ALTAMONT — A judge has granted a hearing to a former Altamont Police officer who claims he’s entitled to back pay and reinstatement, dismissing the village’s argument that the officer, Marc Dorsey, got the job fraudulently.

Dorsey was suspended from his full-time post with the department in December of 2003, after stalking charges were filed against him in Albany. The charges were dropped in June of 2004, but Dorsey was never reinstated.

In November of 2005, Dorsey sued the village, asking for his job back and about $48,000 in back pay—full-time pay for two years. He also said he was entitled to a hearing according to section 75 of the state’s Civil Service Law, which says an employee with a competitive Civil Service job cannot by removed for disciplinary reasons without a hearing.

Last Thursday, New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Teresi ordered Altamont to give Dorsey the hearing, but not the pay or the job.
"Respondents have not met their burden in establishing that [Dorsey] fraudulently obtained his appointment since they have not brought forth admissible evidence to establish this defense," Teresi wrote in his decision.

According to Altamont, Dorsey did not meet Civil Service requirements for the position, because he didn’t live in the village. The address Dorsey provided on his application was false, said Mayor James Gaughan, and therefore Dorsey is not entitled to any Civil Service proceedings, including the hearing.

On the recommendation of the attorney in the case, James Roemer, brother of the village attorney, Gaughan said, he will ask the village board to appeal Teresi’s decision to the state Court of Appeals.
"Why would I give [Dorsey] something that he doesn’t have rights to"" Gaughan said. "In my opinion, it’s a bad decision."

According to Albany County spokeswoman Kerry Battle, the village submitted to the department of Civil Service a signed affidavit from the landlord of 103 Severson Ave., where Dorsey claimed to have lived. The landlord said Dorsey never lived there.

Based on the affidavit, Battle said, Albany County Civil Service wrote a letter back to the village saying that Dorsey was ineligible to be a full-time police officer.

Roemer said he didn’t understand why the court ruled counter to Civil Service. He said that Dorsey has had his gun license revoked, so he can’t be a police officer anyway.

Dorsey’s lawyer, Stephen Coffey, did not return a request for comment and Dorsey himself could not be reached for comment this week.

Coffey told The Enterprise at the time the lawsuit was filed that it was understandable Dorsey was suspended when he was arrested but, when the charges were dropped, and Dorsey had a good record with the Altamont department, the village should have given him his job back. Coffey also said Dorsey should have been given a hearing about his suspension.

Gaughan told The Enterprise at that time, last November, that he agreed Dorsey had deserved a hearing then, but it was now too late. Dorsey was appointed as a full-time officer in September of 2002, Gaughan said in November, but he never worked full-time.
"It was a highly irregular appointment at the onset," he said.

Gaughan said this week that Dorsey was only using the Altamont Police Department as a stepping stone to a position in a larger department. Dorsey was appointed during the administrations of Mayor Paul DeSarbo and Commissioner of Public Safety Robert Coleman, both of whom are named in the lawsuit.
"He was trying to hoodwink the department and the village," DeSarbo told The Enterprise when the lawsuit was filed.

DeSarbo lost the last village election to Gaughan and Coleman was replaced in a department shake-up that brought in Albany cop Anthony Salerno to serve as commissioner.

Salerno told The Enterprise earlier that full-time officers must live in the village of Altamont while part-time officers can live anywhere.