Officer who made obscene gesture retires

Albany department declines to release name

A city officer who was captured on another cop’s body-worn camera making an obscene sexual gesture has retired from the department.

Albany police spokesman Officer Steve Smith on Tuesday said the officer, who he refused to identify, retired recently after being on medical leave. The video clip, provided to the Times Union in April, shows the cop miming oral sex as a Castleton woman was taken into custody on a mental health call in June 2018.

Smith said officials were alerted to the matter through the Times Union’s inquiry and intended to investigate the matter — but the officer never returned from medical leave before retiring.

“We couldn’t conduct an investigation; we couldn’t bring him in to ask what this was about,” he said.

The officer’s name was not being released because he is no longer with the department and a formal complaint was never filed against him, Smith said. He also refused to provide the timing of the officer’s retirement and medical leave.

“We don’t know what the gesture was,” Smith said. “We don’t know who it was intended to.”

Brittany Kilcher, who has made a host of allegations against multiple regional police agencies, provided the video clip to the Times Union. Kilcher claims she was unjustly taken into custody after a confrontation between her and instructors of Albany’s Citizens Police Academy. In the video, the officer makes the lewd motion to another officer who was wearing a body camera as Kilcher sits handcuffed on a nearby bench. She can be heard saying, “See? Clearly trying to antagonize me.”

At the time, Kilcher said she thought the officers were making fun of her for being “crazy,” but reviewing the body camera footage later, she was even more stunned. The 25-year-old received a copy of the video following subpoenas ordering Albany police to release records as part of an earlier criminal matter.

Despite this incident not resulting in any formal investigation, Smith said the department does hold officers accountable.

“Any time any issue is brought to our attention, we’re going to look into it,” he said.

Kilcher said ever since she filed a notice of claim against State Police, she’s become a target for other law enforcement agencies. Two weeks after news broke that Kilcher planned to sue the state, she was arrested by city police for assaulting an officer. She claimed her irrational behavior that led to the arrest was triggered by her being drugged and sexually assaulted.

Kilcher subsequently filed a notice of claim against the city department over the arrest, alleging she was a victim of false imprisonment, false arrest, false mental health arrest, malicious prosecution and fraudulent charges.

In the notice, Kilcher alleges she was sexually harassed by an Albany officer as well as slandered and perjured by city police. Kilcher has said she is unlikely to pursue either lawsuit.