By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — It has been nearly 20 years since the last time there was a contested election for Cattaraugus County Sheriff.
After the retirement of former Sheriff Timothy S. Whitcomb in July, Republicans and the Conservative Party nominated Acting Sheriff Eric Butler, while Democrats nominated D.J. Whitmore, a retired U.S. Bureau of Prisons official.
Butler was undersheriff to Whitcomb for seven years before the former sheriff stepped down at the end of July after nearly 15 years as the county’s top law enforcement officer.
He was a juvenile officer with the Salamanca Police Department before joining the Sheriff’s Department where his first assignment was as a school resource officer in Salamanca Schools. After that, Butler served in the Criminal Bureau and with the narcotics unit and Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
Butler was promoted to sergeant in 2003 and went back to the Criminal Bureau, served on the Seneca Allegany Casino detail and as supervisor of the Southern Tier Drug Task Force.
After being promoted to lieutenant in 2009, he went to the Road Patrol division. A year later, he was promoted to captain and took over as head of the E-911 Center. In 2017, he was named undersheriff by Whitcomb. As undersheriff, Butler was in charge of daily operations of each division, including the jail.
“I’ve worked in every division except corrections officer,” Butler said in an interview with the Olean Star. “All were rewarding. Probably my favorite job was narcotics. I enjoyed investigating and sometimes you could pull people out of that life and help them.”
Butler said he still keeps in contact with some of those he helped over the years. “It’s not a place they want to be — with heroin, fentanyl and crack. It’s an addiction, You can’t understand it if you haven’t experienced it.
Butler said the recent drop in local opioid overdose deaths was encouraging. “I hope it’s a trend that keeps heading in this downward direction.”
There seem to be many more young people addicted to opioids than when Butler was a supervisor with the five-county Southern Tier Regional Drug Task Force. “I can remember only a couple of overdoses back then. Now there are a lot of young people overdosing. That’s the age group we are trying to reach.”
One reason for the decline in overdose deaths may be that more Narcan, an opioid antidote, is being made available to more people. Many addicts carry it and make sure they take the drugs when someone is with them who could administer the Narcan. Other addicts use fentanyl test strips to detect the opioid.
Butler noted that many cops subscribe to the us or them mentality, but he preaches to deputies that “these are people who have made terrible decisions. We are doing everything we can to take this dope off the street.”
The county jail is now giving addicts who are arrested medically assisted treatment. They receive an injection of Suboxone once a month.
Butler also signed on long ago to former Sheriff Whitcomb’s wellness initiative for Sheriff’s Department employees. Whitcomb led the charge after the 2009 suicide by then Sheriff Dennis John. “Sometimes the strongest are the ones that need you the most. Tim won me over. I plan to continue it.”
The county legislature last year approved a new position in the Sheriff’s Department, director of Wellness. “We are desperately searching for more grants to expand the program.”
He said, “Tim’s philosophy was that we have an obligation to protect our own. As sheriff, I will protect those who protect and serve.”
Butler said he has tasked his undersheriff, Nate Root, with recruitment of deputies and corrections officers. “He will have to think outside the box” because the jobs are not as sought after as in the past.
“We’ve made some changes at the jail,” Butler said. Chief among the changes is a new food vendor. By improving the quality of the food, attitudes in the jail are improving. The new vendor is increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in the meals. It’s improving the quality of life for inmates and officers, Butler said.
The acting sheriff has announced a number of endorsements, including: The City of Olean and City of Salamanca police department unions; Cattaraugus County Deputies Association (CSEA), Portville and Cattaraugus police departments, CSEA Regional Political Action Committee and Rep. Nick Langworthy and State Sen. George Borrello.
Retired federal prison official Whitmore lives on the same road he grew up on in Little Valley, Bucktooth Run. After graduation from Salamanca High School in 1987, he went into the Air Force for four years as a security policeman. He is a Gulf War veteran, stationed in Oman.
Whitmore went to SUNY Cortland after he was discharged in 1991 to become a gym teacher, only to find there weren’t that many jobs. He had a two-year degree from the Community College of the Air Force. He returned home and graduated from the Jamestown Community College Police Academy. He worked as a corrections officer at the Cattaraugus County Jail from 1993-94, then left to take a job at the Federal Correctional Institution at McKean, where he was a recreation specialist for 13 ½ years.
He got a bachelor’s degree in communications and human services from Empire State College. He went back to FCI McKean where he was a General Equivalency Diploma teacher for five years. From there, Whitmore took supervisory jobs, including assistant warden, at various federal prisons. He retired from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons last summer after a 30-year career.
He and his wife of 27 years, Elise, have three daughters.
Whitmore inquired about getting a top job at the county jail and was disappointed not to be considered. “It’s always been a goal of mine to be sheriff,” he explained.
Whitmore was critical of dog control officer posts Butler held with several towns while he was undersheriff as well as a dispatch and patrol officer for the Salamanca Police Department. When he became sheriff, Butler resigned those posts.
“I don’t have to do this,” (run for sheriff) Whitmore said.
Salamanca has a problem with transients and drug houses,” Whitmore said. “There are similar problems in Olean.” You have break-ins. Law enforcement feels hamstrung and citizens are outraged, he said.
Whitmore said law enforcement needs to be more proactive when it comes to people who are addicted to drugs. Resources like social workers and psychologists need to be brought to addicts and those people who are mentally ill and on the streets.
Whitmore suggested a “Get rehabilitation or we’re coming after you” approach.
“If I’m sheriff, I’ll invite the supervisors and mayors to the County Building” to discuss their concerns — maybe quarterly, Whitmore said. “We can sit down and start to tackle problems together.” He supports establishing a Community Relations Board that would include the Seneca Nation. He would also review prison programming.
If elected, Whitmore said he would appoint an undersheriff from the department and ask other area sheriff’s to aid him in interviewing candidates. “It would behoove me to hire from within, having not worked in the department in 30 years,” he added.
These are the issues Whitmore said he’s talked about during his door to door campaigning throughout the county. He’s also attended fundraisers and made a lot of phone calls, along with his wife.
Whitmore has posted letters of recommendation from Wes Martin of Allegany, a retired Army Military Police; retired warden Thomas Bergami of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, and Chris McConnell, a retired warden with the U.S. Justice Department.
Whitmore knows this is a Republican county that hasn’t elected a Democrat sheriff in a very long time. Republican registration in the county is 21,013, while there are 13,616 Democrats, 1,259 Conservatives and 12,162 blanks, or unaffiliated voters.
He’s asking voters to “Look past the partisanship and vote for the person, not the party.”
