By Lou Michel
The Buffalo Police Department
has suspended without pay the two officers involved in the Molly’s incident
that led to serious injuries to an active Guardsman.
Earlier this morning, a City
Court judge dismissed the criminal trespass charge lodged against the friend of
William C. Sager Jr., the severely injured Air Guardsman, when the friend
refused to leave the scene in front of Molly’s bar in the early morning of May
11.
Defense attorney Thomas P.
Hurley described the criminal trespass complaint against Donald Hall, 29, of
Buffalo as “a joke of a charge.”
The complaint was made by
Robert E. Eloff, one of two off-duty officers working security at Molly’s that
night.
“My client watched his friend
bleeding from the ears and nose and almost die,” Hurley said. “My client stayed
with the victim and when the police arrived, he tried to tell them what
happened and make sure an ambulance was on the way. He was instead arrested for
criminal trespass.”
In shedding some light on what
occurred inside Molly’s on the 3100 block of Main Street early May 11, Hurley
said that Hall was drinking at the bar with Sager and turned away briefly.
Hurley said when Hall looked toward the stairs, he saw Sager “falling down the
stairs with his eyes closed and unconscious, and then cracking his head open.”
Hurley said that Hall and Sager
were minding their own business and there had been no previous confrontation.
“From my conversation with the
witnesses, there was nothing to provoke this,” Hurley said of the assault on
Sager.
A Channel 4 reporter asked
Hurley whether the incident occurred after Sager went to thank Basil for buying
a round of drinks at the bar. Hurley declined to comment.
Hurley said that Hall called
911 and refused to leave his friend’s side and because of that, was placed
under arrest.
Court paperwork shows that
off-duty police officer Eloff was the complainant in the trespass charge. Eloff
and off-duty officer Adam O’Shei had been working private security for Molly’s
that night.
“Sitting in the patrol car, my
client watched a murder almost happen, his friend almost died,” Hurley said.
Hall will now be interviewed by assistant district attorney Christopher
Belling, the Buffalo Police Department’s homicide squad and the Department’s
Internal Affairs Division.
After Hall’s arrest, he was
taken to the Erie County Holding Center, but homicide detectives later had him
released on an appearance ticket, Hurley said, adding that the detectives “did
the right thing.”
Hurley also said that the
district attorney’s office demonstrated a reasoned approach after reviewing the
circumstances of the trespass charge and seeking its dismissal. He credited
Belling for making that happen.
