Delaware County's penchant to search, investigate and fabricate claims against whistleblowers - attorneys, reporters, own personnel

Sometime in 2007, Oneonta's The Daily Star reported that a Sheriff's Deputy Eck blew a whistle on the Delaware County Sheriff's Department that:

(1) he was told to fix a traffic ticket for a Burton Clarke, of THE Clarke's family, receiving, until now, huge financial benefits from the county, such as PILOT-financing that re-spread Clarke's tax burden to other taxpayers - I am currently suing the Town of Delhi to invalidate its 2026 budget over it;

(2) there are Nazi salutes in Delaware County Sheriff's Department's meetings; and that

(3) County patrol cars are used by county employees for romantic affairs.

The current disastrous litigation-breeding Delaware County Attorney Amy Merklen was employed by the County at that time already and was working up the ranks.

I reported on officer Eck - and connected - stories in 2015.

The 2015 audit of the State Comptroller (reportedly, another audit is going on in Delaware County right now) confirmed and even wider problems in Delaware County.

But, as to Eck - with the help of attorney Frank Miller - Eck was fired, and whoever he was reporting on kept their employment with the County.

Sometime in December of 2009, the present Delaware County Attorney Amy Merklen sat at a deposition of then-DSS Commissioner Bill Moon.  I was the deposing attorney - and we were respondents, me and my husband, in a child neglect case brought by Moon against us.  

Bill Moon openly testified there and then, in my presence and in Amy Merklen's presence, under oath, on record, that he would not have brought child neglect proceedings (later dismissed as improperly brought after a full discovery, motion practice and trial) against myself and my husband, also then a trial lawyer litigating against the County and Merklen - had I allowed a warrantless search of my husband's and my own home law office, exposing to search by DSS and County police files of our clients going back to 1974.

Merklen sat there, heard that - and continued to prosecute the fabricated case.

When I filed a Notice of Claim against the Count, the ever-present Frank Miller, heavily drunk and breathing fire and alcohol (I sat within inches from him, one could light a cigarette on his breath), tried to have me PHYSICALLY removed from a deposition for interposing objections on behalf of my client.  He literally called upon Deputy Sheriff ("coincidentally") LaVonne Shields 

(relative of sued social worker Meghan Barnes who undressed in front of my minor child showing him "an eagle tattoo going into the crack of her butt" according to my child, such a tattoo in that location confirmed by some of her classmates, and I turned her in for criminal prosecution, relative of then-County Treasurer Beverly Shields with whom I was in litigation)

and asked LaVonne Shields to forcibly carry me out of the deposition room.  She already advanced at me, and only my warning that I will sue her personally for 4th Amendment violation on the spot, ask for punitive damages personally against her and bankrupt her - stopped her, to the dismay of attorney Frank Miller.

Merklen, as County Attorney, continues to hire Frank Miller for the County's "litigation needs" - obviously for his harassment value.

Notably, Miller has recently joined a new law firm, Hancock Estabrook, LLP, together with a partner Thomas Murphy and an associate Giancarlo Facciponte.

And, notably, the Miller-mentored Facciponte was recently booted from Hancock Estabrook LLP after a publicity scandal blew up that Facciponte was harassing elected Town of Delhi supervisor for doing her job.

As a good girl, she got her prize for that - ascension to the County Attorney seat.

In 2014, I then reported that the County invented a "search of attorney files" policy as a condition of my access to a particular client detained in Delaware County jail on fabricated charges that later resulted in:

(1) dismissal of the charges based on a forged warrant, forged by Judge Richard Gumo's clerk and/or County's illegally nepo-hired "Sheriff's Deputy" Derek Bowie;

(2) firing of Derek Bowie;

(3) removal of Judge Gumo first from criminal cases and then from the bench;

(4) reporting on that removal by The Reporter;

(5) retaliation against The Reporter by the County;

(6) the currently pending lawsuit against the County by the Reporter's owners;

(7) the continued retaliation by the County against the Reporter during the pendency of the lawsuit.

I was also aware of certain individuals apparently hired by DA's office eavesdropping on attorney-client conferences in the courthouse.  The particular individual (last name Lieberman, phonetic), very intelligent, pretended to be a homeless person - he wasn't, documented.  His disastrous smelly "a la homeless person" clothing and hair style were immediately gone as soon as he got into a spat with the DA's office.

In 2024, The Reporter/Lillian Browne published an article "‘Snitch Culture’ in Delaware County. Under Watch: Defense attorneys allege jailhouse eavesdropping" indicating that the old policies continue.

And, DA Shawn Smith threatened to sue the newspaper for defamation - even though the article was based on reports by several defense attorneys (Ermeti, Kaas, Van Buren) about eavesdropping, and based on a VIDEOTAPE of a Zoomed presentation where DA Smith openly admitted to listening to attorney-client communications:

"In a November 2023 recorded Zoom presentation on a potential opioid diversion court initiative, District Attorney Shawn Smith stated that he listens to phone calls made by inmates. The meeting included representatives from the Office of Court Administration and Delaware County Court Judge Gary Rosa.

“I listen to the jail phone calls who [sic] tell their attorney, ‘Oh, give me rehab so we can beat this case, or whatever,’” Smith stated in the meeting."

The Reporter's editor testified at deposition in federal court that DA Smith, in retaliation for that TRUTHFUL, documentary-based article, barred her from receiving press-releases and threatened to sue her employer.  I published a link to the full court-filed deposition of Lillian Browne (510 pages) here, click the word "Enjoy!".

In 2015 I wrote on this blog, based on a tip from a witness that the County is preparing a set up to take Dana Scuderi-Hunter down on a fabricated felony charge.

According to public records, including court records I reviewed, and statements of various dissenting public officials, Dana Scuderi-Hunter was doing a good job as a DSS Commissioner - but crossed the "old girls' club" of Tina Mole and Amy Merklen by cleaning up DSS Department of Bill Moon hires, as well as 

Mole and Merklen hired Bill Moon - who escaped by a hairs-breadth felony charges in a case where, coincidentally, the present Public Defender Joe Ermeti was a special prosecutor - and Ermeti received that newly created position of Public Defender immediately after he refused to investigate and prosecute Bill Moon and allowed him to resign and escape to another county unscathed, nothing corrupt here at all - TO INVESTIGATE Dana Scuderi-Hunter's efforts to clean after Bill Moon's mess.  And fired her based on Bill Moon's "investigation" - helped out and supported by who? - TADA! - the same Frank Miller.

Merklen obtained the firing of Scuderi-Hunter because Scuderi-Hunter was independent and did not allow Merklen to wag the dog - and the 3rd Department reversed the Miller-drafted charges of "disloyalty/insubordination" pointing out Merklen/Miller's lack of basic understanding of the statutory role of the DSS Commissioner.

An expert in ethics testified in Scuderi-Hunter's proceedings pointing out STARK ethical violations where Merklen deliberately and openly sought to fire her own client, a department head, literally, for doing her job, for truthfully testifying, and for disobeying Merklen's "legal advice".

Again, nothing corrupt here either.

In 2014-2016 I reported on a yet another fabrication against a whistleblower, the People v O'Sullivan case that resulted in a dismissal of a criminal case because of a forged arrest warrant, but then in the burning down of a whistleblower's house with the local officials refusing to extinguish the fire or then investigate the arson.  You can word-search this blog "Barbara O'Sullivan", "Derek Bowie" and "house fire" and see the violent reaction in comments of county officials and their friends to the blog series.  I received death threats for these reporting series.

And, in 2025, the County hired Hancock Estabrook/attorney Giancarlo Facciponte, Miller-mentored (Facciponte was since booted by Hancock Estabrook after publicity about his "performance" surfaced) to investigate and threaten two of the County Supervisors - Town of Hamden Supervisor Wayne Marshfield and Town of Delhi Supervisor Maya Boukai.

And, the editor of The Reporter from Walton NY, testified at a deposition in 2025 that retaliation against her, exclusion of her from press releases, locking her up with a security officer in a Public Information Officer's building to prevent her from attending a public meeting (I don't know why she did not sue the county and the officer for that yet, she should) - all stemmed from her TRUTHFUL reporting about Dana Scuderi-Hunter's ordeal, where Dana Scuderi-Hunter was persecuted by Merklen for her TRUTHFUL testimony in Family Court.

Truth, reporters, defense attorneys and any kind of whistleblowers are not welcome by Merklen and the County led by her - and that has been a documented fact for a very long time.