Mar 11
2025
Coverup of hit-and-run by county’s narcotics chief?
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Last April, the Erie County Sheriff’s chief of narcotics, while driving a county-owned vehicle late at night, struck at least seven parked cars on Buffalo’s West Side, several of them as he drove the wrong way down a one-way street.
Chief Daniel J. Granville — who goes by DJ — was driving “in an impaired condition,” according to one of a half-dozen claims that so far have cost county taxpayers $60,000 to settle.
But the accident report generated by the Buffalo cops who responded to the incident gives no indication Granville, 47, was tested for alcohol, drugs or other impairments at the scene or afterward.
The report was signed by Granville’s sister-in-law, Buffalo Police Lieutenant Lucia Esquilin, who was the supervising officer at the scene.
The Sheriff’s Office refused to tell Investigative Post whether Granville was disciplined for the incident or if the office’s Professional Standards Division conducted an investigation. Nearly a year later, he is still on the job.
So is Esquilin, his sister-in-law. Buffalo police indicated to Investigative Post the department is “actively working on this case” and refused to share any records related to the incident, because doing so “would interfere with criminal investigations or judicial proceedings.”
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomOne witness told Investigative Post the narcotics chief was taken away from the scene in a Buffalo patrol car. His truck and the cars he’d damaged were towed to the city auto impound on Dart Street, while Buffalo cops interviewed witnesses and collected information at the scene.
“They took him with them in the police car and that was the end of it,” Saleh Alabeli, whose car suffered close to $11,000 worth of damage, told Investigative Post.
“We didn’t know who he was. We didn’t know he was a cop.”
The Erie County Sheriff’s Office did not respond when Investigative Post asked if Granville was on duty, if he was impaired, if there’d been any internal investigation of the incident or disciplinary action, and how much it cost to repair or replace the county-owned Dodge Ram pickup he was driving.
Neither has the office responded to a Freedom of Information request seeking answers to those questions, nor to a request to interview Granville or Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. A cell phone number for Granville found in county records was out of service.
Seven cars in a block and half
The Erie County Attorney’s office was more accommodating in its response to Freedom of Information request, providing Investigative Post with notices of claim for the six settlements the county has paid so far, as well as the 911 call logs and the police accident report signed by Esquilin.
According to those documents, Granville’s spree began not long before midnight on April 11 of last year, as he headed east on Jersey Street from Niagara in his county-owned pickup.
The first 911 call came at 11:38 p.m. from a caller who gave a Porter Avenue address, reporting a hit-and-run on Prospect Avenue near Jersey Street, just a block off Niagara.
A half dozen other calls followed over the next eight minutes, reporting a white pickup truck plowing into cars. One reported that a “truck came down and struck several [vehicles],” another that “his parked car was hit.”
Five minutes after the first call, a Buffalo patrol car was en route to the scene. Two more cars were dispatched soon thereafter, and another couple cars arrived shortly before midnight to piece together what had happened and create an accident report.
Five police officers, including Esquilin, are listed as as responding to the 911 calls, along with seven “other personnel.”
According to the report, Granville hit two parked cars on Jersey. He then turned right — southbound — onto Prospect, which is one-way headed north. On Prospect he hit a third car hard enough that “the impact caused [the vehicle] to strike [another vehicle].”
“He hit my other neighbor’s car, which was in front of mine, and then he hit my car, and then he kept going and hit another neighbor’s car down the street,” Alabeli said.
He hit seven cars in all, according to the 911 log, before coming to a stop.
“His car basically broke down when he hit the last car, you know,” Alabeli said. “And the police came. They took him into custody. They put him in a police car.”
The police report does not indicate whether Granville was on duty. Neither do the insurance records or court papers. And, as indicated, neither the sheriff’s office nor Buffalo police are talking.
Granville started in the Sheriff’s Office as a road patrol deputy in 2008. Before that, he worked for the now-defunct Buffalo Housing Authority Police and the NFTA Police, according to a 2020 proclamation by the Erie County Legislature honoring his service.
He was promoted to narcotics chief in 2017. Last year he earned $208,426, according to state records.
His wife, Maria Esquilin Granville — Lieutenant Esquilin’s sister — was a Buffalo police crime technician for more than 11 years. She now works for the Buffalo Sewer Authority.
The settlements
The county so far has paid five of the six claims without the car owners or insurers filing lawsuits. The one claim that did go to court was settled last month.
Alabeli filed a claim through his insurance company for damage to his 2019 Toyota. The insurance company in turn made a claim against Erie County for close to $13,000 — which included the towing bill, the cost of repairs, a rental car and his $500 deductible. Alabeli said he recently received a check covering the deductible, his only out-of-pocket cost.
His was the second-highest settlement. Esam Al Areqi, who last September filed the lone lawsuit to arise from the incident, sought $18,500 for damage done to his 2022 Jeep.
The court papers initially identified the driver as “David” Granville, an error corrected in subsequent filings. The county signed a settlement on Feb. 12.
The four other settlements thus far approved range from $5,000 to $10,000.
The grand total, according to county records: $59,352.78.
The narcotics chief and his wife own two houses and two vacant lots on Buffalo’s lower West Side, according to city records. They are registered to vote at a house on West Avenue, about six blocks from where Granville’s trail of mayhem came to an end.
The only clue in the accident report that Granville was a law enforcement officer was the address under his name: 45 Elm Street, the county’s public safety campus, home to its crime lab and 911 call center.
That struck Alabeli as “weird,” given that the report included the home addresses of the people whose cars he’d damaged.
“Personally, I thought they didn’t want nobody to know where he lived,” he said.
