Sammy Swift wants out of Cayuga County Jail
AUBURN -- Since last fall, Sammy Swift has been held, in lieu of $200,000 bail, at the Cayuga County Jail. County District Attorney Jon Budelmann is appealing a court decision that threw out Swift's murder conviction which could lead to a new trial. Scientific tests found Swift's DNA did not match blood at the home where Stephen DeLuca was murdered in 1994. Since then, Swift has constantly complained of his treatment in the jail.
Sheriff David Gould does not allow cameras inside the jail, but nevertheless he arranged for a phone interview with Sammy Swift. "I am not allowed the latitude to be prepared for a murder trial. The murder trial is coming up in the next 27 days." Swift told Action News.
Sammy Swift complained to Action News that on February 10th, Sheriff's jail deputies raided his cell and took some of his legal papers, a charge Sheriff Gould denies. "No legal material was taken of his except 8 to 10 pages that were blank plus other material from other inmates which was given back to those inmates" says Gould.
The internal report of the contraband seized from Swift's cell makes no mention of taking his personal legal papers. Swift has written to the judge who threw out his conviction asking to be transferred out of Cayuga County and away from Sheriff Gould's control. Swift feels Gould has a "conflict of interest", because Gould helped convict him 14 years ago as the State Police Investigator assigned to the DeLuca murder.
"There's no way I would tell a corrections officer to do something different to Sam." Sheriff Gould said, "That's not the way I work. If Sam has that idea, he's absolutely wrong."
Swift's attorney, David Elkovitch, does not feel jailers have violated attorney-client privilege. Elkovitch has not yet decided whether to support Swift's plea to be moved out of Cayuga County.
