Cheektowaga police officer accused of making threat
A Cheektowaga police officer could lose his job for allegedly threatening a former girlfriend last summer with “vulgar” text messages and arranging to have her removed from the Sunset Bay Beach Club in Irving on July 4 last year.
“This is pretty serious,” Town Supervisor Mary Holtz told The Buffalo News of the accusations against patrolman David Robida. “We have a police chief that’s very concerned.”
The Erie County district attorney’s office has been informed, Holtz said, although town police Capt. John Glascott said there are no criminal charges pending.
The Town Board voted unanimously Monday night after a closed-door discussion that they would move forward with a disciplinary process that could cost Robida his job.
A resolution Town Board members considered said the officer “has brought discredit upon the Cheektowaga Police Department” for failing to treat his girlfriend respectfully, violating Police Chief Christine Ziemba’s order that he have no contact with the woman and making a false report to the department.
Robida, who has hired an attorney, declined to discuss the charges when reached by phone late Monday. “I can’t comment on anything,” he said.
Alleged incidents that led to the Monday vote were detailed in the resolution. They included “vulgar, threatening and insulting” text messages Robida is accused of sending to his ex-girlfriend and her family. The messages related to a visit by the former girlfriend to the Sunset Bay Beach Club in Irving on July 4, 2008. The resolution alleged Robida threatened to “ruin” his ex-girlfriend’s summer by excluding her and her family from the club “and other bars and public establishments owned or operated by his friends.”
The resolution continues to say that three of Robida’s friends and associates communicated with each other and, during the early afternoon that day, arranged to remove his exgirlfriend shortly after she arrived at the bar.
The resolution approved by the board also says:
• “Any police officer who makes a false statement during the course of an Internal Affairs investigation undermines the integrity and purpose of such investigation.”
• Robida’s false statements were about whether he gave a friend and associate a “heads up” that his ex-girlfriend would be at the Sunset.
• Robida went to the Sunset knowing his ex-girlfriend would be there and he was told to stay away from her. Robida’s actions led to his ex-girlfriend’s removal from the club “in a way that could not have been more aggressive, abrupt, embarrassing and predicable. [sic]”
Later this month, a hearing officer and Deputy Town Attorney Jeffrey Whiting will suggest a punishment — possibly dismissal. The Town Board will make the final decision.
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