Articles for Geoff Kelly

Jan 28

2026

State troopers face light discipline for serious misconduct

The Gray Rider, a statue dedicated to state troopers, outside of the New York State Police Headquarters in Albany, N.Y. Cindy Schultz for The New York Times. This story is co-published with The New York Times and New York Focus. An investigator with the New York State Police helped get a friend’s traffic tickets reduced “in exchange” for her sexually explicit photos, according to a disciplinary letter from 2017. Another stunned a combative suspect with his Taser in 2020 and held down the trigger for 33 seconds, twice the amount of time widely considered dangerous and potentially fatal. Some officers[...]

Posted 5 days ago

Jan 22

2026

Misconduct allegations could endanger drug convictions

In a lawsuit, two former employees of the Niagara County Forensics Lab have accused a former director of mismanagement and misconduct that legal experts say could compromise criminal convictions that relied on the lab’s analysis. The plaintiffs, a father and daughter, claim Kori Ortt-Gawrys — the sister of state Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt — harassed and defamed them over a two-year period, compelling one to quit and the other to retire early. The father, Thomas DiFonzo, claims Ortt-Gawrys turned on him after she pushed him to certify a lab chemist to do forensic drug analysis for criminal cases. DiFonzo[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jan 7

2026

Special election set for Ryan’s Senate seat

The special election to fill the 61st District state Senate seat — vacated last week by Sean Ryan before he was sworn in as Buffalo’s mayor — is coming as quickly as state law allows. Gov. Kathy Hochul last Friday set the date for Feb. 3. She could have picked a date as late as the first Tuesday in March, but instead chose the first possible Tuesday allowed under the law — just over a month after Ryan resigned the seat. The move favors the four political parties with automatic ballot access in a special election process that already privileges[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Dec 30

2025

Geoff Kelly’s year in review

This year my plate was full with Buffalo politics, as city voters were asked to elect the city’s first new mayor in 20 years. I kicked off the year, fittingly, with a three-part profile of Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, who was at the time competing for the Democratic Party endorsement in June’s primary election. This month, to ring out the year, Jim Heaney and I interviewed the guy who won the endorsement, the primary and November’s general election — incoming Mayor Sean Ryan. We did the interview in front of an audience at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. I also[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Dec 16

2025

Transcript: Buffalo Mayor-elect Sean Ryan interview

Buffalo Mayor-elect Sean Ryan sat for an interview on Dec. 12 with Investigative Post’s Jim Heaney and Geoff Kelly before a live audience at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. In the course of the 85-minute interview, Ryan responded to questions about a host of issues: Balancing the city’s finances in the short and long term. Shaking up the culture of the city’s police department. Investing in quality, affordable housing, especially in East Side neighborhoods. Revitalizing downtown through event programming and infrastructure improvements. Improving educational outcomes by lifting kids out of poverty. Taking a lead role in the Kensington and[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 16

2025

Q&A: Buffalo’s incoming Mayor Sean Ryan

Sean Ryan, Buffalo’s mayor-elect, said in an interview Friday evening that he’s inheriting a City Hall that’s been “hollowed out” by poor management, with a “demoralized” workforce. Before a live audience at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Ryan described vacant offices, a lack of communication within and between departments, unspent state grant money, and deferred maintenance of city infrastructure. And, naturally, the incoming mayor talked about the city’s dire financial straits: a structural budget imbalance of at least $50 million, no savings left to cover shortfalls, and escalating costs — especially overtime — exacerbated by stagnant revenues. “We’ve sort of[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 10

2025

Interview: Drew Warshaw, candidate for state comptroller

Drew Warshaw, candidate for New York State comptroller. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has been the state’s chief financial officer for 18 years. That’s long enough, according to Drew Warshaw, who hopes to compete the first contested primary election DiNapoli has faced in his long tenure. It’s “one of the most powerful offices in government,” Warshaw said in an interview with Investigative Post this week. And yet “virtually no one has ever heard” of it, many “can barely pronounce” it, and even fewer could name the man who’d held the office since 2007. The office’s power, Warshaw said, derives[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 9

2025

Local police who cooperate with ICE

The Cheektowaga Police Department heads the list of a half-dozen local law enforcement agencies that are cooperating with federal agencies to detain and deport migrants. So far this year, police in the Buffalo suburb have turned over at least 21 people to federal immigration agents after detaining them for low-level offenses like shoplifting. Sheriff offices in Erie and Niagara counties are also working with U.S. Border Patrol and ICE. So are police in Lewiston, North Tonawanda and Amherst, though to a lesser extent. Buffalo police do not appear to collaborate with immigration authorities. Mayor-elect Sean Ryan said it’s not the[...]

Posted 2 months ago