BUFFALO, N.Y. — One day after it was revealed that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was named in a domestic incident report, there are now calls for his resignation and a special prosecutor to be named.
During a news conference Friday morning, Republican candidate for county executive Chrissy Casilio called for a special prosecutor to be named.
"I'm calling for an immediate investigation by an independent prosecutor outside of Erie County," Casilio said. "There is a pattern of unhinged and unacceptable behavior by Mark Poloncarz, including threats made to a female process server, berating female reporters, and lashing out against other officials who questioned him."
Erie County Legislator Chris Greene also accused Poloncarz of a "pattern of aggression toward anybody who disagrees with him in politics."
"I'm calling on Mark Poloncarz to resign as a county executive," Greene said. "So the Democratic Party can at least find a candidate that, as Christie said, somebody who's more representative of the Erie County residents and the expectations that they have their elected officials."
Casilio also urged Poloncarz to step down.
"He needs to do the right thing, live up to his own standard and stepped down," Casilio said.
But the county executive maintains his innocence. During a phone call with 2 On Your Side on Thursday night, he said if he did the things he was accused of, he would step down.
"If I had done something that merited it I should resign and not run for re election and I'd be resigning and not running for re election," Poloncarz said. "But this is not, we just had bad tough breakup and and it's a very private matter that became public."
According to the domestic incident report filed with the Buffalo Police, the complainant did not press charges.
The Erie County District Attorney's office put out a statement saying they would not be pressing charges. That prompted many 2 On Your Side viewers to reach out and ask why the County Executive wasn't arrested, as NYS has mandatory arrest laws as it relates to domestic violence crimes.
In NYS, police must make an arrest if:
- A felony is committed;
- A person disobeys an order of protection by making contact when there is a stay away order;
- A person disobeys an order of protection by committing a family offense crime.
Based on what was filed in the domestic incident report with BPD, defense attorney and legal analyst Barry Covert says it doesn't appear the criteria for a mandatory arrest was met.
"If there are ever any injuries, the district attorney's office is going to proceed regardless of whether the alleged victim wants to cooperate with them, they will try to force her to do so," Covert said.
According to the report filed, while there were accusations that Poloncarz grabbed the woman, there are no listed physical injuries.
"But where there's no obvious signs of injuries, there's no prior history between the two, and the victim was apparently upset at one point and claimed that this incident occurred, and Mr. Poloncarz claims that it did not occur, and the way she describes it is not unusual for the district attorney's office to declined to prosecute because she asked him to do so," Covert said.
Since the complainant did not file charges, WGRZ has made the editorial decision not to name them.