EAST SYRACUSE -- Sergeant Peter Vasiloff, a veteran of the East Syracuse Police Department quit his job last week, as he was questioned by investigators with the Onondaga County District Attorney's office. The investigation was centered on Vasiloff's conduct in an East Syracuse bar and involved a woman in her twenties.
"I can confirm that we did an investigation and we shared our findings early on with the police chief in East Syracuse," said Rick Trunfio, the First Chief Assistant District Attorney. "Our investigation was complete in August and recently resulted in the resignation of a police officer," Trunfio went on to say.
Sources tell CNYcentral's Michael Benny the allegations against former Sergeant Vasiloff stem from an incident involving a woman inside an East Syracuse bar. Vasiloff was not charged with a crime - although it is possible Vasiloff could have been charged with "conduct unbecoming an officer."
The District Attorney's office investigation was conducted as East Syracuse Village leaders were formulating a plan to abolish the department and have police in DeWitt take over service. The issue went up for a public vote and failed in East Syracuse October 15th. The DA's office had presented its findings about the allegations against Sgt. Vasiloff to the chief several weeks prior to the vote.
East Syracuse Police Chief Donald Morris called the CNYcentral newsroom Monday night. He says, "There are times when we turn internal investigations over to the DA's office and that is what happened in this case." The chief said he was very limited in what he was allowed to say legally, because the case involves a former staff member of the department.
As for skeptics who wonder if the department sat on the investigation until the public vote on October 15th which decided the future of the East Syracuse police? "That is absolutely not true. This department would not do that. I personally would not do that," the chief said. The chief said no action had been taken against Sgt. Vasiloff after the DA's investigation was finished in August because, "there were a lot of lawyers involved."
