BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The sister-in-law of Erie County Sheriff Chief of Narcotics D.J. Granville, who pleaded guilty after a series of hit-and-run crashes, violated numerous policies, procedures and rules of the Buffalo Police Department when she, as a BPD lieutenant, is alleged to have given preferential treatment to her fellow law enforcement officer.
The Internal Affairs report into the conduct of Lt. Lucia Esquilin, who has since been demoted to the rank of detective sergeant, and her fellow officers on the night of April 11, 2024 has been released by BPD. The investigation wrapped up in late December, just as outgoing Commissioner Al Wright and Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon were leaving office.
The report, which is more than 3,000 pages along with dozens of audio and image files, is slightly redacted but sheds new light on just what happened. Shortly before midnight — after receiving a phone call from Granville — Esquilin went to the scene on Buffalo's West Side. According to testimony that is part of the Internal Affairs file, Esquilin "instructed the primary officer, Thomas Karbowski...to respond to the originating location of the call and to work toward the final location of the striking vehicle."
Esquilin proceeded to go to Granville's location. She wrote him a traffic ticket, called to have the county-owned truck that he was driving towed and then drove him to the Hyatt Hotel. She never administered any sobriety test, even though Granville had crashed into seven different vehicles on three different city blocks.
"Unbelievably, there was no policy saying you can't be the responding officer on your relative," Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan said. "There was no policy against that in the Buffalo Police Department, which is unbelievable."
That's now changed with Mayor Ryan instituting new policies. If there's even an appearance of a conflict of interest, officers must disclose that, recuse themselves and provide a written paper trail.
"I promised transparency. I promised accountability. The DJ Granville saga was a public example of the city failing on both counts," Ryan said.
The worker who towed Granville's truck from the scene said in a sworn statement that he smelled alcohol in the cab.
WATCH: Breaking down the Buffalo Police Internal Affairs investigation into the ECSO Chief Granville case
Karbowski said in a sworn statement to Internal Affairs that "based on the totality of the circumstances and had he been afforded access to all relevant information, he believes (standardized field sobriety testing) would have been appropriate. These actions directly impaired the investigation and were a primary contributing factor to the ambiguity and incompleteness of the resulting accident report."
Internal Affairs investigators filed 19 charges against Esquilin, including three that were violations of the New York State Penal Code: obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence and official misconduct. A preponderance of evidence is required for such administrative charges, whereas guilt would need to be established beyond a reasonable doubt to secure a criminal conviction. The Niagara County District Attorney, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case, did not pursue criminal charges against any BPD officers.
After a hearing, Esquilin pleaded guilty to a single administrative charge of failure to supervise, and she was demoted a single rank. She did not receive even a single day of unpaid suspension.
I asked Mayor Ryan if the Attorney General's Office should investigate potential public corruption. He said he's welcome such a probe.
"It shook people's faith and trust. You regain that by changing your standards, changing your rules, then executing over time," Ryan said.
Karbowski suggested to investigators that Granville received preferential treatment.
"If it wasn't a friend to her or a relative, it probably would've been handled differently," Karbowski said.
Karbowski also faced Internal Affairs charges related to the incident, with investigators saying he "did not observe the striking vehicle, did not speak with or identify the driver of the striking vehicle, and did not locate or interview all involved drivers or witnesses." Karbowski was suspended without pay for four days.
Esquilin outranked Karbowski and the other BPD officers on the scene.
In interviews with investigators, both Esquilin and current BPD Interim Commissioner Craig Macy admit they spoke at length the night of the hit-and-run crashes. Esquilin called Macy, who was then chief of detectives, to get his opinion on what to do. Both said Macy advised Esquilin to issue a ticket and have the truck impounded. It's unclear how forthcoming Esquilin was about what had really happened. Macy retired before coming back to serve as new Mayor Sean Ryan's interim police commissioner.
WATCH: Attorney John Elmore joined Voices to discuss what could happen next after the release of the Internal Affairs report
The report also details open records requests made to the Erie County Sheriff's Office that were ignored or not completely complied with, and it reveals that Undersheriff William Cooley was notified of Granville's actions at 6 a.m. the following morning. It's unclear when he notified Sheriff John Garcia, who has denied allegations of a cover-up.
Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick said he was disappointed that the Sheriff's Office wasn't cooperative.
"I haven't seen the report yet, but if that is true, then I am surprised and a bit saddened," Hardwick told 7 News. "I know that the officers that were there that night did not cooperate with the D.A. I would have hope that our Office of the Sheriff would have cooperated fully."
The sheriff's office issued the following statement to 7 News:
"All inquiries made by the Buffalo Police Department Internal Affairs Division related to this matter were processed while a special prosecutor was conducting a criminal investigation. At no point did any member of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office refuse to cooperate with that criminal investigation.
It should be noted that the Buffalo Police Department Internal Affairs Division’s responsibility was to investigate the conduct and actions of the responding Buffalo Police Department officers. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office did not have any information regarding the conduct or actions of the officers that responded to the scene, nor did we have any personnel at the scene, other than Chief Granville.
As was shared with the Erie County Legislature on October 30, 2025, the first member of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office Command Staff to learn of this incident was Undersheriff William Cooley. Approximately 8-9 hours after the accident, Undersheriff Cooley received a phone call from Chief Granville. The Chief informed the Undersheriff that he was involved in an accident the previous night, that there were no injuries, that he was issued a summons and that an accident report was being prepared.
The Undersheriff subsequently called Lt. Lucia Esquilin, who supervised the accident investigation, to confirm the information that Chief Granville shared with him. The call between Lt. Esquilin and Undersheriff Cooley was initiated by Undersheriff Cooley and - as reflected in the toll records - occurred at 11:05, more than 11 hours after the accident occurred. It was a priority of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office at the time to obtain the accident report so that it could be shared with others in county government and to further verify that there were no injuries."
Granville eventually pleaded guilty to charges of Reckless Driving and Leaving the Scene of a Property Damage Only Accident and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service and a fine.
In January, 7 News learned that Granville will pay Erie County over $75,000 in connection with the hit-and-run case. According to the settlement release and agreement obtained by 7 News, Granville will pay a total of $75,881 using a combination of vacation time and garnishment of wages. If he is no longer employed by the county, he will be responsible for continuing payments until the full amount has been paid.
