NIAGARA COUNTY
Muscarella goes into the spotlight as acting sheriff
By Thomas J. Prohaska
- NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
Updated: 07/24/08 6:41 AM
LOCKPORT — After 15z years as Niagara County undersheriff and almost 35 years in the department, Samuel J. Muscarella Jr. is stepping into the spotlight.
With Sheriff Thomas A. Beilein retiring as of Friday, presumably to take a state job, Muscarella will be in charge of the Sheriff’s Office.
Both candidates in the November election for sheriff said Wednesday that they do not expect Gov. David A. Paterson to make an appointment to the vacant sheriff’s spot before the election.
That leaves Muscarella, 60, a career cop who has largely stayed out of politics, in the big chair for the rest of the year.
“It’s a difficult situation with the boss leaving,” Muscarella said. “He and I have worked together for a long time, so it’s difficult.”
Muscarella, a Town of Lockport resident, said he doesn’t expect to involve himself much in the upcoming political contest between Beilein’s chief deputy, Democratic nominee James C. Voutour, and the Republican candidate, Niagara Falls Chief of Detectives and Lewiston Councilman Ernest C. Palmer.
Muscarella said that under his leadership, the Sheriff’s Office will run much as it does now.
“I don’t foresee making any changes,” he said. “Obviously, there’s going to be a little more pressure and a little more work for me and my chief deputies, Jack Taylor and Jim Voutour. But we’ve got to take care of business, and we will.”
Paterson has nominated Beilein to head the state Commission on Corrections, and a State Senate confirmation vote awaits the Senate’s return to Albany, possibly in August, if state leaders can agree on a property tax cap bill.
State Sen. George D. Maziarz, RNewfane, who has been promoting Beilein’s nomination, said Wednesday that if there is a summer session, he expects it to last only a day, and he will try to get Beilein’s appointment on the agenda.
But instead of waiting for action, Beilein handed in his retirement papers.
That gave Paterson the opportunity, if he wants, to nominate his fellow Democrat, Voutour, to the sheriff’s seat. However, that, too, would require confirmation by the GOP-controlled Senate.
“It would be nice [to be appointed], but I’m not expecting it,” Voutour said.
He said Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, and Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, wrote Paterson letters in March or April urging his appointment, “but I haven’t heard a word.”
Voutour continued, “It’s only 100 days [to the election]. It’s not like the department can’t run. We have an undersheriff for a reason.”
He also noted that with the confirmation requirement for an appointee, “Sen. Maziarz would have to carry it, and he’s got his candidate.”
That would be Palmer, but Palmer said he’s sure he won’t receive an appointment from Paterson.
“I don’t think that’s even on the table,” Palmer said. “There’s going to be an election in November.”
Muscarella entered the county Law Enforcement Academy in January 1974 and worked as a patrol deputy until September 1981, when he was promoted to investigator and assigned to the Drug Task Force. He said that was where he got to know Beilein.
In 1988, Muscarella was reassigned to the Criminal Investigation Bureau, and in January 1994, when Beilein was sworn in as sheriff, he chose Muscarella as his second-in-command.
