Activists in Saratoga Springs helped Democrats maintain control of the city council on Election Day. Now, they hope candidates will follow through on promises of police reform and shedding light on a 2014 death.
Speaking to WAMC on Election Night, Democratic Mayor-elect Ron Kim said voters had issues related to policing in the Spa City on their minds.
“Going door to door, I heard a lot about the police reform, that we needed to do it. I also heard a lot about the Darryl Mount death and how we needed to investigate that,” said Kim.
Darryl Mount Jr. died in 2014, months after an August 2013 police foot chase where he was seriously injured. The City of Saratoga Springs is defending itself against a wrongful death lawsuit from Mount’s family, who has claimed police brutality. There has been no probe into potential police misconduct.
James Montagnino, the city’s recently-elected Public Safety Commissioner, said he is planning to release a report on the Mount case upon his inauguration. The Democrat spoke at a League of Women Voters forum in October:
“As public safety commissioner I will use my skills as a detail-oriented attorney to provide the public with long-sought answers to the lingering questions surrounding the Mount case,” said Montagnino.
Saying there’s a lack of communication from the city on the case, Montagnino said he has read nearly 2,000 pages of public documents on the case and will call on the county district attorney to launch a grand jury investigation.
Saratoga Black Lives Matter supported Democrats in their campaigns. Lexis Figuereo, a lead organizer of the group, was among other BLM activists who cheered at Democratic headquarters on Election Night. He wants to see the candidates follow through on their promises.
“We are definitely looking for reciprocation, for sure. One hand washes the other,” said Figuereo.
Darryl Mount’s name became a rallying cry for police reform over the last 17 months that saw several protests and charged city council meetings.
A recent Times Union article made waves when it detailed testimony from two witnesses at the scene of Mount’s injury. The witnesses described hearing a “thud” in an alley, and noticed the injured Mount before police arrived.
The testimony backs the police narrative that Mount, fleeing from police on foot, fell from a scaffold into an alley, where he was found unconscious.
According to a report released by the city police department in 2014, which includes photos and security camera video of the incident, officers lost sight of Mount, and ran to the other side of the building in an attempt to cut him off. The report reads:
“Police officers are trained to slow their foot pursuit once they have lost sight of the offender. The picture of the scaffolding clearly indicates that an officer would reasonably refrain from blindly pursuing an offender into such a tangle of wet wood and metal in the complete darkness.”
But Figuereo has many questions, with no reported witness accounts of Mount falling or on the scaffold, and questions the narrative that police lost sight of Mount during the chase.
“I read that police tried to shoot him with tasers, so at what time was he away from you, so far, that you couldn’t even shoot tasers at him, that he disappeared? It just doesn’t make any sense, and honestly, none of this story has made sense to a lot people, and that’s the reason why we’re calling for an investigation,” said Figuereo.
With four newly elected Democratic commissioners coming to city hall, Figuereo says there’s an opportunity for representation.
“There’s a lot of different positions that are going to be available. We would like them to be opened up to everybody, not just the normal people – Caucasians – of our community,” said Figuereo.
Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor as a third-party spoiler, celebrated the Democratic victories. She is expected to bring forward a revised ordinance to establish a civilian review board next week. The body that would attempt to foster relations between the police and community is a key recommendation from the city’s Police Reform Task Force.
Figuereo and others brought their concerns forward about a first draft of the ordinance – criticizing a three-year residence requirement, as one example. But he said he has not seen a new version of the ordinance.
Dalton previously told WAMC the new draft reduces a residency requirement to one year, would attempt to involve younger people, and makes changes to the appointment process.
But Figuereo says Saratoga BLM is not in a hurry, with a new crop of council members set to take office in January.
“We don’t want anything rushed. We are perfectly fine and we have confidence in the Democrats to implement the civilian review board exactly the way that the Police [Reform] Task Force wanted it to be, when they put together their recommendations from Executive Order 203,” said Figuereo.
Meantime, he said, Saratoga BLM will be more politically involved as Democratic Mayor Meg Kelly leaves after two terms.
NOTE: WAMC spoke with Ron Kim Wednesday afternoon and asked him if he would he will seek an investigation into the Mount case from Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen.
“Absolutely,” said Kim. “And if the DA won’t do her job – because that’s what it is, it’s her job – I’m going to be asking the State Attorney General to look at this. They have some statutory authority here. If not…if neither of those entities take a step forward, I think this is such an important thing that we need to consider the approach that Rochester did – in a, sort of, tragic death of an individual out there where they hired outside counsel. That would be the last resort, but certainly we should finalize this and have an investigation after all these years.”
