Buffalo, N.Y (WBEN) - It was a passionate return to Common Council chambers for city lawmakers on Tuesday, as a number of Council members continue to demand answers and transparency over the D.J. Granville incident that transpired back in April 2024.
Coming back from their annual August recess, Council members held a caucus meeting on Tuesday, attempting to schedule a Police Oversight Committee meeting with Buffalo Police Commissioner Al Wright and his staff. Lawmakers were hopeful to secure a meeting to receive the latest update and get answers from the department with more on the incident from about a year-and-a-half ago.
After conferring with the commissioner and his staff, Wright responded to members of the Common Council, saying he could not hold a Police Oversight meeting in September due to staff members being out-of-town for training, as well as vacations.
At this point in time, the longer that meetings are not held to provide more clarity into the incident, Rivera feels it will lead to further distrust from the public.
"We have to do everything we possibly can to hold these meetings. There are a number of issues that aren't in Police Oversight that are very sensitive, and there are a number of issues Council members have in Police Oversight that we're still waiting for answers on. So it's very important, critically important that we hold these meetings," said Rivera during Tuesday's meeting.
It was a little more than two weeks ago when Granville, the Chief of Narcotics with the Erie County Sheriff's Office, pled guilty to a pair of charges in the hit-and-run incident where he struck several parked cars on Prospect Avenue in the West Side neighborhood in Buffalo with his county-issued vehicle.
Granville pled guilty to one count of reckless driving and another count of leaving the scene of a property damage accident, which carried the maximum fine totaling $550. Granville was also ordered to complete 50 hours of community service for a not-for-profit organization.
The incident caused damages estimated to have cost Erie County approximately $60,000 in taxpayer funds. Granville was also suspended 30 days by Erie County Sheriff John Garcia as the result of his guilty plea.
Related
However, Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman noted as part of his investigation into the case against Granville last month that his office was at a grave disadvantage due to the fact that his office did not receive cooperation from the responding Buffalo police officers from that night.
"A determination was made in the criminal case, where he pled to a misdemeanor. Now there's still some outstanding questions as to what is going to happen with the five officers that responded to the call on that day," Rivera added following the meeting. "There are just a lot of questions that we have, and I'm sure that other folks have, and the City of Buffalo is conflicted. There's relationships, there's political donations, so people are conflicted. We need a second set of eyes to take a look at this."
It was back in late July before the Common Council went on recess that Rivera submitted a latter to the State Attorney General's Office to take a look at the incident and conduct its own investigation into the matter. He also asked the Governor's Office to refer it to the State Attorney General's Office so they can take a look at it.
Related
"I think there's a sense of distrust from the general public because it's taken so long, and because of the relationships and the conflicts that are there. So we need to get that out of the way and allow for the State Attorney General to come in, subpoena people and question people under oath," Rivera said.
"This happened April of 2024, this happened 14 months ago, and it seems like it's taken forever. That's one of the reasons people don't trust the process. They say, 'Hey, there's corruption here. This can't be trusted.' So you kind of say they have every reason to be suspicious. It's taken way too much time. There's been a veil of silence from BPD. They have not spoken on this. They can say, 'Well, it's in [the] Niagara County [District Attorney's Office].' Well, Niagara County just made a determination. What now? Talk to us. You have five officers off on administrative leave while being paid. Talk to us, let us know. I don't know if they've made a decision, I don't know how they're being advised or who they're being advised by."
Rivera does add the actions of a few officers that made bad decisions shouldn't tarnish the whole department.
"There are people doing a good job in the Buffalo Police Department, for the most part. I've had nothing but good experiences with them. But when somebody works outside the scope of the law, or somebody does something that's inappropriate, they should be held accountable for it," he said.
University District Councilman Rasheed Wyatt strongly believes now is the time for answers, and a meeting with the police commissioner and anyone else involved in the incident nearly 17 months ago cannot wait any longer.
"This is something that has happened a year or so ago, and we're still scrambling for answers," Wyatt said following Tuesday's meeting. "As I asked Corporation Counsel, Mr. Granville cannot be recharged, so the misdemeanor that he's been charged for, that's it. And that's a shame, because I think it goes further than just a misdemeanor. This is a miscarriage of justice that any normal person would have done something like that, and they probably would have been sent to jail. But this person gets to walk, and that's unfair."
Wyatt says it's incidents like the Granville one that continues to fans the flames of distrust and dishonesty between police departments and the general public.
"We talk about no snitching on the streets, well, there's no snitching in the police department because, from what we understand, the police officers who were at the scene decided not to say anything. Those are the types of things that we need answers for, because we need to answer to the public on what happened," Wyatt said. "Why did this happen? Why did it take so long to come forth? And at the end of the day, we need answers, and it shouldn't be we have to wait another month."
Among the people city lawmakers are hoping to hear from regarding this incident is former Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, who was serving in his role at the time of this incident.
"Whoever is a part of this that we can get answers from, I absolutely would like them to come. So if we need to subpoena whoever, let's subpoena. I don't want to keep waiting. I don't think we can keep on kicking the can," Wyatt said. "I think the Council, at times, [is] very compassionate. Well, I'm running out of passion, because the people are running out of trust. I see over-and-over again on Facebook how people distrust the police with incident-after-incident-after-incident, it's not fair. If we can hold people accountable, we should."
"I think anybody that was involved with any decisions should be brought in. From the top down to the bottom, whether it's the commissioner, whether it's the administration," Rivera echoed. "People assume that more people knew that it's almost incredulous that people would not know. There's a police department, there's hundreds of police officers that work with each other, the people that responded, the people that were on the radio that overheard the 9-11 call. My guess is more people knew about this, not that that would be wrong that they know about it. The question is, what happened with the decisions that were made by the police officers that responded on that day? That's utmost important.
"People need to have trust that when police officers respond, they're going to do the right thing. If I stop somebody on the East Side or North Buffalo, I'm going to treat them all the same way. And nobody's above the law, no matter if it's a county official or police officer. I think we need to make sure that law is enforced across the board."
Meanwhile, Buffalo's Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon disagrees with some city lawmakers, feeling Rivera and Wyatt may have crossed the line when demanding answers from Commissioner Wright.
"First of all, Council member Rivera was employed by the Buffalo Police Department for more than 25 years, and he has been on the Common Council for nearly two decades. He should know that the police commissioner cannot come in and comment on an ongoing investigation, in particular when members of his department may be subjects of that investigation," said Mayor Scanlon following Tuesday's Common Council meeting.
"The Commissioner is more than happy to come in and speak about anything else, and I find some of Council member Rivera's comments about Police Commissioner Wright insulting, quite frankly. And I'm upset for Commissioner Wright, on his behalf, as the man who dedicated four decades of his life to public service and protecting the City of Buffalo. And to have his motives questioned, I think, is completely irresponsible."
Scanlon pointed out that Commissioner Wright did receive the request to attend a meeting just last week, but made it clear to the Common Council he has members of his command staff either out-of-town on training or on vacation multiple weeks in September. Scanlon adds that Wright wants to be able to bring his full allotment to any meeting in order to answer any questions that comes their way.
The Buffalo Mayor also feels the timeliness of the City Council's quest for transparency on the matter to be a little off.
"For several years, we were meeting on a regular basis, a quarterly basis. The Police Oversight [Committee] was January, April, July, October. The fact [Rivera] felt the need to deviate from that schedule and move it to September, I find a little odd," Scanlon said.
Scanlon does agree with the premise of asking for people who were in roles previously with the Buffalo Police Department, like Gramaglia, and even former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
As the investigation continue with the Buffalo Police Department's Internal Affairs Division, as well as the independent investigation ongoing from the Niagara County District Attorney, Scanlon will preclude himself from getting involved in either matter until they are resolved.
"This is not the largest city in the world, people know people. And in order to avoid that, I have not gotten involved in this investigation. And I believe once the Niagara County District Attorney is done and he comes out with his report, and the Buffalo Police Department's Internal Affairs Division comes out with their report, I think the general public will be very pleased with the investigation that the Internal Affairs Division is doing," Scanlon said. "From my understanding, they are very thorough in what they're doing, but that is all that I know about it. They're being as thorough as possible."
As for the possibility of the State Attorney General's Office getting involved in this case, Scanlon feels that won't be necessary.
"I've heard members of the Council talking about a request for an independent investigation. That's exactly what's taking place right now with the Niagara County District Attorney. And we'll see the results of that, and then subsequent to that, when the Internal Affairs Investigation is released, we'll go from there," he said. "I have full faith in the Niagara County District Attorney to do his independent investigation and come to the conclusions that he does."