By Brian Kelly
Watertown Daily Times
WATERTOWN — A former Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office corrections officer who lost his job after being convicted of a misdemeanor stemming from a domestic incident has filed legal action to get his job back.
William J. Simpson, Adams, filed state Supreme Court Article 78 action Friday at the county clerk’s office against Sheriff Colleen M. O’Neill, who made the decision to fire him May 21, ending a seven-year career.
According to court documents, Mr. Simpson got into a verbal dispute with his common law wife, Soo-ci Cohen, on Sept. 28, 2013. Ms. Cohen had been using an axe to cut a trail prior to the argument starting and, as the dispute ended, she threw the axe at a garage door. Mr. Simpson then hit the door a few times with the axe before tossing it over his shoulder without looking. The axe struck Ms. Cohen on the right side of her neck and shoulder, knocking her down and causing her to become temporarily stunned and disoriented.
When Ms. Cohen appeared unable to get up, the couple’s son called 911, although shortly after she was able to walk into the house. Ms. Cohen, a county emergency dispatcher, talked to a dispatcher and told the person there was no need for anyone to respond to the call, but was told that police and an ambulance were already on the way.
When police arrived, Mr. Simpson was charged with throwing the axe, even though Ms. Cohen told officers she did not want to press charges. She was also told she must go to the hospital to be checked out even if she did not want to go. Mr. Simpson was charged with the felony count of assault with intent to cause injury with a weapon and misdemeanor counts of criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. A temporary order of protection was issued on Ms. Cohen’s behalf.
Within days, Ms. Cohen began contacting the district attorney’s office, stating that she did not believe Mr. Simpson had intentionally struck her with the axe and requesting that the order of protection be lifted. The order was soon modified to allow Mr. Simpson to remain in his home, although Ms. Cohen continued to ask that the order be lifted, but received no response from the district attorney’s office, according to court documents. The order expired in April 2014 and was not extended.
Six days after Mr. Simpson was charged, he was suspended without pay for 30 days. He filed a demand for arbitration, with Deputy County Attorney John L. Sabik and the sheriff’s employees union agreeing to hold the matter in abeyance pending resolution of the criminal matter. The matter was presented to a grand jury in August 2014, with the jury determining that there was insufficient evidence to support a felony charge against Mr. Simpson. The jury instead returned a prosecutor’s information charging Mr. Simpson with the misdemeanors of second-degree reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
The case dragged on for months, during which time Ms. Cohen wrote to the district attorney’s office and claimed that the assistant district attorney who was prosecuting the case, Walter M. Jeram Jr., “was making the situation into something more than the accident it was and was blowing the case out of proportion,” according to court documents. On May 14, the day the matter was scheduled to go on trial, Mr. Simpson pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment “in order to avoid putting his son through having to testify in court.”
On May 21, Sheriff O’Neill informed Mr. Simpson that his employment was being terminated because of the conviction. Mr. Simpson’s union, the New York State Law Enforcement Officers Union, Council 82, Local 3089, immediately protested the firing, claiming it violated Public Officers Law, which requires termination for officers convicted of a felony, but not for a misdemeanor. The union also contended that its collective bargaining agreement with the county required that a disciplinary arbitration hearing be held in the matter before Mr. Simpson could be disciplined or fired. Mr. Sabik notified the union May 26 that the county would not reinstate Mr. Simpson to his position.
Mr. Simpson’s legal action asks for a judgment annulling Sheriff O’Neill’s decision to fire him, restoring him to his position with back pay to May 21 and ordering that the disciplinary arbitration hearing be held. Mr. Simpson is represented in the action by Christine Caputo Granich, associate general counsel for the State Law Enforcement Officers Union, Albany.