Lancaster Village Prosecutor Resigns

[ichingtheory]

Lancaster village prosecutor Dwan resigns after not receiving approval of district attorney





By Karen Robinson | News Staff Reporter

on September 2, 2015 - 6:20 PM


Lancaster Village Court is without a prosecutor after Michael T. Dwan resigned the post five months after his appointment.

Dwan never was granted the required formal designation from Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III to serve as a municipal prosecutor.

The Village Board appointed him for a year, with an annual salary of $8,000, running through April 4, 2016. He succeeded Yvonne S. Tripi, who served under the previous village administration.

Sedita said Dwan never should have begun serving as the village prosecutor without having received what’s known as “designation of public official” from the district attorney.

“He never was designated by me. It’s required legally that I give my designation for him to act in my stead,” Sedita said. “There was never a need for him to resign because he was never designated.”

Dwan was critical of Sedita in his resignation letter to Mayor Paul M. Maute.

Sedita expressed additional concerns that Dwan was advertising his law practice to represent people accused of traffic offenses – the very types of cases he would be prosecuting in Village Court.

The district attorney said that about three weeks ago, as he was driving to work, he heard Dwan in a radio ad pitching to represent defendants on the “very type of cases” he would typically represent as a public prosecutor at the village level, including traffic offenses and lower-level violations such as disorderly conduct and harassment.

“It’s an ethical issue” and a conflict of interest, Sedita said.

“A lightbulb went off in my head, and I looked into it and called the police chief and village justice,” Sedita said.

The district attorney also contacted Dwan and sent the mayor a letter dated Aug. 19. Dwan’s resignation followed the next day.

“Mr. Dwan may not appear on my behalf or on behalf of the Erie County District Attorney’s Office in any capacity, including that of a village prosecutor,” Sedita wrote to Maute. “In other words, Mr. Dwan does not have the authority to hold himself out as a public prosecutor."

In his resignation letter to the mayor, Dwan wrote that Sedita called him Aug. 18 to inform him that it was “against his policy” to allow town and village prosecutors to advertise as criminal defense attorneys.

Dwan said Sedita told him that unless he ended his advertising as an attorney, he would not allow him to continue as village prosecutor.

“Mr. Sedita’s request came as a surprise to me because many town and village prosecutors advertise as criminal defense attorneys in much the same way that I do,” Dwan wrote. “When I brought this point up with Mr. Sedita, he told me that the other prosecutors were ‘grandfathered in’ and his ‘policy’ was exclusively his prerogative to enforce as he wished.”

Sedita did not respond to Dwan’s statements. In the absence of a prosecutor, Village Court has been rescheduling cases for court sessions Sept. 15 and Oct. 6. Longtime Village Justice Paul T. Bumbalo, who pushed for Dwan’s appointment as prosecutor, said he hopes the village appoints a new prosecutor Sept. 14.

email: krobinson@buffnews.com

[4248]

Bravo DA Mr.Sedita

This isn't the first time there have been obvious conflicts with local "Appointed Judges" in our area. Its nice to see the DA looking at such things.

How can we have Local Party Lawyers be non bias in our Courts and local Government ?

You have some of these lawyers representing clients - in front of Judges they and their Party's Appointed. How could that not be a obvious conflict ?

Or when a Law Enforcement Officer Arrests someone who's a Party Player or related to Elected Officials, Appointed Officials or Law Enforcement ?
- and when that person goes to court and his Lawyer is a local Party Player
- So the defendant and lawyer are prominent members of the same Party/Committee
- the same group who actually endorsed or helped appoint the Judge

No, DA Sedita didn't focus on all this - he focused on the advertisement leading to the possible conflicts .

This needs to go deeper and wider - for far too long Political collusion has dominated all tax funded aspects of local tax funded services, law, town hall.

[shortstuff]

And we heard that Dwan was relatively on the up and up. It was heard that prior to this, correct me if I'm wrong, he wanted to run for a Town Council seat. Definitely appears to be a conflict and we need to recognize this and start adhering to the laws at the local level(s).

Don't you feel it....the shift in power?

[warrior]

Loving it!!!

[4248]

As the Father Goes, so Goes the Family

What God is saying is that if a father misleads his family, the family will pay for it. Each will have to pay for their own sins but the father could have prevented many of the sins that his children and grandchildren would fall into had he led his family in obedience to the Law of God. The effects of this fatherly mismanagement would be felt by multiple generations because what has been sown will be reaped because God cannot be mocked.
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We all have much to be sorry for!