MONTICELLO – The war of words has heightening between Sullivan County Attorney Michael McGuire and Acting District Attorney Brian Conaty.
On Wednesday, McGuire criticized Conaty for his comments last week in which Conaty accused McGuire of stonewalling legal proceedings that could have saved a toddler’s life.
“The county attorney himself, Mike McGuire, refused to institute removal proceedings as requested,” said Conaty.
McGuire responded head-on to those remarks.
“Mr. Conaty’s comments were callous, misleading and demonstrate a level of poise and demeanor incongruent with one who seeks to hold the office of district attorney in this or any county,” McGuire said. “I am compelled however to respond to the reckless and disgraceful comments by Brian Conaty last week in which he attempted to politicize the death of an 18-month-old child and in doing so, provided false and misleading information in an effort to cast blame upon my office for causing the death of this child.”
McGuire began by pointing out that under the law, Child Protective Services (CPS) does not need his approval to remove a child from a dangerous situation.
The county attorney said that anyone involved in such a case believing the life of a child was in danger has not only an opportunity, but a legal obligation to remove the child and place the child in protective custody, regardless of the opinion that McGuire’s office may or may not have been.
Last week, Conaty reported that on three separate occasions, removal of the children was requested from the county attorney’s office. McGuire fired back at that charge stating, “Mr. Conaty asserts that on three occasions I was begged to remove these children and refused. Such an assertion is patently false. From the time the now deceased child was born until the day she died there had never been a substantiated allegation of child abuse following an investigation by our CPS unit.”
In the news conference, McGuire also alleged that Conaty was uncooperative when it came to sharing information with his office surrounding the investigation into the child’s death. McGuire provided a copy of a letter to the media from Conaty that indicated McGuire’s office would be provided only the information necessary to meet their burden of proof. McGuire had requested additional information from the acting district attorney, including crime scene photos and investigator’s reports. McGuire says that the requested information was not provided.
“Despite the fact that these statements were digitally recorded, it took over two weeks for Mr. Conaty to provide my office with a copy of those statements and that was only after repeated requests,” said McGuire. “Despite repeated requests, he has flatly refused to share crime scene photographs even after his case has been presented to the grand jury and refused to provide the autopsy report to my office having a statutory right to receive the same.”
McGuire also provided evidence to contradict statements made by Conaty last week also that he was the “chief law enforcement officer” in Sullivan County. McGuire provided a copy of the county charter that indicates that the role belongs to the county sheriff, and not the district attorney.
