Categories for In-Depth

Feb 5

2020

Child pornography prosecutions on the rise

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Prosecution of child pornography cases spiked last year in Western New York. Between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Erie County District Attorney, 80 cases were prosecuted last year. That’s almost double the number of cases prosecuted in 2017. “There are times where we’re finding child pornography involving children who are 10 or 12 months old. That’s very shocking, seeing those images and videos and trying to figure out why someone would have interest in that stuff,” said said Michael Hockwater, a detective on the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Cases the FBI task force handle range from a man who photographed[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 1

2020

Police brass overstate availability of patrol cars

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 Buffalo police officers have a lot fewer cars at their disposal to respond to 911 calls than their commissioner would have the public believe, union officials say. Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood told the Common Council’s Police Oversight Committee on Jan. 14 that the department’s dilapidated fleet had 134 working patrol cars available to answer calls. The actual number is less than 50, said Mark Goodspeed, vice president of the Police Benevolent Association. Goodspeed performs a regular survey of working patrol cars assigned to the city’s five police districts. On the evening of Jan. 14, the same day Lockwood[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 20

2019

Attorney charges OTB intimidating witness

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The attorney for a senior manager of the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. says his client is being punished for cooperating with a federal investigation of the agency. Federal investigators apparently consider the allegation of witness intimidation serious enough that they have subpoenaed records from the OTB to review the matter. “He’s being intimidated because he’s cooperating,” Steven Cohen, the senior manager’s attorney, said. “All my client is doing is not lying to federal investigators.” Not only are OTB Chairman Richard Bianchi and President Henry Wojtaszek retaliating against his client, Cohen contends, but they have falsified OTB records. “Henry[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 19

2019

Metro Rail riders losing benefit of the doubt

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Come next summer, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority plans to abandon its honor system to ride Metro Rail. Instead, it will require riders on the underground portion of the transit line to pay and pass through a turnstile to board a train. The change is intended, in part, to discourage riders from boarding without paying a fare at Metro Rail’s eight underground stations. “It’ll make it a little easier on the officers because it’ll be a very clear barrier that people will know, without a doubt, that if you go through this turnstile, you need a ticket,” said George Gast,[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 18

2019

Mychajliw’s muddied campaign finances

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Stefan Mychajliw may have a federal campaign finance law problem.  Should the Erie County comptroller ever officially declare his candidacy for New York’s 27th Congressional District seat, he could face fines and sanctions from the Federal Election Commission for the way he’s financed his undeclared but vigorous campaign thus far. Mychajliw insists he is not currently a candidate for the 27th Congressional District seat. “I’m not a candidate for anything right now,” Mychajliw told Investigative Post in a recent phone interview.  And yet he acts like a candidate for the 27th District seat. He sounds like one, too. And he’s[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 6

2019

Buffalo Billion felon candidate for county job

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 A felon who played a central role in the Buffalo Billion scandal is now a finalist to land a job as the public face of Niagara County government. Kevin Schuler is one of two candidates county legislators are scheduled to interview Monday for the job of public information officer, who acts as spokesman for county government and fields media requests. The county’s 2020 budget proposes the PIO job pay $79,003 a year. The new salary amounts to a nearly $10,000 raise. Schuler was the longtime political fixer for Louis Ciminelli, a prominent developer and influential Republican until his fall[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 25

2019

Buffalo’s complacent Control Board

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 The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, better known as the control board, costs city and state taxpayers more than $1 million a year. Its job, since it was imposed by the state in 2003, has been to keep an eye on Buffalo’s finances.  But during the past eight years it has done nothing to stop Mayor Byron Brown and the Common Council as they’ve drained the city of more than $100 million in reserves, leaving City Hall with nothing in the bank to close budget gaps.  In six of the last eight budget cycles, the Brown administration has depleted its[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 21

2019

Buffalo’s No. 2 cop is moonlighting

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Joseph Gramaglia is the number two guy at the Buffalo Police Department, second only to the department’s titular head, Commissioner Byron C. Lockwood. That’s no 40-hour-per-week job. With more than 800 employees, Buffalo’s is the second-largest police department in the state. It’s a department that is making do with equipment shortages, introducing new taser and body camera programs, coping with overtime costs, and dealing with a series of police shootings that have strained community relations, especially with communities of color where police presence is felt most acutely. And yet Gramaglia — who, on behalf of Lockwood, manages day-to-day operations, strategic[...]

Posted 4 years ago
Investigative Post

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