By CAROL DeMARE, Times Union Staff writer
First published: Sunday, December 30, 2001 

Two Schenectady patrol officers, Michael Siler and Richard Barnett, pleaded guilty this year to extortion and drug distribution and agreed to cooperate with the FBI's investigation into city police corruption. They were fired and await sentencing. Two others, Lt. Michael Hamilton and Officer Nick Messere, are on trial in federal court in Utica facing more than 30 years in prison if convicted on racketeering charges, including paying street informants in drugs and protecting them from arrests.

The investigation also had a tragic victim: Officer William F. Marhafer II, 30, committed suicide in October after being placed on leave in connection with the probe but not charged in it.

The year also saw the city's all-Democrat City Council continue targeting police Chief Gregory Kaczmarek as the root of the department's ills, while Mayor Al Jurczynski remained firmly behind his chief.

source:  Albany Times Union