The Saratoga Springs City Council this week approved the reimbursement of legal fees for two former city officials as they comply with an investigation from the New York State Attorney General’s office into potential civil rights abuses related to the arrests of Black Lives Matter demonstrators last year. And there are new details today about what the probe is examining.
WAMC first confirmed last fall that the City of Saratoga Springs was being investigated by the State Attorney General’s Office Civil Rights Division related to the 2021 arrests of Black Lives Matter demonstrators and other potential misuses of police power.
Last week, the Times Union reported first that former Mayor Meg Kelly and former Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton had been issued subpoenas in the probe.
Speaking with WAMC Thursday, Dalton said she is complying with the subpoena she learned of in July as “quickly and as thoroughly as possible.”
“I take it very seriously but I also want to make sure I turn over, in my opinion, the more the better. The more information I can provide, the better. I’m an open book and I’m, again, complying as quickly as possible,” said Dalton.
Kelly, who did not seek a third term in November, did not return a phone message seeking comment last week.
The Attorney General’s office did not respond to a WAMC request for comment on the subpoenas.
On Tuesday evening, the city council – in compliance with state law and the city charter – approved a resolution to reimburse legal fees and other expenses for Dalton and Kelly.
The resolution capped reimbursements for legal fees at $10,000 and other expenses at $3,000, with the ability for the former officials to seek more funding if deemed “reasonable” by the city council.
Here’s Democratic Mayor Ron Kim speaking Tuesday night about the caps.
“We asked both of their attorneys that they selected to give us an estimate. They came back with something similar to this, one of them, actually, was a little higher because they weren’t sure if they were going to have to be down in New York or whatever…We thought it was prudent, though, to protect the taxpayers to have a cap, at this point, with the clear intention with that, ‘If you’ve got more expenses, you can always come back,’” said Kim.
Dalton provided some details about that the Attorney General’s office is seeking to WAMC.
“It’s between my emails, my personal emails, my campaign emails, my city hall emails, my personal text messages, any press releases I did, any public statements I made. You know, when you go through all those categories it ends up being thousands and thousands of documents,” said Dalton.
Dalton said the city attorney was overseeing the turning over of documents to the AG’s office after the initial request for information last year.
As the probe continues, Dalton said she wants to be efficient and “keep the expenses as low as possible for the taxpayer.”
Dalton said she had not personally had any conversations with any current city officials regarding the investigation, and denies wrongdoing.
“I would absolutely never do anything that violated anyone’s civil rights ever. I don’t believe that’s what happened but I also don’t think I should be commenting on that at this stage,” said Dalton.
Speaking with WAMC last week, Mark Mishler, an attorney who represented a Saratoga Black Lives Matter organizer, hinted at possible future legal action by demonstrators against the city.
Mishler represented Lexis Figuereo, who had faced charges of obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct in relation to a July 2021 protest and disrupting city council meetings last summer.
Figuereo and others were arrested and detained weeks after the protest at the eve of the 2021 summer track season.
Those charges were dropped by a city judge this spring.
“A number of people who faced those arrests and faced those improper detentions and improper charges are considering going to court to vindicate their constitutional rights,” said Mishler.
Mishler welcomed word of the AG’s ongoing investigation.
