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Jun 25

2024

A purchase by the sheriff with limited value

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office plans to acquire equipment to detect whether motorists are under the influence of drugs, even though results aren’t admissible in court due to accuracy concerns.  The purchase of five SoToxa drug analyzers at a cost of $26,000 would be funded through a $2.9 million state grant approved unanimously last week by the county Legislature with no debate or discussion. The money also would pay for surveillance cameras, drones, license plate readers and mobile x-ray equipment designed to capture images of vehicles that would be deployed at[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Mar 5

2024

Lawsuit accuses Erie County Sheriff of stonewalling

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Erie County Sheriff John C. Garcia. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office is being sued for jail records. Again. The Partnership for the Public Good, which asked for records last May, filed suit in December after its request for documents for the downtown holding center and Alden lockup was refused. It’s the third time since 2018 that the sheriff’s office has been sued over jail records. In the two previous cases, courts ordered the sheriff’s office to provide requested documents.  “They don’t give up stuff they should give up,” said Nan Haynes, who sued the sheriff in[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Sep 20

2023

Erie County sheriff wants $10 million helicopter

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia wants to double his department’s helicopter fleet with a new chopper that would cost more than $10 million. “It’s a matter of safety,” Undersheriff William Cooley told Investigative Post in justifying a new Airbus H135 helicopter that would take two years to build and outfit. “We see an absolute need for a new machine.” The sheriff’s office boasts that its current helicopter helps nab suspected car thieves and controls traffic at Buffalo Bills games.  The department says that its 22-year-old chopper, often grounded for maintenance and repairs, has saved lives. The department once considered replacing[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Mar 13

2025

Hit-and-run narcotics chief a prolific political donor

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia (left) and Chief of Narcotics Daniel J. Granville (right) at a press conference Tuesday. Photo courtesy 7 News. Daniel J. Granville — the Erie County Sheriff’s chief of narcotics who last April plowed his county-owned pickup truck into at least seven parked cars on Buffalo’s West Side — is a prolific donor to local politicians. So is his wife, former Buffalo police crime scene technician who now works for the Buffalo Sewer Authority.  And so is his sister-in-law, the Buffalo police lieutenant who supervised the police response to the accident scene — and who is now[...]

Posted 10 hours ago

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[...]

Posted 2 days ago

Dec 5

2024

Report: Jail death “may have been preventable”

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Story updated Dec. 8. Sean Riordan’s death might have been prevented if he was given proper medical care while an inmate at the Erie County Holding Center in 2022, a state oversight commission has concluded. Instead, the holding center staff failed to transfer Riordan to a hospital for alcohol withdrawal treatment, and failed to provide adequate care while he was in the jail, the state Commission of Correction concluded in a newly released report. There were “serious deficiencies” in Riordan’s medical care during his incarceration that might have contributed to his death, according to the report. “Had established medical policy[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 13

2024

WNY pols carrying Trump’s water

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia is regurgitating Donald Trump’s talking points on immigrants, essentially saying too many of them are lawless. Credit to Sandy Tan of The Buffalo News, who reported: “An overwhelming body of research indicates that immigrants, including immigrants who enter the country illegally, commit violent crimes at a much lower rate than the rest of the American population.” Perhaps the sheriff should focus his efforts on keeping prisoners in his jails alive. As we reported last month, the rate of deaths is higher under Garcia than his predecessor, Tim Howard, whose management of the jails was roundly[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Sep 10

2024

Jail deaths substantially higher than reported

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At least 57 Erie County jail inmates have died since 2005, a much higher number than previously reported. The death rate has barely budged in nearly a quarter century. Indeed, it has ticked up since Sheriff John Garcia took office, taking over from a predecessor widely criticized for the number of jail deaths on his watch. Forty-four prisoners, or one inmate every 4½ months, died under former Sheriff Timothy Howard, who became sheriff in June 2005, after five inmates had already died earlier that year under the previous sheriff, Patrick Gallivan. With eight deaths since Garcia took office in January[...]

Posted 6 months ago