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Report Finds Saratoga Springs Police Misconduct Investigation Wasn't Completed

Saratoga Springs City Hall
Lucas Willard
/
WAMC

It’s been five years since police in Saratoga Springs, New York were in a foot chase with 19-year-old Darryl Mount Jr. after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend. Nine months later he was dead from injuries sustained in what police said was a fall from a scaffold as he tried to flee police. Now the Saratoga Springs police chief, Gregory Veitch, has admitted in a court deposition that he deceived the media at the time when he said an internal investigation found no police misconduct. Veitch, who is still chief, now says there was no internal probe.

The public safety commissioner at the time, Christian Mathiesen, is no longer with the city.

Barbara Lombardo, was the executive editor of the Saratogian newspaper at the time, and recently wrote an update on the story for Albany’s Times Union. She spoke with WAMC’s Brian Shields.

Later Monday, Tara Gaston, the Saratoga Springs supervisor on the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors, tweeted:

“Whether civilian oversight is the answer, an investigation into what happened here - incl. the chief’s statements to the public and under oath - is imperative to maintain transparency and public trust.”

In an interview with WAMC, the Democrat stressed that she has no oversight function as it pertains to the city police, but comes from a law enforcement family and says accountability is vital.

"I don't have any indication of actual culpability with respect with to the police activity and in the death of Mr. Mount, I'm not privy to any information that would say that, but my concern would be whether we feel like we can trust our public safety officers, and I want to make sure that's still there," Gaston says. "It's concerning if there were misstatements or inaccuracies passed along to the public and not immediately corrected."

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