Olean Star – Eric Firkel – Junior Reporter
On April 27, 2026, former District Attorney Lori Rieman sued Cattaraugus County over the County’s refusal to provide her health insurance in retirement. In her petition, Rieman alleges she was wrongfully denied the benefit after she refused to retire early at the request of then legislative Vice-Chairman and current deputy administrator Michael Brisky.
According to Court documents, on May 1, 2024, Brisky pressured Reiman to retire early in an effort to help his preferred candidate, Ashley Smith become the District Attorney “presumably because [Smith] was relatively unknown.” Ashley Smith had served as County Attorney since 2020; however, prior to that the bulk of her experience was in family law, working with the department of social services in Chautauqua County. Smith had never worked as a criminal prosecutor.
When Rieman declined to retire, Brisky sent her a text message saying that he “can’t guarantee the health insurance outcomes that far into the future.” In the days following her refusal, Brisky called Rieman’s husband and effectively threatened that if she did not retire early, it would affect her entitlement to health insurance in retirement.
Despite the pressure, she declined to retire.
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In 2025, Rieman reached out to Legislator Ginger Schroeder to inquire whether the legislature would pass a resolution recognizing her service for Cattaraugus County to remove any doubt as to whether she would be entitled to retiree health insurance considering a gap in her employment in 2009.
According to Court documents, on June 2, 2025, Schroeder told Rieman that the Legislature was not interested in passing any resolution. This was a deviation of past practice for the Legislature, since it has a practice of passing resolutions for long-time employees with larger gaps in their employment. Resolutions passed for two other long-time employees with larger gaps in their employment were attached to Reiman’s Petition and are publicly available.
Rieman hired Buffalo Labor attorney Harvey Sanders, who sent a letter to then County Attorney Ashley Smith in October 2025, seeking clarification on whether Rieman would receive retiree health insurance after her retirement on December 31, 2025. Smith did not provide any commitment to Rieman.
Then on December 31, 2025, outgoing County Attorney Smith sent an email to Rieman denying her health insurance in retirement because she did not retire directly into the NYS retirement system, as it would take 16 days to process her paperwork through the NYS retirement system.
Rieman contends in Court documents that there is nothing in the employment manual requiring employees to go directly from employment to retirement without any gap to be eligible for retiree health insurance.
LEGISLATORS NOT INFORMED OF THE LAWSUIT.
Since Rieman filed 44 days ago, County Attorney Erin Whitcomb hired attorney Matt Miller of Rupp Pfalzgraf as outside counsel to represent the County against Rieman. The County is incurring legal bills and is at risk of paying damages to Rieman as well as her attorney fees.
In the last 44 days; the Legislature met 5 times. The Star reached out to multiple legislators for comment. The legislators said they had not been informed of the lawsuit and knew nothing about it.
RIEMAN’S TENURE AS DISTRICT ATTORNEY.
Rieman was an employee of Cattaraugus County from 2001 until 2025. From 2001 – 2009 she served as First Assistant District Attorney. In 2009 Rieman ran a campaign to unseat her boss, Ed Sharkey. Sharkey fired Reiman on April 16, 2009. She ultimately defeated Sharkey and resumed her employment as the District Attorney on January 1, 2010. Rieman served as District attorney for 16 years.
During Rieman’s employment she was considered a “Management Confidential” employee. The terms and conditions of her employment were governed by the Management Confidential Handbook. The Handbook provides that any employees hired after November 9, 1995 with at least 20 years of seniority are entitled to health insurance in retirement. The term “seniority” is not defined in the Management Confidential Handbook as “continuous service” and by the time of her retirement, Rieman had nearly 26 years of service.
A HISTORY OF AVOIDING PRIMARY ELECTIONS.
In Spring 2024, Sheriff Tim Whitcomb told legislators that he planned to retire. He was asked by then Vice Chairman Michael Brisky and County GOP leadership to delay his initial planned retirement.
By retiring after the June 2024 primary and more than 90 days before the November election, NYS Election Law provides it is too late in the political calendar for there to be a primary election; and the candidates for each party are selected by the party leaders. This eliminates any possibly of Republican challengers that are not selected by the party leaders.
Whitcomb retired on August 2, 2024. Five days later, the County Republican party selected Eric Butler as their candidate for the November election. Butler had served in the Sheriff’s department since the 1990’s. He had served as Undersheriff for seven years. Butler handily defeated Democratic Candidate D.J. Whitmore in the November 2024 election.
A FAMILIAR JUDGE.
The case is scheduled for an appearance on July 20 in Buffalo, New York before Supreme Court Justice Hon. Dennis E. Ward. Judge Ward previously heard the 2018 cases involving the Republican Party’s alleged takeover of the Cattaraugus County Conservative Party. He is the brother of former Cattaraugus County Legislator Mark Ward.
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All Rights Reserved. Star News LLC. Eric M. Firkel.
