GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. — In his first public remarks to reporters regarding an allegation that he threatened to shoot a process server trying to serve him court papers, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz denied the allegation, but claimed he was limited from saying much more due to pending litigation.
Jodi Williams signed a sworn affidavit filed in New York State Supreme Court, where she claims that while attempting to serve Poloncarz papers at his home on the afternoon of Saturday, January 29, the County Executive told her, "get ... off my property before I shoot you!" at which time she left the papers at his back door and departed the area.
"I didn't, it's as simple as that," Poloncarz said, following a news conference Thursday at the Grand Island Town Hall regarding Community Development Block Grant funds.
"I'm disappointed that in all the times I've been in office, I've never been personally served," said Poloncarz, who says it's customary in cases where he has been sued as the County Executive for papers to be served through the County Attorney's office.
"But I'm not going to go into particulars on this because of the pending litigation."
However, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, Todd Aldinger, said that in this case Poloncarz is being sued individually and not in his capacity as County Executive.
The lawsuit was filed by two county residents, Mike Lomas and Glen Wiggle, known more commonly as the "Financial Guys," who run an investment and advisement firm and host a radio show.
They filed suit on January 3 regarding the $176,000 Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein has received in overtime payments since the stat of the COVID pandemic, on top of her more than $200,000 annual salary.
In the suit, they contend her overtime is illegal, and they ask that she be required to pay it back, and to disgorge any income she may have earned while working in private practice when also serving as the county's Commissioner of Health.
Named as defendants in the suit, besides Poloncarz, are Dr. Burstein and the county’s Commissioner of Personnel, Timothy Hogues.
"We are being defended by Erie County," Poloncarz said.
He said, she said
Williams told 2 on Your Side that she had no video or audio evidence to back her claim, and had no plans to contact police or pursue charges against Poloncarz. But she insisted her affidavit was a truthful and accurate account of what happened.
Poloncarz was asked on Thursday whether if what Williams says is not true, as he contends, he plans to pursue having her charged with filing a false instrument or bring civil charges of defamation of character.
"I'm not going to go into particulars," he replied. "I can tell you right now we were not standing near each other, and from what I did see, she had a mask on ... so I didn't exactly know ... we'll leave it at that."
Williams says Poloncarz threatened her from inside his home as she stood near his back door holding up the court papers.
"There are two sides to every story," Poloncarz said.
"I'm disappointed in how the whole situation went down," he said, before noting that he now travels with a security details due to "multiple death threats" against him.
Poloncarz claims he has been subject to several death threats
"I've had incidents at my house, including my house being broken into, in which I had to chase somebody out of my house, which led to the prosecution of that individual. I'm not going to talk about pending litigation, but I will remind everybody I have had serious death threats," he said.
Poloncarz specifically referred to a Genesee County man who in October pleaded guilty to sending a threatening message to him via social media.
Thomas Netter, 50, or Oakfield was given a conditional discharge and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service for his plea to a charged of harassment in the second degree.
Poloncarz also stated that a similar case involving another individual is pending in Clarence town court and claimed that her has been subject to "multiple death threats since then."