“I understand the public attention this case has drawn and the difficult position that put both the judge and the district attorney in,” said Kavanagh. “But honestly, I didn’t expect the judge to give him the max [allowed under the terms of the plea deal].”
Carnright said in pushing for a significant prison sentence, he had to balance Matthews’ violation of fiduciary responsibility and the public trust with his apparently genuine remorse and first-time offender status. Carnright also took into account the fact that, as a former police officer, Matthews would likely face harsh conditions in jail and would be unable to participate in shock incarceration or other programs that require him to be in the general prison population.
“Any prison sentence for a person who has been in law enforcement as long as he has is a very severe sentence,” said Carnright.
How he did it
Carnright, who has remained silent about particulars of the case since Matthews was suspended without pay based on allegations of payroll fraud back in Jan. 2011, spoke for the first time about the scope and method of the theft.
According to Carnright, the scam began at least as far back as 2001 when Matthews was made head of the KPD’s Detective Division. It spread to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office in 2007 when URGENT set up shop as a countywide drug and gang task force, with Matthews serving as co-commander.
Carnright said in both capacities, Matthews stole money that had been seized as evidence or suspected drug proceeds as well as “buy money” used to pay informants or make undercover drug purchases. According to Carnright, the thefts were aided by the fact that Matthews was the only one with access to safes at KPD headquarters and the Ulster County Law Enforcement Center, where the funds were kept. He was also the only one with access to logbooks which recorded deposits and withdrawals from the safes.
In some cases, Carnright said, Matthews took custody of money seized by detectives working under him, but would only log and place in the safe a portion of the funds. Other times he would make up phony withdrawals of buy money for operations which never took place. To throw off suspicion, Carnright said, the disgraced detective would remove large-denomination bills from a stack of seized drug money and replace them with singles.
