Below is with the usual minor formatting changes, removal of e-mail addresses or substitution of question mark for at sign, etc.
From: Christopher Philippo
Subject: how UAlbany succeeds?
Date: June 20, 2013 10:52:36 AM EDT
To: huchthausen?americaeast.com
"While six sexual assaults have been reported on the UAlbany campus since September, university police contacted Albany County District Attorney David Soares' office for only one - the alleged rape of a freshman woman by the three football players. In the five other cases, the victims declined to press charges. In the case involving the football players, the district attorney's office was called by a television station before receiving a call from the UAlbany police. […] After the forum, Wiley declined interview requests, saying he only conducts interview by e-mail. 'I've been misquoted in my time here. I have been the object of irresponsible, gotcha journalism,' he said. Wiley steered questions to his officers."
Crowley, Cathleen F. "Handling of rape case defended; UAlbany police chief says officers followed protocol in dealing with alleged assault." Albany Times Union. October 26, 2006: A1. http://albarchive.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=6365244 (emphasis added)
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Albany County Sheriff's Office, like N.Y. EDUC. LAW § 355 (2) (l) seems to require, might avoid the problem of SUNY PD choosing to ignore the DA's office's advice to contact the DA's office when they have a case, even prior to an arrest, something ex-athlete, ex-coach Wiley stated he'd never done in his (at that point) ten years there. If UAlbany had wanted to build stronger cases and provide better services to victims, they'd have been doing what the DA's office wanted them to do… but UAlbany wasn't interested in stronger cases or better services to victims.
No such MOU exists, naturally, even seven years after that case. UAlbany's failed to establish MOUs or agreements with other adjacent law enforcement agencies as well, but did make one with the UAlbany football team.
Are you familiar with SUNY Binghamton's problems in 2010? There's no reason to believe the problems wouldn't extend to other universities in the SUNY system.
UAlbany Police "Chief" J. "Frank" Wiley's an ex-coach, ex-athlete, football fan. When he was appointed directly to chief in 1996 he was reportedly a Baltimore, Maryland public schoolteacher, and Oberlin College had rejected his application for employment earlier that year (after their newspaper initially announcing he'd been hired). The previous chief had been forced to retire unwillingly in the wake of the notorious campus shooting by Ralph J. Tortorici. Mr. Wiley was a strange choice in light of that, but his sports connections might have made him seem a logical choice given that UAlbany was transitioning from Division III athletics to Division II around that time (with ambitions for Division I) and had also acquired the summer training camp of the NY Giants around that time too - for which the UAlbany police would be paid extra to do security. After Wiley was appointed (and failed to swear and file an Oath of Office with the NYS Secretary of State) he established a ride-along program for UAlbany football players. Hopefully no victims of rape were thereby visited by their rapists.
Wiley gave his Investigator Wendy Knoebel his "Chief's Award for Excellence" for her work in the year that student Suzanne Lyall disappeared; Wiley's police deleted the out-of-date, orphaned, page for the Lyall case where they'd had her name misspelled for years recently, despite the fact that she's still missing. Wiley later gave Knoebel the "Gall" [sic] award for excellence, named after SUNY Albany Peace Officer Lawrence E. Gaal who'd been shot in the line of duty and later died young of cancer.
Ms. Knoebel was more recently found to have a major area drug manufacturing operation and to have brought an unregistered Raven Arms "junk gun" on campus, for which she got a slap on the wrist. The firearms instructor Matthew Griffin who advised her to bring all her personal weapons on campus (in violation of SUNY policy if not also law) because he feared she'd use them at home in an emotional fit (evidently unconcerned she'd do the same on campus), and who'd removed her unregistered "junk gun" from her locker to his own home when she wanted it hidden while she was under investigation by the DEA and State Police, and then who violated policy by bringing it back on campus and logging it in as evidence despite his being an accomplice rather than surrendering it to police at his own home: he doesn't seem to have been censured, much less charged with anything.
When I was a student at UAlbany I reported an untenured visiting assistant professor in the Communication department for academic dishonesty and sexual harassment, among other things. It's one of the departments in which athletes cluster according to the Faculty Athletics Representative, who'd long been the chair of the Communication department. I also reported a student in that professor's class for egregious, obvious plagiarism and falsification of citations. The student had, among other things, plagiarized gibberish evidently compiled by a spambot that was posted on a blog. I was told the professor, his five teaching assistants, and the 160 or so other students who had access to that student's paper did not report it. I was told nothing would be done about the student unless I accused him face-to-face in a hearing, despite the evidence against him being his own paper to which 160+ people had access, and the plagiarism and falsification in it could be independently verified without my testimony. The student is an athlete, his parents both graduates of UAlbany. His father is a major donor to the athletics department, and his father's company co-sponsors UAlbany athletic events. I filed a FOIL request for donations to the athletics department and was told there weren't records of that, something the IRS I'm sure would find curious… as might the donors themselves. The father was among the few people SUNY Albany highlighted to help spur further donations for the new multi-sports arena, an arena which evidently was necessary to join more competitive athletics associations.
As for my reporting the professor, I was threatened in writing that I "need to forget about him" by Clarence L. McNeill, UAlbany's judicial administrator who completely obstructed the judicial process for me. Without a hearing, and after I'd graduated summa cum laude, he forbade me to communicate with anyone at UAlbany other than himself, threatening the possibility of litigation if I disobey his prior restraint on my freedom of speech, association, inquiry, etc. He claimed his (obviously illegal and unconstitutional) actions were justified because my requests were "disrupting the orderly operations of the University." FOIL requests for things like my own Student File, my own grades that a professor refused to give me, donations to the athletics department and SUNY Oaths of Office disrupt the entire University? Maybe if the entire University is engaged in criminal operations, but otherwise FOIL requests shouldn't have that effect. McNeill cc'd that threat to Wiley, McNeill, and (now ex-) President George M. Philip, among others. He first e-mailed it, then sent it USPS Certified Mail.
There's a number of other such serious concerns, and legal ones. Mr. McElroy evidently failed to swear and sign an Oath of Office to the NY and US constitutions with the NYS Secretary of State as legally required http://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=546 UAlbany really ought to have told you that, I think, as they ought to be well aware of that problem.
Mr. McElroy would seemingly thus have vacated his office back in 2000 under N.Y. PUB. OFF. LAW § 30 (1) (h) and the legal precedent in People ex rel. Walton v. Hicks (173 App. Div. 338, affd. 221 N.Y. 503), at 341 which states of the New York Public Officers Law:
"This statute is emphatic and unequivocal. It does not seem possible that it can be misunderstood. In case a person appointed to office neglects to file his official oath within 15 days after notice of appointment or within 15 days after the commencement of the term of office, the office becomes vacant, ipso facto. That is all there is to it. No judicial procedure is necessary. No notice is necessary. Nothing is necessary. The office is vacant, as much so as though the appointee is dead. There is no incumbent, and the vacancy may be filled by the proper appointive power"
Mr. Wiley likewise appears to have failed to do what he was legally required and likewise would seem to have legally vacated his office years ago. The same appears to have been true of "President" George M. Philip and others, despite some at UAlbany having multiple Oaths of Office on file and despite it being a law that's rather easy with which to comply, unless one doesn't agree with the oath to do the job to the best of one's ability, or if one finds the NY and US constitutions objectionable I suppose.
James Lyman, Executive Director of Council 82 for the New York State Law Enforcement Officers Union had stated:
"there are police chiefs in SUNY who are not mandating policer [sic] officers, certified, whatever. We have police chiefs that refuse to voluntarily give up their fingerprints"(108) [bold emphasis added] http://www.nysenate.gov/files/SUNY%20testimony%20pt.%202.PDF
Peter Barry, Vice President and Legislative Director of New York State University Police Officers Union, Local 1792 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFSCME, Council 82 and AFL-CIO stated:
"decentralized structure promotes erroneous crime reporting and record keeping. One possible cause for this is that SUNY police chiefs serve at the pleasure of the campus president, thus are motivated to keep crime stats down by any means. [...] SUNY can no longer afford to staff, or overstaff, a body which is subject to inefficiencies, manipulation, cronyism, ill motivation and mismanagement"(127-128) [bold emphasis added] http://www.nysenate.gov/files/SUNY%20Testimony%20pt.%203.PDF
UAlbany police should have only had one sexual offender registry, but instead they had two different, separate ones simultaneously online, both of them misinforming the public for years:
• Sexual Offender Registry #1 "© 2009 University at Albany"
"There are currently three (4) [sic] registered sex offenders enrolled or working at the University. The following Information has been released:" was followed by a list of six (6) offenders.
Accessed: October 19, 2012 Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6BXAjbUOP
Accessed: February 19, 2013 Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6EZ55k2vF (it still read © 2009 at that time)
• Sexual Offender Registry #2 No date (probably circa 2007-2008)
"There are currently two (2) registered sex offenders enrolled at the University. The following Information has been released:" was followed by a list of three (3) offenders. Accessed: October 19, 2012 Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6BXAsiiOT http://police.albany.edu/2ColPage.asp?PageSName=SOR2 now redirects to UPD's homepage
There was an audit by the NYS Comptroller's Office in 2007 with a follow-up in 2009 http://osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093009/07s121.htm which found a number of problems, but it evidently failed to take note of the mismanagement of the sexual offender registry. The Registry gets referenced in the Clery Act Report http://police.albany.edu/ASR.pdf on page 53, the claim being there that it was being maintained - when clearly (the above archives) it was not being maintained properly. At least part of page 53 was not written for the report but was instead copied and pasted from the website: "The DCJS Sex Offender Registry site may be found on the web (See the link to the right)" (there's no link to the right in the PDF).
The Comptroller's Office thanked me for informing them of the non-compliance, but took no action on it as far as I know. I was informed on October 22, 2012, "We have provided the information you supplied with your email to staff in our State Government Accountability for their consideration with respect to future audit planning." The Registry continued to be dated 2009 until sometime after my last archive on February 19, 2013 when it was updated to 2013.
More details and a considerable amount of evidence are available, should you be as concerned about such things as I have been. Others have been contacted as well, naturally.
Sincerely,
Christopher K. Philippo
---
“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.” - Edward W. Bok
---
"the safety of our students and the security of our campuses is our top priority"
"Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo." Press Releases. September 13, 2012.
http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/091412stmtsunythreats
---
"Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act" 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f) (17)
"Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to permit an institution, or an officer, employee, or agent of an institution, participating in any program under this subchapter and part C of subchapter I of chapter 34 of title 42 to retaliate, intimidate, threaten, coerce, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the implementation of any provision of this subsection."
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Wilbard, Helen (DOS)"
Subject: FOIL
Date: October 11, 2012 12:25:45 PM EDT
To: Christopher Philippo
[...]
October 11, 2012
[...]
Dear Mr. Philippo:
This is in response to your October 9, 2012 Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request regarding oaths of office for:
1) Jeanette Altarriba
2) Michael W. Barberich
3) Paul M. Berger
4) Christine Bouchard
5) Karen Chico Hurst
6) Sue R. Faerman
7) Thomas L. Gebhardt
8) Thomas J. Kilcullen
9) Lee A. McElroy
10) Clarence L. McNeill
11) Tamra Minor
12) Aran C. Mull
13) John M. Murphy
14) George M. Philip
15) Susan D. Phillips
16) John H. Reilly
17) Janet M. Thayer
18) J. "Frank" Wiley
19) Edelgard Wulfert
Your request has been completed and consists of sixteen (16) oaths; one for Jeanette Altarriba; one for Michael W. Barberich; one for Paul M. Berger; two for Karen Chico Hurst; three for Clarence L. McNeill; one for Tamra Minor; one for Aran C. Mull; one for John M. Murphy; two for Susan D. Phillips; one for Janet M. Thayer; and two for Edelgard Wulfert. The Department of State found no oaths for the others listed above. Copies are provided at a cost of fifty cents ($.50) per page. Please remit a check or money order made payable to the Department of State, One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12231 in the amount of $8.00 and return it along with a copy of this letter. If payment is not received within 30 days of this correspondence, the Department will deem that the request has been withdrawn.
Sincerely,
Helen Wilbard
Assistant Records Access Officer
HW:srw
No comments:
Post a Comment