Five State Police troopers suspended over a crash involving a trooper's son. What the reporting says, what State Police haven't said, and why it took ten months.
Five State Police troopers assigned to Troop B were suspended over the handling of a crash last fall involving an off-duty trooper's son — who was never charged, after State Police took the case away from the Clinton County sheriff's deputies who were already working it.
That's according to Brendan J. Lyons, reporting for the Times Union and published Sunday by the Adirondack Explorer, citing two people familiar with the matter.
State Police did not announce it. They confirmed the suspensions to WCAX on Thursday and said nothing beyond a count and a month. We asked six specific questions on August 20 and have received no reply.
Clinton County sheriff's deputies took the initial call on the one-car crash. While they were handling it, the off-duty trooper — the driver's father — contacted a younger trooper and asked her to go to the scene. He had been her field training officer after she graduated the State Police Academy.
State Police then took over the investigation. One of the suspended troopers determined there was not probable cause to arrest the son for driving while intoxicated. He was not charged.
The internal investigation was apparently prompted by a complaint from the deputy who originally responded to the crash.
Investigators have been reviewing body-worn camera footage. At least one trooper may have responded to the call without wearing a body camera.
Three of the five have been offered deals that would keep their jobs in exchange for extended suspensions. The off-duty trooper, who was in line for promotion to investigator, had that promotion rescinded.
Two weeks ago, State Police told us that Michael S. Ward of Black Brook was arrested after a search warrant at his home. They gave us his full name, his age, his town, the street address the warrant was executed at, every charge, and the jail he was sent to. Within days of the arrest. We published it. So did everyone else.
A trooper's son crashed a car last fall. A sheriff's deputy who responded thought something was wrong enough to file a complaint. Five troopers were pulled off the road over it starting in early July.
Ten months later, the public found out — not from State Police, but because two people talked to a reporter.
We still don't know the names of the five troopers. We don't know the date of the crash, the town it happened in, or whether anyone was hurt. We don't know whether the son was ever tested for intoxication. We don't know what the body camera footage shows, or why at least one trooper apparently wasn't wearing one.
State Police know all of it. They have known since at least July.
On August 20 we emailed Troop B's public information officer with six questions: the nature of the October incident, whether the suspensions are with or without pay, which stations the troopers work out of, whether the Professional Standards Bureau or troop command is handling it, whether there is a parallel criminal investigation, and why roughly ten months elapsed between the incident and the suspensions.
We have received no response.
That is not unusual and it may not be evasion — an agency has real reasons to say little while an investigation is open. But "we can't discuss an ongoing investigation" is a choice about what the public gets to know, not a rule imposed from outside. The same office chose to release a private citizen's home address before he'd been tried.
Troop B is headquartered in Ray Brook, between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. It covers roughly 8,000 square miles across Essex, Franklin, Clinton, and St. Lawrence counties, plus half of Hamilton. Twenty stations.
Out here, State Police often are local law enforcement. There is frequently no other option. When you call 911 on Route 3 at two in the morning, a trooper is who comes.
Five of them have been off the road since early July. Whatever happens to their cases, the people they policed between last fall and this July had no way of knowing any of this was under investigation.
If you were at that crash, if you work for the Sheriff's Office or State Police, if you heard about it at the time — we want to hear from you.
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