Administrators of the Saratoga Springs City Court realized on Monday Sept. 20 that the following morning’s arraignment of a handful of Black Lives Matter Saratoga members would draw a crowd of supporters to the courtroom on the third floor of Saratoga Springs City Hall. The arraignments were set as part of the docket of Judge Francine R. Vero, whose normal courtroom is the smaller of two in the building. Judge Jeffrey Wait’s courtroom is larger, so the administration on Monday scheduled the two judges in their opposite rooms, offering more room for visitors on Tuesday morning, said Chief Court Clerk Casey Scatena in an interview this morning.
On that Tuesday, some BLM Saratoga supporters reported being kept from the courtroom by Saratoga Springs Police who watch over people entering the building on the first floor, and some supporters were even kept out of City Hall altogether, they said that day and during the Saratoga Springs City Council meeting Tuesday evening, Sept. 21.
"We really aren't 100 percent sure what happened,” Scatena said, admitting that her office is feeling a little bit of frustration with the police department. "We had prepared in advance knowing that people would be coming."
Scatena said it was her understanding that the New York State Office of Court Administration is investigating the incident.
However, an email from New York State Unified Court System public relations officer Lucian Chalfen today said: “We are not [investigating]. What we will do is at the conclusion of the SSPDs investigation, be happy to sit down with them and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
In a recent voicemail, Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton said that she had hoped to have more information Monday, Sept. 27, but her department’s investigation is ongoing, and she would inform the public when she had more to say.
The investigation grew out of the reports from BLM supporters who spoke at the City Council meeting and from an email Chalfen wrote to FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.
In that email, Chalfen said that NYCourts Chief David Joseph had written an email to Saratoga Springs Police Department Assistant Chief John Catone. Chalfen wrote that Joseph told Catone the court remained open. Scatena said the court never closed during the day, Tuesday Sept. 21.
The emails from Joseph to Catone, received under a Freedom of Information request, show that Joseph did send Catone the emails on Wednesday Sept. 22 and Thursday Sept. 23, but they show little else.
The emails bare subject lines “Call” and the bodies have a simple request that Catone call Joseph. Presumably there was a conversation as Chalfen offered the general content of those discussions in the email to FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. Chalfen laid the blame squarely on the SSPD doorstep in his email.
Daltonnhas maintained that there was a lot of confusion over communications between the court officers on the third and and the police officers on the first floor and wondered even if the civilians reporting were clear on which uniformed officer they were talking to.
Asked if the change of courtroom could have caused confusion between the court officers who act as security for the courts on the third floor of City Hall and the Saratoga Springs Police who act as security for the building itself on the first floor, Scetena said, “No.”
"We didn't tell anybody we changed the rooms," she said. The rooms still do not have the judges’ names on the doors and the change was made behind the scenes with the clerks and administrators. She said that court officers were merely told where the arraignments were so that they could direct visitors to the correct room.
"We actually were not aware of [the problems with visitors] until after court was over and we received calls from the press," Scatena said.
Dalton did not respond to a late request for an interview.