Putnam County Sheriff Candidate Kevin McConville Denies Accusations, Blasts ‘Smear Campaign’

On Tuesday (10/26/21) I published an article titled: "Letter Sent to Putnam County Voters Accuses Candidate for Sheriff to Be Racist and Discriminatory." 

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In the article, I shared excerpts of a letter sent to Putnam County voters that claim Kevin McConville is a racist. McConville is the Republican candidate for Putnam County Sheriff who is opposed by incumbent Democrat Robert Langley.

On Wednesday, we spoke to McConville who wanted to clear the air and tell voters he's not discriminatory or racist. In the letter sent to voters, there are paragraphs of text that appear to be from court documents that outline examples of discriminatory behavior by McConville, we asked him: Are the excerpts used in the mailer real? This is what he had to say:

"Yes, many years ago I was one of eight people named in a class action lawsuit as Chief of the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) P.D. Depositions were taken by all the attorneys, subsequent to those depositions, the MTA asked for and was granted summary judgement.

Summary judgement means the judgement rendered by the court because no material issue or fact exists. All the accusations and allegations against me were dismissed. In a civil litigation, there is a lower burden of proof that the facts and allegations are more likely to be true than not, that's the proof, the burden that has to be met. And, the person bringing the suit convinces the judge there's a greater than 50% chance the claim is true.

That didn't happen in this case because it was untrue and the judge removed me from the lawsuit. As Chief of the MTA PD., working with our office of civil rights and recruitment we had a 49.4% representation of non-white personnel in the law enforcement agency. My recollection is, it was one of the top three, in the Tri-State area.

And, this is clearly an effort by my opponent and his campaign team to smear me. I don't want to get into dirty politics, I don't believe in that. You know, he's named in eight lawsuits, one of which is a wrongful death suit. He's tape recorded public officials from his department cellphone and released that recording to his campaign team which was then put on the internet.

And he claims that all 106 of his department cellphones are tape recorded. Now, my question is, does he understand how this effects every crime victim or witness who calls a member of the Sheriff's department? Especially with the new discovery laws?

So, I don't want to get into those things because I respect the office of Sheriff far too much to play dirty politics, it's undignified to do that and it speaks more to his lack of integrity and character than anything else.

I had a great thirty-year career as Chief of the MTA P.D. I rose through the ranks, this lawsuit came about, the accusations and allegations against me were dismissed by the judge."

We followed up asking McConville: Do you consider yourself a racist person? He replied:

"Not at all."

Toward the end of our interview, we asked McConville about one of the specific allegations that was highlighted in the letter sent to Putnam County voters. I asked: This specific claim that you said something to this Plaintiff's wife, about having sex with his wife, did that ever take place, that conversation? McConville had this to say:

"No it did not. I mean, listen, I understand people suing, claiming things but there is a burden of proof and in a civil case, as I said earlier, it's much lower. And, if you look at that allegation, it's disgusting. If there were people, if this was allegedly said in front of people, by all means they would have come forward and no one came forward.

It's untrue, I would never do that. I'm at a loss to explain it because it's just so far out there, it's disgusting. I wouldn't stand for it, if I was in a locker room and I heard someone say that, believe me there would be, it would be resolved right then and there."

You can listen to our entire Ethan and Lou Show interview with Kevin McConville by clicking into the Youtube video at the top of the page or read the article that outlines the claims made against him by clicking here.

We have reached out to McConville's opponent, the current Sheriff of Putnam County Robert Langley and asked him to come on the Ethan and Lou Show, he agreed to join us. Langley will join the Ethan and Lou Show on Thursday (10/28/21) at around 8:20 am, and an article detailing what he has to say on the matter will follow soon after.

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