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.
7 News has obtained a copy of 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. 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.”…