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The horrific charges leveled against Niagara County Sheriff's Deputy Donald H. Piedmont sparked a few days of headlines and rocked the local law enforcement community after his arrest on March 16.
The case also brought rare attention to Middleport, where Piedmont's third term as mayor ended Saturday as he sat in jail, awaiting a bail-revocation hearing. But in the tiny village in the county's northeast corner, Piedmont's alleged double betrayal of public trust met not with shock, or even disbelief--but with equal parts anger and relief.
"To be honest, some people are kind of snickering about it, like 'It's about time,'" said a Middleport business owner. "I haven't heard anybody saying they were surprised."
A week after his arrest, a Niagara County grand jury returned an indictment charging Piedmont with three counts of first-degree sodomy, three counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of second-degree stalking and one count of second-degree menacing. The indictment alleges that he assaulted a 42-year-old Town of Lockport woman three times between Easter 2000 and Sept. 22, 2000. On the third occasion, the indictment says, he forced her to perform a sex act by holding a gun to her head. The weapon in question was one of several seized in a search of Piedmont's home after his arrest.
Piedmont, who didn't run for a fourth term as mayor, entered a not-guilty plea to all eight counts after his indictment.
Niagara County Sheriff Thomas Beilein said while Piedmont wasn't on patrol when the alleged crimes occurred, the case is an embarrassment to the department.
"I think it's very disturbing to a lot of people in the department," Beilein said. "Actually, disturbing would be a lightly used word. It's a black eye to the department, even though it's one man's actions that he took while he was off duty."
Middleport, midway between Lockport and Medina, and surrounded by farmland and orchards, looks like prime postcard material. Driving north into the village from Route 31, the first business you pass is Greg's Tractor and Small Engine repair, heralded by a sign offering blade sharpening.
The village itself boasts a miniature, but healthy, downtown that makes Niagara Falls' Main Street look even more desolate by comparison. Century-old, three-story brick buildings house a diner, doctor's office, the police department, village hall and two taverns.
Piedmont's reputation in his hometown was more of a nuisance than a menace.
Described as a would-be Lothario, the short, squat Piedmont regularly strutted into village restaurants and watering holes, making local women uncomfortable with repeated comments about their appearance and uninvited entry into their conversations--as well as unscheduled appearances at their businesses and homes.
"He always came off as thinking he was better than you, because he had a gun and a badge and he was the mayor," one woman said.
"He wasn't really normal," one man said. "He'd stand right at the corner of the bar, where all the waitresses come through, just gawking at them all." While the residents interviewed generally sounded dismissive, rather than fearful, of Piedmont, none were willing to be identified in print.
"If he gets acquitted and gets his guns back, I don't want him coming after me," one woman said last week. "Plus, he's out on bail."
That condition changed a day later, when his bail was revoked by County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza after prosecutors alleged that he violated an order of protection by parking his sport utility vehicle near his accuser's house. The alleged violation took place March 25, three days after the grand jury indicted him and he was released on bail.
Beilein opposed Piedmont getting another opportunity to make bail.
"If he (violated the order of protection) once, my feeling is that he could do it again," Beilein said. "The evidence is not light. There's some strong evidence that he did violate that order."
Beilein said Piedmont's accuser filed a formal complaint in January, but the deputy remained on road patrol for about two months before his arrest.
"There were two reasons. This wasn't an incident where he had met the person as a police officer--we didn't have any knowledge that he was committing any crimes while on duty," said Beilein, who added that Piedmont had known the woman for nine years. "And we had to gather more evidence. Any type of action that would have been perceived as abnormal concerning the deputy may have hindered us from getting that evidence."
Piedmont was arrested at the Criminal Bureau of the Sheriff's Department offices in Lockport at the end of his shift on March 16. The deputy, armed with a service weapon and armored with a bullet-proof vest, was apprehended by several officers.
"When you arrest someone that you know is armed, and especially when it could be a traumatic situation, you take the necessary precautions of having extra people around," Beilein said. "At a certain point in the process, he had to be disarmed."
While the image of a confrontation between armed officers well-trained in the use of weapons is a harrowing one, Beilein said Piedmont went quietly.
"It went off very smoothly," Beilein said. "As an event, it was uneventful."
The arrest capped an internal Sheriff's Department investigation, during which Beilein said Piedmont was afforded no special treatment.
"We're the ones that discovered it," Beilein said. "This was not another agency coming in and pointing the finger at us. ... Our position is and always has been that our job is to arrest criminals,even if that criminal is wearing a badge."
But one law enforcement official said rumors and reports of on-duty harassment of female residents had shadowed Piedmont's career in the department, on several instances leading to reassignment to jail duty.
"They knew they had a problem child," the source said. "He went down that hall (to the Sheriff's office) more than once."
Beilein said no formal complaint against Piedmont was ever lodged until the alleged victim came forward, and that none have been filed since the arrest.
Beilein's predecessor as sheriff, Fran Giles, declined to comment on the case.
"We can only operate on facts--not suppositions," Beilein said. "Some of the rumors I've heard are absolutely outrageous."
The Sheriff said Piedmont's job duties were irrelevant to the charges.
"The incident didn't happen when he was on patrol," Beilein said. "If he was stationed in the jail and he decided to do something like this, he still could have done it when he was off duty."
Piedmont is on unpaid suspension, but by law his salary must resume later this month. If he applies for and receives his pension before resolution of the case, he would continue to receive it regardless of the outcome. If convicted, Piedmont could face 25 years to life in prison. While their former mayor's case proceeds, Middleport residents are left to wonder how it will affect their normally quaint, quiet village.
"It certainly is a letdown for our little community," one woman said. "I moved here four years ago because it's quiet and safe. You don't have to lock your door--at least I didn't."
And the sheriff's department, its image still recovering from the scandals that rocked county government in the 1990s, is left with another public-relations nightmare.
"I think that's always a concern of any police executive--does the public have confidence in your department?" Beilein said. "I don't think an off-duty incident by one guy should be reflected by the whole department."