Will suit derail Durivage’s chances?

GUILDERLAND — A cop being sued for $5 million is among the final three candidates for the police chief position here.

John Aretakis, a flamboyant attorney who was recently sanctioned by a federal judge for bringing a baseless suit before the court, is suing Robert Durivage, a North Greenbush police officer who has applied for the chief position.  The case that precipitated Aretakis’s suit, decided in Sand Lake Court in 2006, has been sealed since Aretakis brought his suit in federal court, alleging that Durivage violated his civil rights.

Durivage could not be reached for comment.

In a letter to the Guilderland Town Board, dated May 13, Aretakis details several issues with Durivage’s history at the North Greenbush department that he believes makes him unfit for the chief position in Guilderland.

“It’s a little political in nature,” Supervisor Kenneth Runion said of the letter, adding that police officers often face lawsuits. “It’s just the nature of the work.”

“It’s really going to be up to the board,” Runion said, “how they want to proceed.”

The town board interviewed eight candidates for the chief of police position, which has been empty for just about a year.  It narrowed the field to three people, who were asked for second-round interviews last week.  One is acting chief Carol Lawlor; the other is John Tedesco, a police officer from Troy.

Runion expects that the board will invite Durivage to answer questions raised in the letter in a closed session before its regular meeting next Tuesday.

“At a minimum, I would like to… give him the opportunity to respond to the allegations,” Runion said.

Overall, Runion said, Durivage had excellent references from a variety of places, which is one of things, in his mind, that got Durivage a second interview.  He also said that Durivage scored well on the Civil Service exam.  His grade, according to the initial list of three eligible candidates generated by civil service in June of last year, was 70 out of 100.

“The most important thing is the interview,” said Councilman Mark Grimm, of the weight he gives to each candidate’s application.  “I would never make a determination based on one person,” he said later, in reference to the letter from Aretakis. 

Grimm had remembered news accounts of the incident between Durivage and Aretakis from a couple of years ago, he said, and asked Durivage about it during an interview.  “As I recall, he handled it appropriately,” Grimm said of his answer, although he couldn’t remember the specifics of it.

“This guy took a shot at me because I’m a high-profile lawyer,” Aretakis said yesterday of Durivage’s handling of the arrest and following prosecution.

“No candidate gets universal support,” Grimm said.  “I’m giving fair weight to everything that comes in on every candidate.”