Aug 27
2025
Granville case costing city taxpayers
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The City of Buffalo has paid more than $200,000 to the five police officers who responded to the Erie County narcotics chief’s hit-and-run accident on the city’s West Side last spring since they were put on leave in April.
The total cost to city taxpayers is considerably higher, however, because the city also has to pay officers to backfill the shifts those five cops are missing. And sometimes the city has to pay overtime for that, because the police union’s contract calls for mandatory overtime pay when the department has to call in officers to take the place of colleagues who are off work for more than 14 days.
Even without overtime, the cost to the city is far higher than Erie County has shelled out for damages to vehicles struck last April by Chief D.J. Granville, the Erie County Sheriff’s head of narcotics and intelligence.
“The City of Buffalo taxpayer is getting stuck with the biggest bill here,” a former Buffalo cop told Investigative Post on condition of anonymity.
The officers on leave are Lt. Lucia Esquilin, who is Granville’s sister-in-law, and Patrol Officers Brittany Bartels, Thomas Karbowski, Lisa Perillo and Omar Tirado. All have refused to cooperate with a special prosecutor charged with investigating Granville’s crash and how the Buffalo officers dispatched to the scene handled the matter.
Granville on the night of April 11, 2024, plowed his county-owned pickup truck into parked cars on Jersey Street and Prospect Avenue, damaging seven of them. Civilian witnesses said Granville appeared to be impaired and some said he smelled of alcohol.
Five B District officers responded to the late-night accident scene under the supervision of Esquilin. The officers did not subject Granville to field sobriety tests, a Breathalyzer or a blood draw to check for alcohol or drugs. Witnesses say Granville was driven away from the scene in the back of a patrol car.
The narcotics chief later was charged with driving the wrong way down a one-way street, a traffic violation that was knocked down to a jaywalking ticket.
The incident was kept under wraps until Investigative Post broke the story in March, launching a flurry of media coverage, allegations of a coverup, and the appointment of Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman as a special prosecutor to investigate Granville’s actions and the Buffalo police response to the scene.
Earlier this month Seaman charged Granville with one criminal misdemeanor count of reckless driving and a traffic violation for leaving the scene of an accident that caused property damage. Granville pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay $726 in fines and fees and 50 hours of community service.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomThe cost to Erie County taxpayers so far is more than $60,000 to settle claims from the owners and insurers of the cars Granville damaged, plus the cost of his county-owned pickup truck, which was totaled. Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick last week said the total bill could exceed $70,000.
Terry Connors, Granville’s lawyer, said after Granville’s guilty plea that his client is in talks with county officials about making restitution for the claims and the wrecked truck. Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, Granville’s boss, called restitution “appropriate.” Connors declined to comment for this story.
Seaman, the special prosecutor, said none of the five Buffalo cops on leave cooperated with his investigation, even though four of them were advised they were not targets of his inquiry.
The Buffalo News reported Monday that Esquilin, Granville’s sister-in-law, could be subject to criminal charges. Esquilin has been paid more than $43,000 not to come to work for nearly five months, according to city payroll records.
The cost of backfilling the five officers’ positions depends on their shift assignments but will certainly have incurred overtime costs, according to three Buffalo cops — two former, one active — who spoke to Investigative Post about how the department deals with long-term absences.
The police union contract has minimum staffing requirements. If an officer is on leave for more than two weeks for any reason — illness, injury, suspension or, as in this case, administrative leave — and their shift is left short-staffed as a result, the department must call in substitutes and pay them time-and-a-half.
The three officers who spoke to Investigative Post said the department might not have to pay overtime for every office and every shift filling in for the five cops on leave. All agreed some overtime was inevitable.
Tim Richards, a police spokesperson, told Investigative Post that Esquilin’s absence has generated “approximately $5,300 in backfill overtime costs” since April, on top of the regular pay for the lieutenants who have taken her shifts. Richards said the department’s overtime costs, which have been rising in recent years, “are influenced by many factors,” not just officers on leave.
Last week Garcia said his office’s internal inquiry into his narcotics chief’s accident had concluded and that Granville would be suspended 30 days without pay as punishment. Granville has been on leave since shortly after the story broke in March.
Seaman, the special prosecutor, said after Granville’s guilty plea that his office continued to look into how the five officers responded to the scene. Niagara District Common Council Member David Rivera — a retired Buffalo police detective who chairs the Council’s Police Oversight Committee — last month asked the state attorney general to look into the matter. Last week Hardwick, the county comptroller, and Erie County Legislature Chair Tim Meyer echoed that request.
The Buffalo Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division began investigating the incident in January, before it became public knowledge, according to Commissioner Alphonso Wright. Wright told The Buffalo News the officers on leave “are not required to provide a voluntary statement in a criminal investigation in which they may be a subject or potential target,” citing their rights under the Fifth Amendment, which protects individuals from incriminating themselves. They are required to cooperate with a departmental investigation, but statements given to Internal Affairs cannot be used in a criminal prosecution.
The five officers will remain on paid leave until the department’s internal investigation has concluded, according to Richards, the police spokesperson.
“The internal investigation is on hold pending the outcome of the special prosecutor’s criminal case,” Richards said. “Once that matter is resolved, the Internal Affairs Division will resume its review to determine what further administrative action is appropriate.”
