... Both Kaczmareks allegedly met with Kirkem on Feb. 20 to ``discuss the details surrounding the police seizing cocaine and other narcotics from the drug organization earlier in the day and how to proceed with their drug organization in view of that police seizure.''
Is there any evidence to support the allegation and warrant charges to be brought against Greg Kaczmarek? It's hard to believe that he had no role in and/or awareness of the alleged actions of both his wife and his stepson.
I understand that Attorney General Cuomo stated during an interview that the investigation is ongoing.
During a bail application, her attorney, Kevin Luibrand,
Kevin Luibrand is the civil rights attorney who represented Rebecca DiSorbo, who sued the city of Schenectady when police officers arrested her and her sister after she turned down the advances of an off duty officer. Then ruffing them up in a holding cell. He also represented David Sampson, the man that was driven to Glenville and had his shoes taken off, then told to walk back Schenectady.
Now Mr. Luibrand is representing Mr. Kaczmareck, the man who was in charge of the police department when Mr. Luibrand was filing these law suits against Schenectady and it's police department. How ironic.
Mr. Kaczmarek is responsible for a lot of Mr. Luibrand's fortunes.
I'm sure Greg K is involved to some extent but proving it could be another story. I heard that they have him on tape but whether he said anything incriminating remains to be seen.
Wiretap: Ex-police chief offered to transport drugs Friday, May 9, 2008 By Steven Cook (Contact) Gazette Reporter
Photographer: Marc Schultz Former Schenectady police chief Greg Kaczmarek leaves Schenectady County Court on Friday morning after his wife, Lisa, pleaded not guilty to charges she was involved in a highly organized drug ring based in the city.
SCHENECTADY — Former Schenectady police chief Greg Kaczmarek participated in calls to alleged drug kingpin Kerry Kirkem, offering to go to Long Island to get cocaine in time for his birthday, according to wiretap transcripts obtained exclusively today by The Daily Gazette. Greg Kaczmarek’s voice is heard in the background as his wife talked to Kerry Kirkem during two phone calls Feb. 18. Both phone calls were made within minutes of each other over the noon hour, using a phone registered to Greg Kaczmarek. Lisa Kaczmarek, who was arrested Thursday, is heard asking Kirkem for what authorities say was cocaine, though the words are not used. Wiretap transcripts To read transcripts of calls between Lisa Kaczmarek and alleged drug ring leader Kerry Kirkem, click here and here. Kirkem had a delay in a shipment, and Lisa Kaczmarek was working with a deadline: Greg’s birthday was coming up. “Greg’s got a birthday Wednesday,” she allegedly told Kirkem, according to the transcript Then the former chief speaks up from the background: “That’s my birthday present,” he allegedly said. Kirkem jokes that Greg Kaczmarek should make the trip to Long Island. “Ask him if he, he want to take that trip for me.” Lisa Kaczmarek is charged with felony conspiracy and faces up to 25 years in state prison if convicted. Her husband has not been charged, though his name is included in an indictment unsealed Thursday. Greg Kaczmarek served as Schenectady Police Chief from 1996 until retired in 2002. He retired in the wake of one of the department’s worst scandals when four officers were sent to federal prison for mishandling informants and drug evidence. Gregory Kaczmarek himself has long been followed by rumors of drug use. The week before he was named chief in 1996, he attempted to dispel the whispers by holding a news conference, flatly denying them. Then-mayor Al Jurczynski then challenged anyone with proof of such a claim to come forward. No one credible did, Jurczynski said then. Albany attorney Kevin Luibrand is representing the couple. He appeared in Schenectady County Court Friday morning, getting Lisa Kaczmarek a $10,000 bail. She was released about 2:30 p.m. today. Asked later about the transcripts, Luibrand again declined to comment. “As a criminal case it belongs in court and that’s where we’ll address anything,” he said. Lisa Kaczmarek, Kirkem and the former chief in the background go on in tapes to talk about a trip to Long Island, a trip that apparently never happened. The three, however, allegedly met two days later, the indictment reads, “to discuss the details surrounding the police seizing cocaine and other narcotics from the drug organization earlier in the day, and how to proceed with their drug organization in view of that police seizure.” That alleged meeting is apparently not referenced in the transcripts. In the Feb. 18 conversation, Kirkem did not like the idea of Greg Kaczmarek getting the items. He would only use his regular driver. Besides, it would be dangerous. “You have to,” Kirkem said, “no listen, it would be dangerous for him” Lisa Kaczmarek laughed. “Greg goes ‘I’ll show him the badge’” Kirkem replied “oh my God” as Lisa Kaczmarek continued talking to Greg in the background: “He said it would be dangerous for you.” Kirkem finally refused the Kaczmarek’s alleged offers for help, instead telling them they had to wait. Lisa Kaczmarek then asked for backup. “If that don’t come thru, see if you can find something else for Greg’s birthday cause you’re my only connect,” she allegedly said. Kirkem replied, “alright.”
This was happening right in the city of Schenectady, right? And this was a 'State Police' find right? If this is true, than where were the SPD all of this time? It appears that the state police have not only stopped the recent sprees of shootings with their presence but they have also embarqed upon a major drug ring that included the EX-SPD CHIEF right under the SPD's noses. That's the way it reads to me anyway.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Do we really think no one knew???? there is more below the rippling surface.....folks that used to live in Schenectady that have now moved to Albany have stories.....and so do the elderly that have been in Schenectady all their lives......there is a monkey on our back in Schenectady and it has been here since money has......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
SCHENECTADY Ex-police chief heard on wiretap Authorities link wife to drug ring BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Former Schenectady police chief Greg Kaczmarek participated in calls to alleged drug kingpin Kerry Kirkem, offering to go to Long Island to get cocaine in time for his birthday, according to wiretap transcripts obtained by The Daily Gazette. Greg Kaczmarek’s voice is heard in the background as his wife talked to Kirkem during two phone calls Feb. 18. Both phone calls were made within minutes of each other over the noon hour, using a phone registered to Greg Kaczmarek. Lisa Kaczmarek, 48, who was arrested Thursday, is heard asking Kirkem for what authorities say was cocaine, though the words are not used. Kirkem had a delay in a shipment, and Lisa Kaczmarek expressed anger that Kirkem could not get her product soon enough, saying her “business” was ruined. She also expressed to Kirkem that she was working with a deadline: Her husband’s birthday was coming up. “Greg’s got a birthday Wednesday,” she told Kirkem, according to the transcript Then the former chief speaks up from the back- ground: “That’s my birthday present.” Kirkem jokes that Greg Kaczmarek should make the trip to Long Island. “Ask him if he, he want to take that trip for me.” Lisa Kaczmarek is charged with felony conspiracy and faces up to 25 years in state prison if convicted. Her husband has not been charged, though his name is included in an indictment unsealed Thursday. Asked Thursday why Greg Kaczmarek was not charged, even though he was named in the indictment, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the investigation was not over. A spokesman reiterated that Friday afternoon. Greg Kaczmarek served as Schenectady police chief from 1996 until 2002, retiring after a department informant and drug scandal sent four officers to prison. He has long denied drug use, even holding a press conference before becoming chief, flatly denying the accusations. COURT APPEARANCE Albany attorney Kevin Luibrand is representing the couple. He appeared in Schenectady County Court on Friday morning, getting Lisa Kaczmarek’s bail set at $10,000 cash. She was released by 2:30 p.m. Lisa Kaczmarek entered the courtroom nearly in tears. She wore an orange jail jumpsuit and was handcuffed. Her husband sat in the gallery. Afterward, he declined to comment except to say “I love my wife. She has my full support.” Asked later about the transcripts, Luibrand declined to comment. “As a criminal case it belongs in court and that’s where we’ll address anything,” he said. Lisa Kaczmarek was one of 18 defendants to appear in court Friday. A total of 24 were indicted Thursday as part of what authorities said was a Schenectady-based cocaine and heroin distribution operation. Lisa Kaczmarek was described by authorities as street-level, selling to her own circle of clients. Kirkem and another man, Oscar Mora, were described by authorities as the group’s leaders. They both face top-level drug counts. Kirkem, who was ordered held pending a Monday bail hearing, is represented by attorney Michael Braccini. After Friday morning’s arraignment, Braccini said he had just received a copy of the indictment and hadn’t read it. He had also just gotten a copy of the warrant used to start the wiretaps. Braccini said he expected to target the warrant’s constitutionality. “These are serious issues. They’re serious charges,” Braccini said. It remains unclear how long authorities believe Lisa Kaczmarek was involved, but, at one point in the transcripts, she referenced a period of at least a year: “It’s time to pay me back for all that [expletive deleted] I had to go through for a year with Tamika,” she allegedly said. UPSET WITH DELAY Lisa Kaczmarek starts out the conversations upset over the shipment delay. “You ruin my business and then you don’t call me,” she told Kirkem, who asked how he ruined it. “I’m so [expletive deleted] mad you don’t know, I almost died,” she continued. “I couldn’t believe it [Greg in background] so now how do I get, how do I get hooked up here, or do you not even, the money’s in the thing.” She then talked of her husband’s birthday. Lisa Kaczmarek, Kirkem and the former police chief in the background talk about a trip to Long Island, a trip that apparently never happened. The three, however, met two days later, the indictment reads, “to discuss the details surrounding the police seizing cocaine and other narcotics from the drug organization earlier in the day, and how to proceed with their drug organization in view of that police seizure.” That meeting apparently is not referenced in the transcripts. In the Feb. 18 conversation, Kirkem did not like the idea of Greg Kaczmarek making the trip. He would only use his regular driver. Besides, it would be dangerous. “You have to,” Kirkem said, “no listen, it would be dangerous for him.” Lisa Kaczmarek laughed. “Greg goes ‘I’ll show him the badge.’ ” Kirkem replied “Oh my God” as Lisa Kaczmarek continued talking to Greg in the background: “He said it would be dangerous for you.” Kirkem finally refused the Kaczmareks’ offers of help, instead telling them they had to wait. Lisa Kaczmarek then asked for backup. “If that don’t come thru, see if you can find something else for Greg’s birthday cause you’re my only connect.” Kirkem replied, “alright.” MARC SCHULTZ/ GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Lisa Kaczmarek, wife of former Schenectady police chief Greg Kaczmarek, appears in Schenectady County Court on Friday morning. Kaczmarek
Re April 25 article, “More police hit the streets — Changes come in response to violent incidents”: Where are the cops that are supposed to walk the streets? So far, the only thing they are doing is riding around in their cars, stopping people for whatever traffic violation they may have. The city stated that there would be cops on foot. Where are they? Are they afraid to walk the streets on The Hill? If that’s the case, then the cops let it get out of control. CHERIE LEWIS Schenectady
SCHENECTADY Records show overtime spending on rise Police spending in black, but OT costly BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com
The Police Department overspent its overtime budget by $639,000 last year, contrary to the mayor’s announcement Monday that it only broke its budget by $80,000. The mayor also claimed to have reduced overtime spending in the department and said he has held it “in check” for three years, but a review of the department’s fi nancial records Friday showed that overtime is on the rise. However, the department did finish 2007 in the black, in total spending. It had $111,000 left over on Dec. 31. Mayor Brian U. Stratton said that proved the department is fi - nally being run responsibly, after many years of overspending its entire budget. “For once we have efficient and effective administration,” he said. “The net result is we finished in the black.” But the city is also spending more on overtime now than it did when Stratton — who has long criticized the increase in overtime spending — was first elected mayor. In 2004, the city spent $2.4 million on police overtime. In 2005, with Stratton’s first budget as mayor, it spent $2 million. In 2006, it went back up to $2.4 million. In 2007, it inched even higher, to $2.48 million. The Schenectady City Council had only authorized the department to spend $1.84 million on overtime, but the mayor said Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett had done a great job in sticking to his budget. While presenting what seemed to be a wholly positive audit of the city’s 2007 finances, Stratton reported Monday that the department missed its budgeted overtime limit by just $80,000. That was a coup for his administration, which has worked hard to reduce overtime spending. In previous years, the overtime budget was overspent by hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 2004, police spent $1.7 million more than authorized. In 2005, the department went $816,000 over budget, followed by an overspending of $373,000 in 2006. The declining trend, culminating in the $80,000 over-expenditure in 2007, was highlighted Monday in a full-color slide during Stratton’s presentation. In a press release that accompanied the slides, he said his administration had “held overtime in check” and that Bennett’s “careful management” of the department was helping to control costs far more than they had been in 2004. He emphasized that in that year, the department overspent its overtime budget by nearly 200 percent. Stratton never mentioned that in actual dollars, more money was spent on overtime in 2007 than in 2004. Instead, he said overtime had been reduced through redeployment of personnel, the hiring of additional officers and the use of grants. RECORDS SHOW FUNDS He declined to explain those remarks after the city released its detailed overtime records Friday in response to a Freedom of Information request. The records showed that overtime spending had gone up and that the police spent $639,000 more than the council had authorized in the 2007 budget — far more than the $80,000 that the mayor reported. When a reporter first questioned the mayor’s report, Finance Director Ismat Alam said she didn’t know what could have caused the discrepancy. But after releasing the financial records on Friday, she said she had quietly added $559,000 to the police overtime budget, with the mayor’s approval, over the course of the year. Each month, she said, she moved some money from the department’s salary line to its overtime line. Those transfers — which were legal — were never discussed at Schenectady City Council meetings and were never announced. Alam said council members were kept informed through monthly lists of all budget transfers. Alam and Stratton defended the transfers as legitimate since the money had been allocated to the police and the total budget stayed in the black. “I mean, you’ve got the money budgeted,” Stratton said. “That’s a routine practice.” In past years, however, the city appears to have accurately reported the department’s overtime expenditures, even if it later used money left over in other budget lines to pay the overage in the overtime line. BLANCHFIELD NOT WORRIED The change in reporting did not particularly upset Councilman Mark Blanchfield, who chairs the council’s finance committee. “If the department comes in on budget, I’m pretty happy,” he said, noting that the department overspent its total budget for many years in a row before Stratton took office. Blanchfield added that he doesn’t have any concerns about the steady increase in police overtime. Stratton has long criticized overtime spending as a risky practice that puts tired officers on the road, is disproportionately and unfairly offered to the most experienced officers, and costs the city more in the long run as officers take compensatory leave instead of overtime pay and then must be replaced by another officer working on overtime. He has also said good managers should be able to stay within their budget, partly by filling vacancies. That’s what Bennett did — but his new hires spent most of 2007 in training. Alam said it made sense to transfer funds from salary to the overtime line while the department waited for its new officers. “Officers had to be on the street,” she said. Blanchfield said the overtime spending should be viewed in that light. “Overtime is really a reflection of our difficulty in keeping our [employment] numbers up,” he said, adding that he doesn’t agree with the Stratton’s reasons for trying to reduce overtime. “I don’t agree with the premise in the first place, that slight upticks are emblematic of problems in the department,” Blanchfield said.
Former Schenectady chief covers wife's bail Lisa Kaczmarek pleads not guilty to drug conspiracy; report says husband included in transcript of recording
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer First published: Saturday, May 10, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- The wife of former police chief Gregory T. Kaczmarek was released from jail on $10,000 bail Friday, just hours after pleading not guilty to conspiracy in connection with a drug indictment. Lisa Kaczmarek, 48, was one of 24 people arrested a day earlier as part of a 13-month multi-agency probe into a drug trafficking ring. The investigation, led by the state Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force, alleges the drug ring operated a cocaine pipeline from Long Island and New York to the Capital Region.
Hours earlier, Lisa Kaczmarek shackled, handcuffed and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, appeared before acting Schenectady County Judge Christine M. Clark to hear a felony complaint read charging her with second-degree conspiracy. Kaczmarek was freed after her husband posted a certified bank check for $10,000 to cover the bail about 2:25 p.m. at the county jail, Schenectady County Sheriff Harry Buffardi said. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Michael Sharpe, who is prosecuting the case, said he intends to use wiretap evidence against Lisa Kaczmarek and other defendants. If convicted, she faces a maximum of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison. Miles Smith, 20, Lisa Kaczmarek's son, also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and drug sale counts. He is expected to make a bail application on Monday. Meanwhile, the Daily Gazette on Friday published a transcript of a recording on which it says Greg Kaczmarek can be heard offering to travel downstate to haul drugs back to the Capital Region for his birthday. The former chief, who retired in 2002, does not face charges in the ongoing investigation, but he told the Times Union on Thursday he expected he and his wife would be targets once the investigation focused on a friend, alleged ringleader Kerry "Slim" Kirkem. Neither Sharpe nor the Kaczmareks' attorney, Kevin Luibrand, could not be contacted for comment about the development late Friday. It is alleged Lisa Kaczmarek was caught on a recorded phone line telling a friend that her husband could transport drugs for them. Both Kaczmareks allegedly met with Kirkem on Feb. 20 to "discuss the details surrounding the police seizing cocaine and other narcotics from the drug organization earlier in the day and how to proceed with their drug organization in view of that police seizure." During the bail application for Lisa Kaczmarek, defense attorney Luibrand asked Clark to consider giving his client the same $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond bail set earlier for Leah Armenia, who is charged with conspiracy and drug possession as part of the investigation. Sharpe said it would be difficult for Armenia, a 25-year-old Hannaford supermarket supervisor, to even make the bail set. He said during Armenia's arraignment that her Union Street apartment was used as a "stash house," and she was paid rent to allow large quantities of cocaine, heroin and weapons to be kept there. He argued that in the case of Lisa Kaczmarek, a higher bail should be considered. Luibrand renewed his argument for the lower amount and told the judge Lisa Kaczmarek "is not a flight risk whatsoever." The judge sided with the prosecutor's recommendation. Carol DeMare can be reached at 454-5431 or by e-mail at cdemare@timesunion.com.
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