Hamburg Schools superintendent under investigation by police
By Barbara O'Brien, The Buffalo News, N.Y. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The move comes as board members learned there were questions about damage to the superintendent's car.
A witness has surfaced who challenges the prevailing belief that a vandal on
The witness met with an investigator hired by an attorney representing school board member
The witness also spoke with
Rather, the witness said, it happened in
Jetter did not respond to an attempt to reach him Tuesday and a source in the district said he was not in the district office. But in a
"That's ridiculous," he told The News. "That's absolutely ridiculous."
For the last three years, the
The
Jetter's status with the school district could not be clarified.
'Open investigation'
On the evening of
The report also notes that "there are no witnesses to this incident."
"It's still an open investigation," Capt. Melisz told The News last week, adding that anyone with additional information should contact him.
The damage to Jetter's car came up during the misconduct hearing on Schrauth Forcucci that could lead to her dismissal. Her attorney asked a seemingly innocuous question about the damage on the first night the hearing was open to the public. When the district's lawyer quickly objected, the attorneys and the hearing officer left the
They returned and the hearing continued, but attorney
Had she been allowed to pursue her line of questions, this is what she wanted the board to learn: That a witness who came forward talked to a private investigator Murphy hired to investigate.
In addition, Murphy took video of Jetter's damaged car to two experts in collision repair and accident investigation. Both have signed affidavits that the photographs indicated the vehicle struck a pole.
The witness
Murphy tried to enter information from the witness about the damage to Jetter's car because she said the incident shows the superintendent's credibility is at issue. He is among those who have accused Schrauth Forcucci of misconduct.
"By him committing this hoax, he has shown he has put his interests above the interests of the district and the community," Murphy said.
The witness shared information with the private investigator Murphy hired in defending Schrauth Forcucci. The witness recognized Jetter's damaged car after seeing a photograph of it in The News.
The witness does not want to be identified because of the controversy surrounding the district.
"Of course I'm telling the truth," the witness told The News. "I could have gone to [Jetter] and asked for money, but I didn't."
The witness said the damage occurred
The witness described to the private investigator and later confirmed for The News this scene of
A man was walking with a resident of the street in
The two were walking down the street holding plastic cups, and the resident went into a house, while the man went to move his car. He pulled into a driveway across the street, then backed across the street into a driveway to turn around and in the process the car sideswiped the pole.
The man got out of the car, looked at the damage, and laughed. He moved the car into the resident's driveway. The resident came out of the house, spoke with the man, and both went into the house.
The person who lives in the house, who The News is not identifying, did not confirm or deny the incident.
"I cannot confirm what happened to
When
The note
The same Tuesday night that the damage was reported, the parents of a
Their son,
After
Steffan said there was a car parked next to Jetter's car. He did not notice if there was any damage to the superintendent's car as he put the flier on it, Steffan said. He also said he did not step on any debris from the back of the mirror, which was missing its white cover.
But he did notice a folded up paper on Jetter's windshield as he placed a campaign flier under the wiper blade.
"I lifted the wiper blade up," he said. "I saw a little white piece of paper under it."
He said the folded up piece of paper appeared to have been on the car for a while, because it appeared to have become damp with dew at some point.
Rally for Jetter
On
Jetter emerged smiling from the
Other people carried a large banner picturing a yellow school bus, part of the superintendent's "Energy Bus" character campaign, while someone jangled a cow bell.
At the rally, Jetter declared: "They can bust up my car, but they're not going to break us."
About 150 people gathered on the front lawn of the district administration building for the rally.
The same day, Jetter posted on his Twitter account about the vandalism to his car and threats: "Cars can be repaired. Threats don't scare me.
Local media covered the rally.
Community members, and even a board member, linked the vandalism to a "rogue" faction on the
An article about the rally appeared in the
Another incident
The threat and damage to the superintendent's car was followed later that week by the egging of Jetter's rental vehicle outside his house in the
Jetter said he awoke on a Saturday, four days after the damage and note on his car were reported, to find someone had egged the Silverado he rented while his car was being repaired.
"Faceless cowards egging my rental car last night. Is that the best you got???" he tweeted. He told
The vandalism and the egging were held out as examples of how vicious the dysfunction in the school district had gotten.
The vandalism was even cited in state
Schrauth Forcucci's attorney said she worried at the time how the report of vandalism would affect the hearing.
"We also were concerned that he and the district would somehow use this incident as a reason why the hearing doors should be closed to the public and media," Murphy said. "The public perception of the case changed as soon as Dr. Jetter reported his car had been damaged."
Murphy said that she heard that the car had been damaged previously, and she decided to look into it.
She hired
She also obtained affidavits from two experts in collision repairs who examined television news video of the damaged car. One expert, with 38 years experience in the automotive, collision and repair industry, determined the damage did not appear to have been caused by another vehicle, but was consistent with striking a cylindrical object such as a utility pole. He also said the brownish-colored substance on the driver's side door appears similar to creosol, an oily substance typically found on wooden utility poles.
The other expert, a retired police officer trained in accident investigation, said the damage is consistent with the car coming in contact with a stationary object, and did not appear to have been caused by another vehicle.
"That made the information that we received from an unnamed eyewitness credible," Murphy said.
Murphy wanted to present these affidavits at the Schrauth Forcucci hearing but was denied. She made them available to The News. She said she did not contact the police because she did not know for sure if a report had been filed with them.
Jetter said his collision shop and insurance adjuster both agreed that someone backed into his car.
False accusations
Jetter said it is absurd to suggest he drove a damaged car to work that Tuesday, parked in the parking lot, traveled to several schools in the district where he also parked, and no one noticed or said anything about the damage.
"There were tons of people out all day long," he said.
Yoviene, the board president, said he parked next to the superintendent's car early that day, although on the passenger side, away from the damage.
"I didn't notice anything different about the car or anything," he said.
He said he checked the superintendent's expense/mileage report for that day, and it showed Jetter visited three schools, including two trips to one of them.
Jetter said that night that he found the threatening note under the campaign flier. He said later that the mirror had been turned in toward the window, and he never pushes the mirror in that direction.
There was a small reflector casing on the ground, and Yoviene said he remembers seeing small bits of plastic on the ground beside the car.
The superintendent told The News
"I am the target," he said. "They're trying to run me out of the district."
He also said he frequently is followed in his car by people trying to intimidate him into stopping his efforts to get the district on the right track.
Vandalism and intimidation have been brought up several times since the incident.
Jetter mentioned the vandalism to his car in the misconduct hearing. District lawyers also cited the vandalism and threat as they argued before state
"When you think about the retribution that has already happened, they don't want this open to the public because of their own safety," she told the judge.
The judge later ruled that the hearing should be open to the public, and it has continued in open session.
Murphy said she hopes the board will re-examine Jetter's testimony against her client. She said the incident "calls into question not only his credibility, but his integrity."
She said she hopes the new information will prompt the board to reconsider the charges it placed against her client.
email: [email protected]
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