Sheriff Kevin Henderson will resign.
That was the takeaway from a meeting held by the special committee continuing an investigation into issues at the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office during his tenure.
The committee was provided an update from its outside legal counsel indicating that Henderson’s legal representatives informed them that he plans to resign.
This runs contrary to previous reports that Henderson would not step down. However, outside legal counsel for the County has not yet received Henderson’s resignation letter.
Following that update the committee discussed the need to proceed with the Section 209 Investigation as charged by the Board of Supervisors whether Henderson remained in office or not.
“A major reason for this committee being formed is to gather information that was not provided to the Board of Supervisors through the independent investigation conducted earlier this year. The Sheriff declined to talk to the independent investigator. The County still has significant questions and concerns about the Sheriff’s conduct, and the atmosphere the employees have been subjected to under Sheriff Henderson’s administration. Regardless whether the Sheriff remains in office, these questions need to be answered,” Committee Chair and West Bloomfield Supervisors Todd Campbell said.
A number of items will be obtained through the investigation, including:
- Any and all documents, notes, reports, and/or communications related to the recent investigation of Ontario County Correctional Officers and the inappropriate grooming and/or sexual contact with jail inmates.
- Any and all documents, emails and/or communications from the Special Prosecutor appointed to investigate the abovementioned matter, his/her staff or anyone working under his/her direction, or any other person, to Sheriff Kevin Henderson, David Frasca, any and all Administrative staff and/or investigators, deputies or other Ontario County Sheriff’s Office employees.
- Minutes, notes and/or other records related to Ontario County Sheriff’s Office Administrative Command Staff meetings since January of 2019 to present wherein the Sheriff was documented as giving an order, directive, or other statement indicating that employees of the Sheriff’s Office were prohibited, discouraged or otherwise impeded in communicating, participating, or reporting any matters to the Ontario County Human Resources Department, County Attorney’s Office, County Administrator’s Office and/or any other department, person or official within the County.
- Any and all reports made by the Ontario County Jail to the New York State Commission on Corrections from January 1, 2019 to the present.
- All documents, records, communications or other material that was deposited to be shredded by former Undersheriff David Frasca at, or near, the time of his resignation and that was subsequently preserved by Sheriff’s Office staff.
- Any and all records, documents, training records, communications, reports or other documents related to the Sheriff’s departmental Sexual Harassment Committee including any and all records, documents, notes, reports or communications pertaining to any and all complaints made to, investigated by or which were brought to the attention of such committee between January 1, 2019 and the present.
- Any and all documents, records, reports, communications or other materials pertaining to and including the internal personnel records maintained by the Sheriff’s Office of the two corrections officers investigated by the Special Prosecutor for inappropriate relationships and/or conduct with inmates, as well as any and all documents, records, reports, communications or other materials pertaining to any and all inmates complaints made by inmates of the Ontario County Jail that mention, are related to, or pertain to the two Corrections Officers investigated by the Special Prosecutor for the period of January 1, 2014 to the present.
- Any and all documents, records, reports, communication or other materials, including text messages, Facebook messages or other electronic communications pertaining to the resignation of former Undersheriff David Frasca and the events leading up to, during and after said resignation.
The subpoenas authorized by the Committee at today’s meeting will be governed by the New York State Civil Practice Law and Rules pursuant to County Law Section 209.
At the conclusion of their meeting, the Section 209 Committee committed to meeting on a regular basis, even before the formal return date of the approved subpoenas to address any additional areas of inquiry and concern while the Committee receives, reviews and processes the responses to the subpoenas approved today.
The next meeting of the Committee will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday October 7 in a location yet to be determined. There will be a WebEx remote access option available to members of the public and the media which will be posted on the Ontario County Board of Supervisor’s website prior to the meeting.
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