State police blast critics in hazing case
Say internal probe found agency did nothing wrong
WILSON — The State Police on Thursday hit back at critics who questioned their work in the alleged Wilson baseball team hazing case.
The day two teens were acquitted — and the day after the suspended baseball coaches and their spokesman publicly railed against the State Police’s handling of the case — the agency announced its internal probe is over and has found no wrongdoing had taken place.
State Police Chief Inspector Col. Anthony Ellis also said it was Mike Paul, the spokesman for teacher-coaches William M. Atlas and Thomas J. Baia, whose allegations led to the agency’s internal review.
The arrests of the three varsity players were based on probable cause, Ellis said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
“All investigative and police actions concerning this matter were in accordance with State Police Rules and Regulations,” Ellis said. “The review concluded that a thorough and proper investigation was conducted and the matter is now closed.”
State troopers confirmed May 19 that they were conducting an internal investigation on how they handled the case stemming from an April 2008 incident aboard a Wilson baseball team bus.
Joseph Barrett, president of the New York State Police Investigators Association, also issued a statement Thursday addressing Paul’s claim of police wrongdoing.
“This is a common tactic used by defendants in criminal cases, to attack the police,” Barrett said, “so this is not unusual that Mr. Paul would be reduced to this.”
Paul told The Buffalo News he believes the closing of the internal probe in this fashion indicates a second rush to judgment. “It smells of an incomplete investigation,” he said, “favoritism of the State Police taking care of the State Police.”
The father of one of the acquitted defendants also blasted the agency’s probe. He charged that troopers threatened his younger son, who state police also reported was a victim from the bus ride.
“They threatened a victim with one year in jail if he didn’t give them the information they wanted him to,” the father said. “If that’s how state troopers act, they’ve got a lot more problems than Wilson, N. Y.”
The father said he told an investigator that an allegation contained in a written statement of past sexual abuse of his older son at the hands of baseball teammates was “a lie.”
“Never once did I indicate my boy was sexually abused,” the father said.
abesecker@buffnews.com tprohaska@buffnews.com
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