave. He made everything sound like it was going to be OK.

FUNK: He sugarcoated everything, to make you think that it was no big deal like—

McCLENDON: He embellished it, like, what the fuck? I’m thinkin’ that now.

FUNK: I’ve got more, you don’t have to smoke it down to the filter. Now, you’re hippy friends out in Harlemville, would he go out to Harlemville?

McCLENDON: Yeah, they’d protect him. They’d protect him.

---

McCLENDON: Why am I so important in the inquiry?

FUNK: There’s what happened, and there’s what’s being told what happened. Somewhere in between, someone is going to tell, someone’s going to say what happened... The true, honest, what happened. And I believe that is you... I don’t want to see you sit in jail like you’re public enemy #1 and him walking around like I’m something better than that. Because when it all boils down we’re all the same...

McCLENDON: I didn’t go in that building. I didn’t do anything. ... In fact, there was a cop sitting on the corner [the night of the burglary, when they were partying on the porch; obvious worn down, McClendon alleges that cocaine was present at the party.]

---

FUNK: You’re not a bad guy, you’re not a bad person. We all make mistakes. A guy told me years ago, that’s why they put erasers on pencils.

EXCLUSIVE: The Cross Dossier

EXHIBIT A: The Hudson police interview of Quintin Cross, conducted on the afternoon of March 19th, 2012

News broke on December 10th of last year that a second grand jury had declined to press charges against Quintin Cross and Jamont McClendon in Hudson’s high-profiile City Hall burglary case. Since then, many have wondered: What caused the case against them to fall apart?

The pair had disappeared on the afternoon of March 19th, shortly after a first grand jury’s vote led to the issuance of warrants for their arrest. Though the burglary involved less than $100, the pungeant combination of a City Hall break-in, Cross’s felony plea for misusing a City credit card, and their sudden disappearance generated intense media interest and a widespread impression that the two had something to hide.

In early April, the Hudson police discovered McClendon camped out in a State Street house. Meanwhile, during his six-week disappearance Cross found a high-powered lawyer (with the help of Time & Space Limited’s Linda Mussmann) before eventually turning himself in.

While previously he pled guilty to a fourth degree grand larceny charge related to improper charges on a City of Hudson credit card, Cross has in this case insisted on his innocence, while also raising issues of social justice, race and fairness in the New York police and court systems. Cross is now heading up a new nonprofit organization called The Staley B. Keith Social Justice Center, named for another former Hudson alderman.

The collapse of the case raises many additional questions. Were the wrong two people accused, or did the pair skate on a legal technicality? If innocent, why did they flee? Does the City really have what it has termed an “open investigation” of the burglary, or does it have more of an interest in burying the matter? And, with another local election season in the offing, will the defunct case now live on as a political football, —tossed around in the Fall Mayor’s race, or used to reshape the future of the Hudson Police Department?

In the context of such lingering questions, this site has had on-again, off-again discussions over the past month with Quintin Cross about taping a live interview, possibly with the help of professional videographer Lance Wheeler.

While Cross has decided to hold off on such an interview for now, the former Hudson alderman has offered something potentially far more explosive and illuminating: Access to a large trove of documents and digital assets gathered by his defense in an effort to rebut charges that he burglarized City Hall.

This dossier provides a glimpse into both the planned strategy for defending Cross against the (now-dismissed) charges, and also into the materials obtained by his defense from the prosecution via the legal “discovery” process for a trial that eventually got called off. Taken together, these provide insight into why the high-profile case unexpectedly collapsed on the second go-round.

The video above is the first and arguably most crucial of those assets: A tape of the police interview of Cross which was led by the HPD’s John Funk on the afternoon of March 19th, 2012. 

 

---

The burglary had been discovered early on the morning of March 19th, 2012. By early afternoon, City officials and Detective John Funk had already testified to a grand jury, wrapping up its proceedings around 2:30 pm. Around the same time, police records indicate that the HPD brought Cross in for a voluntary interview with Funk in the presence of Officer Filli.

The interview ended at 3:27 pm, according to the timestamp on the video, with Cross walking out of the station a free man. Just three minutes later, at 3:30 pm, the warrants for his and McClendon’s arrest hit the HPD dispatcher’s desk... at which point the pair disappeared. Three minutes sooner, and there might have been no disappearance.

This police interview became a key bone of contention in the now-cancelled trial, since it was not provided to the defense in a timely way as required by law. (District Attorney Paul Czajka has been generous in taking responsibility forthe omission, though the first responsibility lay with the HPD.)

The video has not been edited above except in two ways: (A) to remove two long and uninformative stretches when Cross just sitting and waiting, and (B) to bleep out the names of citizens mentioned by Funk in the course of the interview.

Legal briefs show that Funk’s mention of one such name had extraordinary value to Cross’s defense as so-called Brady material, a legal term referring to “exculpatory or impeaching information and evidence that is material to the guilt or innocence or to the punishment of a defendant.”

One can see how the content of the suppressed interview may have introduced reasonable doubt regarding the charges, since the same officer who testified to the first grand jury that he recognized Cross on the City Hall surveillance videotape, barely an hour later speculates about whether it’s a totally different Hudson resident. Perhaps this was intended as just an interrogator’s trick, but the value to a defense is immense.

Questioning Cross at length about whether he was responsible for the burglary, and trying various Law & Order-style gambits in an effort to induce him to confess, Funk leaves for a long time—then comes back and abruptly shows Cross stills from the City Hall videotape. The following conversation occurs:

FUNK: Does that look like anybody you know?

CROSS: I can’t see it.

FUNK: You can’t see it? What, did it shut off? ... You don’t know who that guy is? You don’t know who he is? Okay.

[CROSSTALK AS FUNK ACCIDENTALLY BUMPS INTO CROSS]

FUNK: ... I guess, I’m asking you to help me out on this then. Because, whoever did this... What do you think should happen to him? He broke into City Hall.

CROSS: That sucks.

FUNK: That’s stupid—

CROSS: Yup.

FUNK: That’s, that’s some, that’s, that’s minor league stuff. Uh... And you, you're definitely sure it wasn’t you. That ain’t you there?

CROSS: No.

FUNK: You know [MALE FIRST NAME]? You know [MALE FULL NAME]?

CROSS: Yeah.

FUNK: [FEMALE FIRST NAME]’s boyfriend? Could that be him?

CROSS: Let me see?

FUNK: This guy right here. I know, I’m standing right on you... That guy definitely looks like Jamont. So I gotta find him, because I know he'll tell me if he was there. Don’t that look like Jamont?

CROSS: Is it in color?

FUNK: No, it's in night vision.

CROSS: Oh, yeah.

Funk at this point drops the question of who appears on the film, moving on other topics such as the possible need to interview Cross’s mother and sister about his whereabouts on the night before. Funk asks Cross to tell Jamont “to get his rear end over here” if he sees him, and the interview ends on a casual note. Only three minutes later, the HPD began actively looking for him.

Though Cross’s dossier includes extensive investigative materials provided to the defense, the materials provided show no indication that the other male mentioned by Funk was ever interrogated or sought by the HPD. While the name could be fictitious, a male of that same name (bleeped out above) does appear in Hudson voter registration rolls, and is roughly the same age as Cross.

 

---

In the first half of the video above, Officer Filli more deftly elicits information about Cross’s rumored impending trip to China, casually getting him to tell when and where his flight out of the country would leave—that Thursday, from Newark.

Other printed records provided by Cross reveal that the Hudson police over the next 72 hours was feverishly contacting airport officials to prevent him from leaving the country if he showed up for the flight. Filli also cleverly invents a way to get Cross to show him the bottom of his shoe, for reasons that become clear below.

Making the case to Cross that “videotape don’t lie,” Funk comes in and genially quizzes Cross. In the course of their sparring, Funk indicates that the police have gathered fingerprint, footprint and DNA evidence. Later, the results of such some of those tests were also withheld for a time from the defense, with their results appearing to have been inconclusive.

Talking expansively, Funk says that he has no animus toward Cross, and that he recognizes his role in the community, and that he knows “who he knows,” and that he is not interested in all that “bullshit” about the credit cards, Funk argues that if hypothetically Cross were guilty of the burglary, it would be in his best interest to confess up front.

Cross wisely does not take the bait, declining to give either a statement or a deposition before leaving.

As far as the provenance of the dossier: Cross indicates that his attorney Susan Tipograph was moving offices and sent it to him for his own safe-keeping. Notably, the stamp-plastered box in which the documents arrived from Tipograph in late December was addressed not to Cross, but to “Linda Mussman[n]” at Time & Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street. While there is no way of saying whether the file has been manipulted to influence this site’s reporting, the randomness of some of the material—such as the inclusion of one of Cross’s tax returns—suggests that it has been presented without much editing.

This site expects to report in further depth on other materials to which Cross has provided access over the next few days.