Former Cohoes police officer loses appeal, faces jail

ALBANY — The state’s second-highest court Thursday unanimously upheld the conviction and 90-day jail sentence of former Cohoes police officer Sean T. Mckown, who fired his service gun while off duty in the Adirondacks and lied to State Police that a Black male shot at him first.

In a 5-0 decision, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court’s Third Department in Albany determined that Mckown’s legal arguments lacked merit.

Justices Sharon Aarons, John Egan, Stan Pritzker, Eddie Mcshan and Michael Mackey affirmed Mckown’s guilty plea to unlawfully discharging a firearm and filing a false report.

Mckown, 50, who has been free on $25,000 bail while appealing his sentence, now faces 90 days of incarceration that was first imposed by Essex County Judge Richard B. Meyer in December 2021. It’s unclear when Mckown will have to report to county jail.

Thursday’s ruling was authored by Aarons, who in 2016 became the first person of color to sit on the bench of the Third Department, which covers 28 upstate counties. It is one of four Appellate Divisions that comprise New York’s second-highest court.

“Regardless of the context in which defendant’s claims are addressed, his arguments fail on the merits,” Aarons wrote.

In July 2020, the Times Union first reported on the June 6, 2020 incident outside Mckown’s summer home on Lincoln Pond Road in Elizabethtown. Mckown, a 19year veteran of the Cohoes police force who is white, called 911, claiming he was in a shootout after a confrontation with Black youths. But when State Police responded, they found Mckown asleep and appearing intoxicated. Mckown told the troopers he returned from an outing when he spotted Black youths. Mckown claimed a Black male flashed a gun and shot at him, and that he returned fire four times while retreating toward a hill.

Mckown later called State Police back, admitting that no one shot at him. Mckown claimed he heard a “pop” and shot two times shots into a tree stump to scare away whoever had made the sound. Mckown also claimed he “ditched” his service revolver because he did not want anyone to use it against him. State Police, who watched security video obtained from a nearby residence, quickly learned Mckown’s story, while revised by him, was still untrue. The video had showed Mckown neatly laying down his gun and not ditching it in a panic.

The people outside Mckown’s home had been three young peo

ple of color visiting the Adirondacks. They were in the road lifting cell phones into the air in an attempt to find cell service.

At the recommendation of Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague, State Police filed no charges against Mckown due to a supposed lack of evidence. And Mckown faced no internal discipline in Cohoes. Instead, he was allowed to retire in early August 2020. Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler, a retired State Police official, had said retirement was less expensive and risky than suspending Mckown and facing arbitration.

In the wake of subsequent Times Union coverage and public demands asking Sprague to fully investigate the matter, State Police reopened their probe into the case. In December 2020, an

Essex County grand jury indicted Mckown on charges of prohibited use of weapons, two counts of falsely reporting an incident, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling. In August 2021, Mckown pleaded guilty to unlawfully discharging a firearm and filing a false report.

At Mckown’s sentencing, Meyer told the ex-cop his actions had been “sad and despicable,” that Mckown “did not want people of color in your neighborhood” and was “motivated by your own bias and prejudice.”

Meyer chided Mckown for “unjustly targeting a group of young adults of color visiting this area for innocent purposes of a family vacation.” And he said Mckown’s “false accusations ... could have turned tragically wrong very quickly.”

Mckown’s attorney, Joshua R. Friedman, later argued to the Third Department that Meyer wrongly sentenced Mckown acting on false speculation, untrue assumptions, misinformation and the notion that Mckown had committed an uncharged hate crime. Mckown had asked Meyer to vacate his conviction and then requested a hearing, which Meyers denied.

Friedman argued that the judge improperly highlighted the February 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man chased and shot to death by white strangers — including a retired police officer — while jogging through a suburban Georgia neighborhood. Meyer had also mentioned the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by Minneapolis police less than two weeks before Mckown’s incident.

The Third Department, however, was unmoved by Mckown’s appellate efforts. Mckown had been “well aware” that before imposing Mckown’s sentence,

Meyer would rely on “grand jury minutes, a pre-sentencing report written by a probation officer and Mckown’s “inconsistent statements to law enforcement at the time of the incident,” Sharons stated.

Sharons said Meyer’s sentence was not based on misinformation or Meyer’s consideration of unspecified extrajudicial materials but facts, the record and reasonable inferences that Meyer drew upon.

“Accordingly, defendant’s primary claim — that (Meyer) sentenced defendant based upon erroneous and/or extrajudicial information — is without merit,” Aarons said.

In an email, Mckown attorney George E. Lamarche III told the Times Union he disagrees with the Third Department decision but respects it as does his client. He said Mckown “will comply with the order of the court and will serve his sentence as directed.” The attorney noted that probation officials and Sprague’s office had recommended Mckown not receive jail time. His client, he said, has worked not only as a police officer but volunteer firefighter and 911 dispatcher.

“Mr. Mckown is a good man who made a mistake nearly four years ago and has punished himself immeasurably,” Lamarche said. “Fortunately his mistake endangered no one, and harmed no one.”

Essex County Assistant District Attorney Kevin Mallery had argued to the Third Department that Mckown’s guilty plea was knowing, intelligent and voluntary, as well as not legally preserved for appeal.

Mckown had been previously charged in Illinois with driving under the influence. He pleaded guilty in that case to reckless driving and received a month of court supervision.