A judge ruled in late November that Steuben County’s removal of the sheriff’s indemnification was unlawfully enacted and invalid.
The year-long legal battle between the Steuben County sheriff, county legislature, county manager and former chair of the legislature was seen by a Yates County Supreme Court judge as an act of “bad faith to punish the sheriff.”
A lawsuit was filed in 2023 by Sheriff James Allard against the county and its officials after the legislature voted to both rescind the sheriff’s indemnification and require he purchase up to $3 million in liability insurance coverage. Shortly after the passage of the county’s requirement for the sheriff to buy liability insurance, the legislature rescinded that resolution in full.
Indemnification was provided by the county to the sheriff in 2017 to protect him from liability claims made against him in his official capacity.
Issues between the sheriff and the county have been brewing for years.
According to the legal decision document, the former chair of the legislature, Scott Van Etten, threatened Allard by controlling the sheriff’s budget and removing his indemnification in 2021. The threats were issued because the sheriff was alleged to have entered into an unlawful food vendor contract at the jail. There were also ethical concerns about the sheriff’s creation of a non-profit organization—Steuben County Sheriff’s Foundation—that accepts donations.
Van Etten spoke with WSKG earlier this year and said legislators gave Allard ample opportunity to “straighten his vehicle up and drive in the right direction and it never happened.”
Van Etten went on to say that in order to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, the legislature had to take action.
“It's the taxpayers' money that's spent on lawsuits,” said Van Etten. “And so everyone that's wound up and mad at me or mad at the legislators for clipping Sheriff Allard’s wings, I tell them we're just protecting your money. That's why we did what we did. Nobody wants his job. This isn't a power struggle at all.”
WSKG reached out to the sheriff for comment and did not hear back prior to publication.
More recently, a sheriff’s deputy made a claim last year of alleged sexual harassment against a co-worker for displaying a homophobic picture on a county-owned computer within the sheriff’s office. County officials found the sheriff would not follow the state-mandated harassment policy enforced by the county.
“We have a harassment policy, which is mandated by the state of New York, and it requires us to handle any kind of harassment complaints in a particular fashion,” said Kelly Fitzpatrick, current chair of the Steuben County Legislature. “The sheriff also has his own policy which he wants to do, his own investigations, his own policies, his own procedures. Our departments, our county attorney's position on that is that he should be following our policy. He is not following our policy.”
The sheriff’s handling of the harassment investigation was the impetus for the county forming the 209 Investigation Committee in 2024. The committee has met three times in the past year and two of the meetings were conducted in executive session.
According to Fitzpatrick, the indemnification ruling does not affect the investigation committee. She said there are still open items for that committee. Since they happened in executive session, there are no meeting minutes for the public to view. Fitzpatrick said she wants to “push to get these items closed.”
Fitzpatrick said it is because of the sheriff’s actions that the county pulled his indemnification in order to reduce the county’s exposure to liability for going against county policy.
Although it continued to remain an issue, the county was unable to revoke the sheriff’s indemnification during the litigation process.
“It is very difficult for [the sheriff] to relinquish some of that control, which is exactly what the county attorney on our end was telling him he needed to do,” said Fitzpatrick. “And because they didn't get along very well, it just was poorly presented, poorly discussed, and everybody just started butting heads. So here we are.”
Fitzpatrick said there are divisions within the county government and the legislature about how to move forward. She said some would like to handle it through communication, while others “strongly disagree.” The judge’s ruling does not mean that the county legislature could not take up the issue again in the future.
It is unclear how much the lawsuit has cost Steuben County taxpayers. The sheriff claims it cost nearly $200,000 for legal representation and a media consultant.
Fitzpatrick said she asked County Manager Jack Wheeler for the exact costs and is waiting for an answer.
“It's important for us to understand the cost benefit analysis,” said Fitzpatrick. “So, if you're spending $200,000, what are we getting out of that? Are we really, truly protecting the taxpayers from insurance claims, or is it overreach, overspending? I don't know the answer to that question yet.”
WSKG reached out to Wheeler and he was unable to respond in time for this report.
A statement from the sheriff’s office after the ruling said: “The sheriff is thankful that justice has been served.”
No decision has been made by county officials whether to continue to pursue sanctions against the sheriff.
According to Fitzpatrick, the legislature will decide how to move forward at its next full meeting in January.