Langley Refutes Charges of Secretly Taping Phone Call
Putnam County Sheriff Robert Langley is refuting charges from his election opponent that he secretly recorded a phone call with a local supervisor and then used the conversation in his political campaign.
At a press conference on Oct. 15, Kevin McConville, who is looking to unseat Langley on Nov. 2, called on the Putnam County District Attorney’s Office and New York State Attorney General to investigate the sheriff for alleged criminal misconduct relating to a call sometime in the summer with Carmel Supervisor Ken Schmitt.
McConville maintained Langley used a county-issued cell phone on the 18-minute call with Schmitt to discuss the election and potential employment as a reward for political support.
“The subject matter of the call was entirely political in nature, and did not involve the business of the Sheriff’s Office, or county or town government, in any way,” McConville stated.
The recording of the call was later obtained under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
“Langley could have hung up immediately after hearing from Schmitt that the call was political in nature, and Langley could have called back Schmitt on a personal phone outside on his personal time. But Langley stayed on this political call for almost 19 minutes using his taxpayer-funded office, his taxpayer-funded phone, and taxpayer-funded recording equipment to gather campaign material,” McConville said.
On his Facebook page Oct. 16, Langley dismissed McConville’s claims.
“I find it a little hilarious in saying that I recorded those phone calls. The Sheriff’s Office records phone calls. I don’t record the calls,” Langley remarked during an unspecified event. “There is nothing here other than a normal, standard operating procedure. All law enforcement records phone calls. It’s nothing new.”
Langley further explained the phone call was obtained legally through FOIL by a resident in Putnam County looking for information on another matter.
“I follow the law. If you respect the rule of law, you release it. If you have no respect for the rule of law, then you hold it back and violate the law,” he said. “I complied with a FOIL request through our office. That’s how the information got out there. It wasn’t put out there. It wasn’t given away.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
