Investigation into Sleepy Hollow lieutenant includes allegation he groped colleague's wife
A Sleepy Hollow police lieutenant disciplined two years ago for unauthorized use of a police car after drinking alcohol has been under investigation in recent months after the wife of a colleague accused him of groping her in 2017.
The full scope of the investigation of Lt. Stephen Dougherty is unclear. But a village response to a Freedom of Information request by The Journal News/lohud last month suggests it also involves an allegation that Dougherty was seen engaging in sexual activity with a woman in a police car while on duty in the spring of 2020.
Sleepy Hollow officials met late last month with a lawyer conducting the investigation, who presented them with a report that the village has declined to release.
The village's FOIL response initially did not provide how much has been spent on the probe so far. But on Friday, Village Clerk Paula McCarthy Tompkins said in an email that it was $54,502 for a "comprehensive investigation regarding numerous complaints within the Police Department."
"Each and every complaint is being investigated including those that arose during the course of the investigation," she wrote.
In May, Joan Morrison wrote to the mayor, trustees and village administrator accusing Dougherty of squeezing her buttock as she said goodbye to him following a family get-together at Dougherty’s home six years ago.
Morrison had never previously disclosed the incident publicly. She said she only told her husband, police Officer Clifford Morrison, about it in 2020 and that police Chief Anthony Bueti learned about it shortly after that but never reached out to her to follow up.
Dougherty is a 14-year veteran of the department who was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant in 2020. He did not respond to phone and email messages.
Stephen Dougherty was disciplined in 2021
Dougherty was investigated in 2021 after an incident in which he took an unmarked car assigned to the Greenburgh Drug and Alcohol Task Force while off duty. According to a report by the investigator, James Coverdale of Center for Workplace Solutions, Dougherty had brought the car to a promotion ceremony at a village firehouse on April 8, 2021. The lieutenant told Coverdale he had two beers at the ceremony and then left with an off-duty female officer who asked for a ride to her home nearby.
The heavily redacted 13-page report was provided to The Journal News/lohud in response to a Freedom of Information request. The identity of the female officer, who was also interviewed, was redacted. She told Coverdale that she asked Dougherty to drive her home so she could pick up some vodka and ice. He then drove her back to the firehouse.
Dougherty, a member of the task force, claimed that he was working a wire-tap case and might have gotten a call that required him to drive somewhere.
Coverdale found that Dougherty had violated department policy. According to records provided by the village last month, Bueti then brought a disciplinary charge against Dougherty on May 25 accusing him of unauthorized use of a vehicle, allowing an alcoholic beverage to be brought into a police car, consuming alcohol before driving a police car and acting in a manner that “does not reflect favorably on the Department.”
Dougherty was suspended without pay and initially denied the charges. But rather than face a hearing, he admitted to the violations, agreeing to an unpaid suspension through June 8 and the forfeiture of 10 vacation days.
In a letter of reprimand, then-Mayor Ken Wray wrote that Dougherty’s behavior marked a serious lapse in judgment and that as a lieutenant he had to set a better example for those under his command.
Investigation includes allegation of groping police colleague's wife
Morrison said that her husband and Dougherty became close friends and their families frequently socialized after her husband transferred from Mount Vernon a decade ago. They were together at Dougherty’s home for a party in the spring of 2017. When her husband rounded up their sons and took them to the car, she wrote in her letter, she went around making their farewells. When she gave Dougherty a hug goodbye, Morrison wrote, he reached behind her and grabbed her left buttock. She said she pulled away in shock and he was smiling.
Morrison said she didn’t tell her husband after that because she feared if he confronted Dougherty there could be trouble at work for him.
“So against my better judgement I didn’t tell him what Doc did to me,” she wrote in her letter.
Morrison said that changed in June 2020 after her husband — who was the PBA president at the time — got a call from a colleague who said he observed Dougherty in a police car “cheating on his wife,” possibly with another officer, at the Kendal-on-Hudson garage while on duty. When he saw she was upset and asked what was wrong, she told him what Dougherty had done to her.
Morrison told The Journal News/lohud that she has tried to avoid Dougherty but there are police functions she has had to attend with her husband.
“He’s always acted like nothing ever happened,” she said in the interview. “He would make it a point as soon as my husband walked away from me, to make me uncomfortable, to come over and try to talk to me, overwhelm me with compliments on how great I looked and am I working out. I would try to get away from the conversation and get away from him as quick as I could.”
Morrison said she knows Dougherty has called her a liar about the groping incident.
“I wouldn’t make up something like that,” Morrison said. “It makes me upset. But I’m not surprised he would (say) that.”
She said she sent the letter this year because her husband had asked her permission to reference the incident in a complaint he made about Dougherty's treatment of him after Morrison documented an incident of insubordination by Officer Angela Martello.
Clifford Morrison and officers involved in the 2020 and 2021 allegations against Dougherty declined to comment, citing rules prohibiting members of the department from speaking with the media.
Bueti and Mayor Martin Rutyna said they could not discuss any details of the ongoing investigation or even the scope of the probe. But the chief did say that he believed the allegation involving the sexual activity in the car was part of the new investigation. He said he thought it had been covered in the Coverdale investigation and determined to be "unfounded."
With all the redactions in the copy provided by the village, it could not be determined to what extent Coverdale addressed that issue, if at all.
The FOIL request sought information about that incident. In her answer, McCarthy said there were responsive documents to that and other requests including Clifford Morrison's complaint but "they will not be disclosed because they are part of an ongoing internal agency investigation."
The village provided CWS invoices related to two Coverdale investigations. An unrelated 2022 probe cost $4,700 and the 2021 investigation cost $5,700.
The current investigation has been conducted by lawyers from the village’s labor counsel, Bond Schoeneck & King, and has involved numerous interviews of police officers.
Morrison said she was interviewed in June and expressed concern recently that her allegation was not being taken seriously.
She appeared at the Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 26. Without going into detail about her claim, she addressed the board briefly. “I know to some that this might be an allegation and a ‘he-said, she-said’ thing,” she said, according to a video of the meeting. “But to me it’s not an allegation, it really happened. And I hope you all will do the right thing.”
Morrison told The Journal News/lohud she felt bad for Dougherty’s wife and kids but wanted him held accountable.
“I do think he should be fired,” she said. “He lacks integrity, he has shown he has poor judgment and he clearly has abused authority.”
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Sleepy Hollow cop probed over allegation he groped colleague's wife
