Federal judge questions legality of Greece automobile tracking

This post is one in a partnership between the Rochester Beacon and veteran reporter Gary Craig, featuring articles published on his Substack site.

Two recent federal court rulings are questioning the constitutionality of the town of Greece’s decision to place tracking devices on the family cars of a persistent critic of the town and a former police officer suspected of workers’ compensation fraud while he was employed.

The December rulings, both from U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Wolford, mean that the new town administration will be shadowed by continuing lawsuits and allegations of misdeeds by the previous administration of William Reilich.

Jeffery McCann, a Democrat and former deputy county executive, won the supervisor’s race against Republican William Murphy. Reilich could not seek re-election because of term limits.

In a December interview with WHEC-TV, in which he spoke of his 12 years as supervisor, Reilich said of the litigation: “We didn’t do anything wrong in all those elements. That’s why there’s a number of lawsuits right now that we’re not settling on. We’re saying we’re going to win this.”

In separate decisions, Wolford largely rebuffed the town’s requests to dismiss the lawsuits, one from Ryan Murphy and his family—Murphy has in recent years frequently challenged the town’s leadership—and the other from the wife of former Greece police officer Matthew Bachman.

Plaintiffs have the upper hand when a defendant seeks to dismiss a lawsuit because the judge must assume that the facts presented are true.

The plaintiffs still must prove viable legal grounds for the litigation to continue, and Wolford decided that the lawsuits had met that threshold on multiple points.

Molly Clifford, McCann’s chief of staff, says the town can’t yet comment and is reviewing the litigation and judicial decisions.

Murphy says he hopes the new administration steps back and reopens conversations with those suing the town and their attorney, Maureen Bass.

“I think you always want to have a dialogue and see where everyone stands as opposed to being in the dark,” he says. “With the previous administration we kind of knew where we stood.”

The Murphy decision

In a lawsuit filed about a year ago, Murphy alleged that he and his family were illegally targeted by the town because of his persistent criticism of Greece officials, criticism he leveled on various social media sites.

In early 2024, Murphy discovered a tracking device on his car, one placed there by the investigative firm of Cass & Morales, which was hired by the town. Records show that town officials alleged that Murphy was stalking some officials, a claim Murphy denies.

Murphy also alleged that the town wrongly booted him from commenting on town social media pages.

In her ruling, Wolford decided that:

■ The law firm of Bolaños Lowe, which handled the town contract with Cass & Morale, can be sued. Murphy’s lawsuit named them and Cass & Morales also as defendants. “The allegations plausibly indicate that the Town utilized Bolaños Lowe in its position as counsel for the Town to contract with a private investigative firm to engage in allegedly unlawful activity,” Wolford wrote.

■ Cass & Morales can also be sued.

■ There is proof the town violated Murphy’s First Amendment rights by banning him from its Facebook page. Murphy, meanwhile, started his own Facebook page, “Town of Greece Uncovered,” where he made numerous accusations of town wrongdoing. Still, Wolford said, the fact that Murphy had other social media outlets did not change the First Amendment argument. “So long as the speech is protected under the First Amendment, it is plausibly an infringement of a private citizen’s rights for a government official to regulate a citizen’s speech on a municipality’s official social media site,” Wolford decided.

Bachman case and others

Bachman was also targeted with a tracking device as the town suspected he was being dishonest about injuries that he said prevented him from working.

The federal lawsuit from Tina Bachman alleges that the workers’ compensation investigation was retaliation for information she helped provide to law enforcement about the crimes of former Greece Deputy Supervisor Michelle Marini.

Marini last year pleaded guilty to fraud and corruption crimes. Marini admitted that she used town-hired contractors for work at her home and homes of her children. She was sentenced to 40 hours of community service, restitution and a $2,500 fine.

Tina Bachman alleges that she was a home cleaner at one of the homes where illegal work was done and she relayed that information to police.

Answering the lawsuit, the town contended that a past ruling from New York’s highest court, the state Court of Appeals, showed that the tracking was legal. But Wolford decided the town erred with that conclusion and there is enough factual proof for the claim, along with some others from Tina Bachman, to move to trial.

Wolford decided that evidence that a family was surveilled and tracked could be construed as a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

The town fired Matthew Bachman in November, but he had already been granted retirement by the state because of workplace injuries.

Greece officials have contended that the workers’ compensation case against Bachman is continuing. They have alleged that he received as much as $160,000 in workers’ compensation while operating a snowplow and doing repairs at homes he owned as a landlord.

Greece also faces lawsuits from several former police officials who alleged they were scapegoated after the October 2022 drunken driving crash of then Police Chief Andrew Forsythe. In those lawsuits, the former Greece police officials allege that they were punished for efforts to fairly and fully investigate the crash. The town has denied those allegations.

Forsythe resigned and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanors: driving while ability impaired and leaving the scene of a property damage accident.

Murphy says he thinks the town should bring in an outside counsel to advise how best to move forward. He also says the district attorney’s office, from its investigation into Marini’s crimes, has information that could be beneficial to the town as it decides how to proceed.

“You can’t listen to the individuals that have been fighting for a previous administration for three years,” he says. “You have to have someone neutral look at it.”

In legal papers, the Bolaños Lowe firm and Cass & Morales have largely denied the allegations in the lawsuits.

Gary Craig is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. A retired Democrat and Chronicle reporter, he now writes on Substack.

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