MONTICELLO – According to a statement released by Sullivan County District Attorney Brian Conaty, Mid-Hudson News uncovered a sting operation his office was conducting in the Village of Monticello. Conaty says that Mayor George Nikolados was acting in his capacity as a cooperating witness during an expletive-laced meeting with Village of Monticello Police Dispatcher Yermia Solomon last month in which the mayor offered to reinstate Solomon as a police officer in exchange for votes in the upcoming election. A recording of the conversation, which was made public, was provided by Solomon with the consent of his attorney to Mid-Hudson News.
Calling Mid-Hudson News’ reporting “irresponsible,” Conaty’s brief statement indicated that earlier this year credible information was obtained by his office relative to the criminal misconduct of public officials in the village. Although he alluded to an ongoing investigation, the DA did not disclose the scope of his investigation.
“Pursuant to my obligations and duties to the public I instituted an investigation to uncover the veracity of these allegations,” the statement read. “In this vein, the District Attorney’s Office enlisted the assistance of Village of Monticello Mayor George Nikolados as a cooperating witness, among others. At the time this audio recording was taped Nikolados was acting in this capacity. To be clear, the statements and actions of Nikolados as contained in the audio recording are neither criminal nor nefarious. Simply put, Nikolados was gathering intelligence for the District Attorney’s ongoing investigation and the public release of said audio recording was taken out of the larger context.”
Mid-Hudson News published the full audio recording which totaled approximately 25 minutes.
Mid-Hudson News reporter Jim Sebastian did speak with Conaty early on Wednesday morning. During the brief conversation Conaty did not reference any ongoing investigation and did not request Mid-Hudson News to refrain from publishing a story. Conaty did tell Sebastian that he would look into the issue and call him back in an hour or two, which he never did.
