Aug 15
2025
Narcotics chief pleads guilty in hit-and-run
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Attorney Terry Connors , left, and Erie County Sheriff’s Chief of Narcotics D.J. Granville at Buffalo City Court on Friday.
Updated Friday at 6 p.m.
None of the five Buffalo cops who responded to the scene of D.J. Granville’s spree of collisions with parked cars last April have cooperated with prosecutors investigating the incident.
Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman, at a press conference Friday afternoon at Buffalo City Court, said he found the officers’ unwillingness to sit for depositions or meet with his investigators “very frustrating.”
Granville, the Erie County Sheriff’s narcotics chief, was driving a county-owned Dodge Ram pickup truck on April 11 of last year when he hit two parked cars on Jersey Street on Buffalo’s West Side, according to witnesses. He then turned the wrong way down one-way Prospect Avenue and hit five more, before the heavily damaged truck could travel no further.
The collisions took place shortly after 11:30 p.m. Several witnesses said Granville appeared to be impaired and one said he smelled of alcohol, according to Seaman. The police incident report does not indicate he was given any sobriety tests.
Granville was whisked away from the scene in a Buffalo police vehicle, witnesses told Investigative Post. The Buffalo officer in charge at the scene was Granville’s sister-in-law, Lt. Lucia Esquilin.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomErie County District Attorney Michael Keane asked Seaman to investigate both the accident and the way Buffalo police responded, citing a conflict of interest, in that Keane’s office employs one of Granville’s relatives.
The first half of Seaman’s investigation came to a conclusion Friday afternoon, when Granville pled guilty to one criminal misdemeanor count of reckless driving and another criminal misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident that caused property damage.
Niagara County Judge James Faso — like Seaman, brought in from outside the jurisdiction where Granville works to handle the case — imposed the maximum fines for each offense. With fees, Granville will pay $726. Faso also ordered the narcotics chief to perform 50 hours of community service.
Seaman asked the court to impose the maximum fines, noting the case had done “some damage to the public trust.”
Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman.
Outside the courtroom, Seaman said his office was “at a grave disadvantage” in investigating Granville’s actions. Buffalo police officers performed no field sobriety tests, he said, nor was Granville’s blood drawn for testing. The officers recorded no statements from Granville that evening.
There was “no body-cam whatsoever,” Seaman said, at least in part because Buffalo’s police department only retains body-camera video from car accidents for six months. Seaman was charged with the investigation 11 months after the incident.
Additionally, none of the Buffalo five officers who responded to the scene would meet with Seaman’s office or sit for depositions. All five — Lt. Esquilin and Police Officers Brittany Bartels, Thomas Karbowski, Lisa Perillo and Omar Tirado — were put on administrative leave after Investigative Post broke the story of Granville’s late-night mayhem in March.
Seaman said the department’s Internal Affairs Division, by contrast, has been cooperative. He said the second half of his inquiry — into the police response to the scene — continues and so he would not comment further on it.
Seaman said that to assess Granville’s actions that evening he relied on citizen witnesses, many of whom told his office Granville did not appear sober.
Terry Connors, Granville’s lawyer, told the court his client, just days before the incident, had been prescribed drugs to alleviate stress. These, Connors said, “no doubt had some effect on the incident of April 11.”
Erie County so far has paid $60,000 to the owners of the vehicles Granville hit. One is currently suing the county in state court. Granville has been on leave since shortly after Investigative Post’s initial report, according to the sheriff’s office.
Before he was sentenced, Granville apologized to his boss, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, and to the Buffalo police officers “affected” by his actions. He also apologized to his family, some of whom were present in the courtroom, saying they’d been “dragged through the mud” by media coverage of the incident.
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. He made $208,426 last year.
There has been much speculation that Granville would retire as a result of the scandal surrounding this incident, but Connors, his attorney, indicated his client had no such plans.
Connors told the court that Granville, in the wake of the accident, “availed himself” of a wellness program for law enforcement officers, submitting to 30 days of in-patient therapy. He said that therapy worked and his client is eager to get back to work.
“It’s not over for him,” Connors said.
Garcia’s office released a statement later Friday which read, in part:
“I, for one, do not feel he – nor anyone – should have his career defined by one night. In my 3 1/2 years as Sheriff, D.J. Granville has presided over numerous investigations that have culminated with massive seizures of cocaine, fentanyl, meth, the seizure of more than 150 illegal firearms and the seizure of more than $3.5 million in ill-gotten proceeds. His efforts have undoubtedly saved countless lives in our community and taken many bad actors off of our streets.
“Chief Granville has had a stellar career, but he obviously used terrible judgment when this accident occurred. Everyone at the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, especially those in command positions, needs to be held responsible for their actions. While he should have taken responsibility sooner, D.J. has done so today.
“As our internal investigation continues, he is being suspended without pay effective immediately, based upon his guilty plea.”
Buffalo police and the Erie County Sheriff’s Office are conducting internal inquiries into the Granville incident. Last month a Buffalo lawmaker called on the state attorney general to investigate, as well.
