Sheriff’s probe of Nation police continues
Mar. 1, 2000

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch

WHITESTOWN — A review of an earlier Oneida Indian Nation Police investigation has yet to turn up any evidence Oneida Nation officers violated a deputization agreement with Oneida and Madison counties, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

Lt. Joseph Lisi, head of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department criminal investigation division, said in three months of investigation, “no claims of illegal activity have been substantiated.”

Sheriff Daniel Middaugh said Tuesday he expects the review to be wrapped up by the end of March.

Leon Koziol, the Utica attorney who represents Upstate Citizens for Equality, said he is disappointed the investigation is not finished.
Last year, former Nation police officer Edward Fike accused some of his colleagues of illegally spying on people opposed to the Oneida Nation’s policies.

He went public with his charges at the urging of the citizens’ group, which is made up of landowners threatened by the Oneida Nation’s land claim.

The organization wants the counties to rescind the agreements that give the Oneida Nation police the same authority as county sheriff’s deputies.

Oneida Indian Nation Police Chief John Folino said last fall his department investigated the charges and found them to be either “flatly untrue or ... seriously misleading.”

Lisi said Tuesday his review of that investigation is taking a long time because witnesses interviewed by his officers have given the names of other people who have to be interviewed, in turn.

“A lot of spinoffs have come up,” he said.

“Some allegations we did substantiate,” Lisi said, but he emphasized that none of those allegations involved criminal activity and they did not violate the deputization agreement.

Middaugh said he will not rush the review.

“We want to make sure the investigation is thorough ... and that there was no impropriety that ties into the deputization agreement,” he said.

Koziol is not satisfied.

“They were telling me in late January the report would be out very soon,” he said.

“All they’ve done is confirm evidence we’d already given them,” he said.

He said he believes Oneida Nation Police officers continue to misuse their powers under the deputization agreement to protect Oneida Nation interests rather than simply enforce the law.

Oneida County Executive Ralph J. Eannace Jr. said earlier that if the Oneida Nation violated the terms of the agreement, Middaugh has the power to void the agreement with individual officers or the entire Oneida Nation department.