A Southold police officer whose employment was terminated by the Town Board last month has filed a legal action against the town seeking reinstatement to his job.
Garrett Lake, who was fired on May 19 four days before the expiration of his probationary period as a cop, served the town with a lawsuit Wednesday afternoon, claiming the town had acted in bad faith in firing him following two
“high-profile arrests” the probationary cop made in his first year on the job.
The Town Board “bowed to political pressure” exerted by Jamesport Fire District commissioners, the Southold Republican Committee vice chairman and a high-ranking official in the Suffolk County Police Department, Lake claims in his petition.
Lake was the officer who arrested Steven Romeo of Southold on a driving while intoxicated charge following a deadly limousine crash that claimed the lives of four young women and seriously injured several others last July.
Lake claims that the town Republican party vice-chairman was friendly with Romeo and the party official had stated at Republican events that the officer was going to lose his job. Lake also claims that Joe Sawicki, former assemblyman and county comptroller who is now an assistant deputy police commissioner with Suffolk PD inquired with a Southold Town Police captain about the “propriety” of Romeo’s arrest and also contacted the Town Board.
Lake was also the arresting officer who apprehended an assistant chief of the Jamesport Fire Department in February. The assistant chief, David McKillop is accused of leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage in Southold, while driving a fire department chief’s vehicle. Lake, who was assigned to the Mattituck sector that day, was alerted to the accident by the patrol officer in Southold, according to the petition. He “easily located” the heavily damaged chief’s vehicle and, upon finding McKillop to be intoxicated, arrested him on a DWI charge. Lake alleges that a Jamesport fire commissioner was a passenger in the vehicle at the time of the accident, along with McKillop’s son.
Lake claims the Jamesport fire commissioners “and politicians” complained to Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell and to the police chief.
According to Lake, Chief of Police Martin Flatley supported the arrest and did not support his termination. The police chief even offered to give him a recommendation for another police job, Lake says.
Lake had always had good reviews as an employee and his actions as a cop were always approved by the department, according to the petition, filed in State Supreme Court by attorney Eric Bressler of the Mattituck law firm Wickham, Bressler and Geasa PC. He was named Southold’s “top cop” for DWI arrests in 2015.
“Lake’s claims are baseless,” Russell said today. “I have no doubt the petition will be dismissed.”
Jamesport fire commissioners said through a spokesperson that, on the advice of their attorney, they would not comment on the pending action.
The assistant chief is currently on leave from the department and any consideration of administrative options are being held pending the outcome of the criminal case, a department spokesperson said.
Lake was terminated by a unanimous vote of the Town Board in a special meeting of the board held in executive session on May 19. The resolution adopted by the board identified the terminated employee only by number and the town supervisor on May 20 declined to provide the employee’s name and would not confirm that the terminated employee was Lake, as had been rumored at the time.
“Personally I find it atrocious that the press would write a story about an employee, any employee for being dismissed,” Russell told SoutholdLOCAL in response to an inquiry after Lake was terminated.
Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government, said the employee’s name should be disclosed.
“There is no doubt that the name of a person either hired or fired as a public employee is public and must be disclosed,” Freeman said in an email May 23. “Further, I believe that the name of the person fired must be included in minutes of the meeting during which the action was taken.”
Russell referred a reporter’s inquiry to the town attorney, who did not respond to the request.
The supervisor later said he had second thoughts about denying the identification request.
“I now realize that we may have not been complying with public information laws,” Russell said on May 27.
Lake’s termination was first reported on May 26 by The Suffolk Times.
The officer’s petition asks the court to annul the Town Board’s May 19 resolution and reinstate him to his position on the grounds that it was in bad faith and unrelated to his work performance and therefore “improper and arbitrary and capricious.” It also seeks back pay to the date of his termination.
The proceeding is on the July 11 calendar in State Supreme Court in Riverhead.
