Smell stink O with this one. All politics with this case.. Can You imagine if you did this Depew , Cheektowaga, Lancaster..etc. you would be spending the night in a cell not at your friends house. So Gill is letting this high ranking official go..After striking the pole, Maciejewski continued to drive until the vehicle became disabled.

A high-ranking Erie County official faces traffic charges in Lancaster, where he is accused of fleeing an accident scene after his car struck a utility pole early on the morning of March 28.

Joseph L. Maciejewski, 46, director of real property services for the county, was using imprudent speed and left the scene of a property damage accident after the 3:21 a.m. incident on Lake Avenue, police confirmed.

After striking the pole, Maciejewski continued to drive until the vehicle became disabled “less than a mile” from the Lake Avenue location, police said. Officers spotted the damaged vehicle and then found Maciejewski walking away from his vehicle, Town Police Chief Gerald J. Gill Jr. said.

This cracks me up.. “It was [nearly] four in the morning, for God’s sake,” Gill said. “His car’s disabled. He hit a damn pole and left, if his car didn't break down he would of fled.

Gill if it was anyone else we would of got a free ride to the police station BS

Questions about how police handled the incident have been raised by one critic – political consultant Michael Caputo, who publishes a blog that first broke the story about the citations against Maciejewski earlier this week.

“I think it is highly unusual that a one-car accident in the wee hours of the morning, where someone was speeding and left the scene, ends with police driving the motorist to a friend’s home,” Caputo (TUG Boat Mike toototo) said.

“It’s not clear from the report when the Lancaster Police Department became a taxicab service,” Caputo stated on his blog, politicsny.net.

Gill said that, from all the information he has on the incident, officers acted properly and did not grant any special favors to Maciejewski.

“There’s not a shred of evidence that I’m aware of that this incident was not handled properly,” Gill said. “Recent history clearly indicates that our officers will make challenging decisions, including arresting one of our town councilmen.”

Gill’s remark was in reference to his department’s arrest – one day after Maciejewski’s accident – of Mark S. Aquino, (the cops could of taken this guy home but they hung him out to dry) then a member of the Lancaster town council. Officers charged Aquino with driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident after he allegedly rammed into a parked car on Como Park Boulevard and kept driving.

Police stopped Aquino, gave him a blood-alcohol level test, and said his blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.14 percent, which is above the state’s legal limit of 0.08 percent. Aquino, 52, who also is an attorney, resigned from the council one day after his arrest.