6 thoughts on “Jury Decides: City Prevails In Mount Court Case”

  2. While the jury finding for the city in the Darryl Mount case is good news on many levels it should be noted that the city was ably represented by John Aspland from Travelers Insurance, and that will not be the case anymore after the end of the year. Among other things Travelers refused to settle (in spite of the urgings from Kim and Montagnino) and instead rightly brought this case to trial. Who knows what kind of representation and coverage the city will have for cases like this after January 1.

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    1. This is a very good point. We can only assume whoever Kim brings in will be a less competent firm or one that will act how Kim wants. Based on what we’ve seen from him in meetings and behind closed doors, both options sound really bad for residents.

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      1. Kim and Montagnino preferred to settle the case but Travelers refused.

        But according to a quote in Saratoga Today (Oct. 20-26, pg. 10) Kim is quoted as saying “It’s always been my view that because of the failure to conduct an investigation 10 years ago into the death of Daryl Mount, a jury trial was the only way for a final decision to be made.”

        We should wait to see what former Comm. of Public Safety, Chris Mathieson comments on this.

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  3. Major correction: It’s not true that there was no investigation of the police chase and Darryl Mount’s injuries. The police chief reviewed the reports submitted by the officers who were involved in the chase, interviewed the officers, collected and preserved the video evidence showing Mount assaulting a woman right in front of the police and then fleeing after he was ordered to stop. The chief reported his findings to the public safety commissioner, and then the City consulted with the Saratoga County District Attorney’s office and the New York State Attorney General’s office, both of which declined to further investigate. Then the City published the written reports and the video recordings on the City’s website to inform the public of the results of the investigation, which showed that Darryl Mount’s injuries resulted from (1) Mount committing a crime in front of the police, (2) Mount ignoring police orders to surrender, (3) Mount running away from police, (4) Mount trespassing on private property as he entered a closed construction site, and (5) Mount falling from a 20-foot high scaffold to the ground, where police found him seriously injured and immediately administered life-saving first aid and summoned an ambulance to take Mount to a hospital for further medical treatment.

    Minor correction: Attorney John Aspland is not an employee of Travelers Insurance company. He is the Managing Partner of FitzGerald Morris Baker Firth, the Glens Falls law firm that was retained by Travelers to defend the City against the lawsuit started by Darryl Mount’s mother.

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  4. As suggested by HENRY37, I will comment of Mr. Kim’s remarks about the jury’s decision. If anyone was watching Tuesday night’s Council meeting, you would see that, during Public Comment, I responded to the statements that he made that afternoon and evening. I agreed with the first portion of his statement regarding closure but I also read the portion out loud about there being a ‘failure to conduct any investigation into the death of Darryl Mount’. I stated that this was a lie, that Travelers Insurance would never have taken the case on to the defend the City if the SSPD had failed to ‘conduct any investigation’. I again emphasized that the Mayor was lying about this.

    Old Pro is correct. The investigators of the department conducted not only a criminal investigation into the assault on Darryl’s girlfriend, which took place in full view of one of the City’s stationary surveillance cameras, but also a more comprehensive investigation into what happened while the police were trying to apprehend Darryl. The investigators sought anyone who might have witnessed what happened to Darryl after the police lost sight of him in the dark construction site. This was especially important because of ‘off the wall’ allegations by one-time blogger John Tighe who circulated a piece the day after the incident stating that ‘Three people go into an alley, two cops and a civilian. Soon after the two cops walk out of the alley. What happened to the civilian?’ John Tighe also began organizing protest the following week alleging police brutality in the Mount case.

    I don’t remember as many Gaffney employees coming forward as apparently was the case in the years since the investigation was initiated. The investigators did go to the apartment buildings adjacent to the alley where Darryl was found to see if anyone heard or saw anything. There were a number of observations recorded, all of which were consistent with a fall and none of which were consistent with anyone being beaten up.

    The chase started at 3:02 AM and the police summoned the fire/EMS department after finding an injured Darryl at the base of scaffolding and assessing the severity of his injuries at 3:08 AM.

    On June 20, 2014, a month after Darryl passed away, the department conducted a public meeting to go over with the press and the public all the evidence that had been generated by the SSPD’s investigation, including video surveillance recordings and the many pages of documents.

    The Mount family insisted on an investigation by an outside law enforcement agency. Chief Veitch felt that this was not necessary but both he and I stated publicly that the department would cooperate fully if an outside agency decided to become involved. Both the district attorney and the attorney general’s office were aware of the manner in which the SSPD investigation was conducted. They were both contacted by the Mount family and others but neither agency opted to become directly involved.

    A year or two after Mr. Breedlove became involved as the Mount’s attorney, he began to insist that the department should have conducted an Internal Investigation. However, an Internal Investigation is a separate, specific investigation into wrongdoing on the part of a member of the SSPD that can be substantiated by a witness (either a victim of a direct witness). In this case, there was no witness of specific police officer wrongdoing and no specific officer to investigate.

    Also, there was never a lie about the police conducting an Internal Investigation. There was confusion over the term as it related to the comprehensive investigation being conducted by the SSPD. The Saratogian reporter, Caitlyn Morris, did not understand the difference. The newspaper never used the term Internal Investigation in any of their stories. Had that happened, we would have insisted on a correction immediately. It should also be noted that there would be no practical reason to claim that an Internal Investigation was being conducted when it wasn’t.

    The only lie in the entire story is that of Mr. Kim and others who continue to insist that a comprehensive investigation did not occur.

    The community needs to put this incident and all the unfounded associated charges and insinuations behind us. Darryl Mount deserves to rest in peace and the officers involved have a right to recover their reputations.

    Chris Mathiesen

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