Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - In a joint investigation between the Buffalo Police Department and Erie County Sheriff's Office, an arrest was made of an Assistant District Attorney on Wednesday for alleged official misconduct while being assigned to Buffalo City Court.
According to Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, the discovery of the alleged misconduct by 28-year-old De'Lenci Shannon-Brown was evident Wednesday morning while Buffalo Police was investigating an ongoing, unrelated crime that was completely unrelated to this incident.
"The Buffalo Police Department stumbled across cell phone records of an unrelated investigation that was occurring. A phone number came up to an Assistant District Attorney for Erie County assigned to City Court. That information, which came up off of that subpoena that we were reviewing, obviously was very concerning," said Gramaglia during an announcement on Thursday. "We spun up that investigation to go in a different direction, further identifying and building up information on this Assistant District Attorney."
Gramagalia says notifications were immediately made to Acting District Attorney Michael Keane, and the investigation moved very rapidly.
"We were able to determine information working jointly with the Erie County Sheriff's Department that this Assistant District Attorney was using his office in a manner that violates the penal law of official misconduct," Gramaglia noted.
"As soon as we became aware of this, we immediately acted upon it," said Keane during Thursday's announcement. "Again, I expressed the urgency with which I needed this brought to a conclusion. And in the meantime, we were able to control any further information that Mr. Shannon-Brown might have. And he was unable to do any further damage during the day yesterday until he was arrested late yesterday afternoon, early evening."
Once investigators with Buffalo Police and the Sheriff's Office gathered enough information to make an arrest, he was taken into custody at around 6 p.m. ET, where he was then cited for another charge.
"Our marked unit stopped this individual yesterday on Forest Avenue. As an aside, he was smoking marijuana in the car and was also charged with [Driving While Ability Impaired by Drugs]," said Undersheriff Bill Cooley. "It's an unfortunate situation when these things arise. Irrespective of whether it's the Buffalo Police Department, the Sheriff's Office or the DA's Office, these are all human organizations. From time-to-time, we've had to arrest some of our own. I know the Buffalo Police have been in that position over the years for my days in the BPD, and this case, of course."
It is alleged that Shannon-Brown was involved with potentially sharing information, or trying to share information about cases with people that have no business knowing about these certain cases. One person Shannon-Brown was in contact with and trying to share information with about cases was a convicted felon.
Shannon-Brown was booked on the two misdemeanor charges of Official Misconduct and Driving While Ability Impaired by Drugs, and released on appearance tickets. He will be arraigned on both charges in Buffalo City Court, with his DWAI charge coming this Friday, followed by his Official Misconduct charge on Wednesday, Aug. 14.
Keane says Shannon-Brown was immediately terminated from his role with his office after being formally hired back on June 10. He adds the allegations against him, if proven to be true with this case, are "outrageous".
"Nobody is above the law. We hire our attorneys and our support staff, and we entrust them with confidential information," Keane said. "Quite frankly, he violated the trust, again, if the allegations are true, and it's important that the public understands that. We have almost 200 employees in the Erie County District Attorney's Office, they all swear by a confidentiality agreement. They all handle very serious and confidential information, just like our partners in the police agencies across this county. And it's important that they understand, and that the public understands, that all of our people do so with the greatest amount of integrity and ethics."
Due to the conflict with Shannon-Brown formerly working in the District Attorney's Office, Keane says his office is requesting the Court assign a Special Prosecutor to handle the prosecution of this case.
Gramaglia also notes the FBI is aware of this incident, and is looking further to see if there are any federal laws that were also violated by Shannon-Brown.
Most Popular
Comments / 0