N.Y. Village Law § 8-804: Discipline and charges

§ 8-804 Discipline and charges. 1. Except as otherwise provided by

law, a member of such police force or department shall continue in

office unless suspended or dismissed. The board of trustees or municipal

board shall have power and is authorized to adopt and make rules and

regulations for the examination, hearing, investigation and

determination of charges, made or preferred against any member or

members of such police force or department. Except as otherwise

provided, no member or members of such police force or department shall

be fined, reprimanded, suspended, removed or dismissed until written

charges shall have been examined, heard and investigated in such manner

or procedure, practice, examination and investigation as the board may

by rules and regulations from time to time prescribe. Any member of such

police force or department at the time of the hearing or trial of such

charges shall have the right to a public hearing and trial and to be

represented by counsel at any such hearing or trial, and any person who

shall have preferred such charges or any part of the same shall not sit

as judge upon such hearing or trial. Any and all witnesses produced in

such support of all or any part of such charges shall testify thereto

under oath. Any member of such force or department who shall have been

so dismissed shall not be reinstated as a member of such force or

department unless he shall within twelve months of his dismissal file

with such board a written application for a rehearing of the charges

upon which he was dismissed. Such board shall have the power to rehear

such charges and, in its discretion, reinstate a member of the force or

department after he has filed such written application therefor. Any

member of such force or department found guilty upon charges, after five

days' notice and an opportunity to be heard in his defense, of neglect

or dereliction in the performance of official duty, or violation of

rules and regulations, or disobedience, or incompetency, to perform

official duty, or an act of delinquency seriously affecting his general

character or fitness for office, may be punished by the board of

trustees or other municipal board having jurisdiction, by reprimand,

forfeiture and the withholding of salary or compensation for a specified

time not exceeding twenty days, suspension from duty for a specified

time not exceeding twenty days and the withholding of salary or

compensation during such suspension, or by dismissal from the

department. Such board shall have the power to suspend, without pay for

a period not to exceed thirty days, pending the trial of charges, any

member of such police force or department. If any member of such police

force or department so suspended shall not be convicted by such board of

the charges so preferred, he shall be entitled to full pay from the date

of suspension, notwithstanding such charges and suspension. 2.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no charges shall be

commenced more than three years after the occurrence of the alleged

neglect or dereliction in the performance of official duty, or violation

of rules and regulations, or disobedience, or incompetency, to perform

official duty, or an act of delinquency seriously affecting his general

character or fitness for office, complained of and described in the

charges provided, however, that such limitation shall not apply where

the aforementioned conduct complained of and described in the charges

would, if proven in a court of appropriate jurisdiction, constitute a

crime.