Lawyer upbeat about cops’ suit despite appeals ruling

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Two city police officers who had their promotions withdrawn still have a chance to win their court case despite a core claim being dismissed, their attorney says.

Michael W. Macomber, the lawyer representing Sgt. Kirk Strand and Officer Robert Farrell, said the officers are gratified the case has been returned to state Supreme Court. There, he said, a part of the case can be argued “on its merits.”

Last Thursday, a state appeals court upheld a lower court’s dismissal of officers’ claims that the promotions were rescinded for political reasons. Macomber said the dismissal was due to the lack of including the matter in a “notice of claim.” It was not, he said, based on the merits of the case.

Once the case gets back to state Supreme Court, the matter of whether the city acted illegally by withdrawing the promotions still can be heard, he said.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Judicial Department, did order the case back to the lower court, but only because the earlier ruling, issued last month, did not list the names of officers who subsequently were promoted, according to Daniel Gartenstein, Kingston’s assistant corporation counsel.

Gartenstein said the appeals court found the error was not a fatal flaw in the initial state Supreme Court decision to dismiss the suit.

Strand and Farrell were promoted to lieutenant and sergeant, respectively, by then-Mayor Shayne Gallo in late 2015, but the move was never acted on by the city Board of Police Commissioners.

One day after Steve Noble became mayor in January 2016, the board, with Noble as its chairman, voted against the promotions.

The board then promoted three other officers to the rank of sergeant.

The lawsuit filed by Strand and Farrell asked the court to compel the city “to immediately reinstate Officer Farrell and Sergeant Strand in their former, duly appointed [higher] positions, with full back pay and benefits.”

The suit claimed that “it was not an error of law for the mayor of Kingston to appoint [them] to positions in the KPD . ... Their valid appointments were then declared to be illegal by the board, exceeding their statutory authority under the city’s charter.”

The suit also claimed politics were at play in the decision to rescind the promotions.

“The board discriminated against these [officers] on the basis of their previous political support for Mayor Gallo,” the lawsuit states.

Noble defeated Gallo in a Democratic primary in September 2015 and then went on to win the general election two months later.

Both Farrell and Strand were “vocal supporters” of Gallo and actively campaigned for him, according to the suit.