Two Onondaga County sheriff’s deputies have been suspended or forced to resign in recent weeks following unrelated investigations into misconduct allegations.
Anthony Gorgoni, a deputy for 18 years, was suspended without pay three weeks ago for violating the sheriff’s use-of-force policy, Sheriff Kevin Walsh said. The allegations involve an inmate at the Justice Center jail, Walsh said.
Alexander Nicholson, a deputy for eight years, resigned Friday when he was confronted with allegations stemming from an investigation by the sheriff’s abused-persons unit, Walsh said. That investigation is continuing, he said.
“I can only say we received the allegations, we brought him in, we confronted him with the allegations and he chose to resign,” Walsh said.
He said he could not be more specific about the allegations because the investigation is open. If they’re substantiated, they would be criminal, he said.
The alleged misconduct occurred when Nicholson was off-duty, so the deputies’ union cannot represent him, Walsh said. Nicholson, 34, of Syracuse, could not be reached for comment.
Walsh said he spoke with District Attorney William Fitzpatrick about the case the day before investigators confronted Nicholson.
In Gorgoni’s case, the sheriff’s office is seeking to fire him over his violation of use-of-force policies, Walsh said.
Gorgoni, 42, of Liverpool, has another week or two of unpaid suspension, Walsh said. After that, the county must begin paying him again. He will be required to report every day to the sheriff’s office and sit in a room with two other deputies facing disciplinary charges. They’re only allowed to read the duty manual.
Gorgoni could not be reached for comment.
The Justice Center has come under scrutiny in recent months because, over the past two years, two inmates died and one was transported from the jail to court with a bone protruding out of his arm. The state Commission of Correction criticized jail officials in one of the deaths, saying nurses and deputies were inattentive to the medical needs of Chuniece Patterson before she died in November from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
The death of the other inmate, Raul Pinet Jr., in August is under investigation by state and county officials. He died after being restrained by deputies at the jail. A forensic pathologist determined Pinet died from “cocaine-induced excited delirium,” with the deputies’ actions listed as a contributing factor.
Walsh is seeking his fifth term as sheriff in the Nov. 2 election. His opponents have criticized the recent run of deputies getting into trouble. Ten of them were charged with crimes ranging from rape and sexual abuse to assault and drug charges in 2007 — a year Walsh called an embarrassment for his department. He has said that year was an aberration, and that his department does everything it can to weed out troublemakers.
Walsh is running against sheriff’s Deputy Joe Price on the Democratic line and sheriff’s Sgt. Toby Shelley on the Working Families line.
--Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.