BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie County Sheriff's Office, Buffalo Police, and the FBI announced on Thursday the arrests of two individuals and the seizure of guns, drugs, and large sums of cash following a three-month long investigation.
However, authorities spent just as much time at an afternoon news conference, urging more to be done to help users get off drugs, at a time when the drugs they're taking have become increasingly more dangerous.
One way, they say, is to adjust New York State's bail reform laws, which went into effect in early 2020, and which coincided with the start of a dramatic rise in overdose deaths.
"The individuals who created the bail reform made a conscious decision that it is better for an individual not to be arrested and not to get into the criminal justice system than it is for them to get help," Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said.
The raids
On Wednesday, multiple police agencies carried out several raids in Buffalo and Tonawanda, resulting in the seizure of more than $400,000 cash, jewelry worth $170,000, eight illegal guns (some of which had been reported stolen), eight pounds of cocaine, and five ounces of fentanyl.
There were also two arrests made, including that of Sidney Mellerson, 33, of Tonawanda, whom police described as the primary target of a three-month investigation.
According to Flynn, Mellerson had been arrested for drug possession charges in late August. And although they were felony charges, he was set free under the bail reform laws.
"Those charges were all non-qualifying offenses, so he was released," Flynn said.
However, police began surveillance of Mellerson, leading to his arrest after being pulled over on the Kensington Expressway on Wednesday as multiple raids were being conducted.
The charges he now faces, which involve allegations of selling drugs and criminal weapons possession, were serious enough to allow a judge to order him held without bail.
"So he won't getting out this time," Flynn said.
According to Erie County Undersheriff Bill Cooley, when deputies arrived to execute a search warrant at Mellerson's home, another individual, later identified as Keyshawn Atwood, 31, was present at the home but left.
During the search they found a receipt for a self-storage facility on Kenmore Avenue. When they went to that location, they allegedly discovered Atwood carrying two bags with approximately $100,000 and charged him with tampering with physical.
'Bail reform is failed reform'
At one location that was raided, a house on Deshler Street near Broadway, 14 individuals were discovered inside the home, according to Cooley.
According to police, the raid there actually was delayed because just prior to when lawmen were poised to move in, a person inside had overdosed. Once EMTs did their job, police moved in.
"These individuals are all drug users and prostitutes," Cooley said. "And all the occupants therein were provided with assistance in the form of educational pamphlets from county department of health."
None of those found inside the house face charges.
Instead, they were sent on their way, with their pamphlets, free to resume their dangerous drug use and the possibility of fatally overdosing, while seeking out another drug house, as the one they'd been found at was being boarded up.
According to Flynn, there was a time prior to bail reform when those people may have been detained, in order to get them into drug treatment.
"You can't even hold them now," Flynn said. "So at the end of the day, are you really helping them? Probably not."
Flynn noted that drug diversion court was predicated on bail being set, and individuals then being released, knowing bail would be revoked if they failed to show up for drug court.
"The bail was the hammer hanging over their head," Flynn said.
But now there's nothing to hold them to that.
"The number of people in our drug treatment courts has gone down dramatically since bail reform," Flynn said. "These people need help, and bail reform to some degree is the cause for those individuals not going into treatment court, and not getting the help, and yes, dying as a result. It's a huge downside of bail reform."
Jail is never a good to place to be.
However, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia believes that for some, particularly those in the abyss and enslavement of drug abuse, it may be a safer and healthier environment than the one they currently live in.
"The services they could be receiving when they come through the doors, they're not receiving right now because of bail reform and because they're not going through any process," Garcia said.
According to Garcia, nearly one out of every eight people currently incarcerated at the Erie County Holding Center are getting medicine assisted treatment for drugs, where they can receive suboxone or methadone and counseling. That's about 100 people.
Sadly, he says, some of them had never gotten any services for their addictions, until after their arrest.
"Some people don't get any services whatsoever in the community until they end up at the holding center," he said.