Town Board Reinstates Police Officer Sickles

The Southampton Town Board unanimously ratified a stipulation of settlement with a suspended town police officer on Thursday afternoon, which will allow the embattled officer to return to work.

The officer is at the center of a controversy that also led to his commanding officer's suspension, plus a district attorney's office review of more than 100 criminal cases — a review that has already resulted in at least three men's convictions being thrown out.

Police Officer Eric Sickles was suspended by Town Board action on July 10, 2012, after spending several months on medical leave related to a dependency he developed to prescription painkillers. Departmental charges accused Sickles of working under the influence of a controlled substance between January 2010 and December 2011, sleeping on duty and failing to be fit for duty.

According to police documents and depositions, after an off-duty injury, in late 2010 Sickles began taking oxycodone for pain and to help him sleep, and eventually began taking prescriptions for depression, anxiety and sleep apnea. Sickles said that in the summer of 2011 he tried to wean himself off his pain medication, but realized he could not “due to physical dependency issues.”

Then in October 2011, Sickles' wife reportedly contacted his commanding officer, Lt. James Kiernan, to say her husband had fallen asleep at their kitchen table while putting away his gun, and that he had a pattern of falling asleep related to his use of prescription medication — to the point that she did not let him drive with their children. 

Sickles was a member of the Southampton Town Police Department's now-defunct Street Crime Unit, which conducted undercover drug investigations.

Then-Police Chief William Wilson said he was first informed of Sickles' addiction in December 2011, and he immediately had Sickles placed in a rehab program and put him on leave.

Wilson initiated a probe by Suffolk County Police Department internal affairs investigators into who knew what about Sickles, and when, and whether Sickles was allowed to work when it should have been obvious he was unfit for duty. Statements from various officers and supervisors conflicted on a number of key points.

• RELATED: Former Chief: Police Department Failed Addicted Officer

Kiernan was suspended for six months before the Town Board reinstated him, over Wilson's objections, on Nov. 1, 2012. Wilson said he also believed that then-Lt. Robert Pearce should have been disciplined for his handling of the matter, but Pearce was never suspended. In fact, Pearce was promoted to captain, also over Wilson's objections, and when Wilson retired late last year, the Town Board named Pearce to replace him.

Town Board members did not discuss the terms of the Sickles settlement publicly during the vote Thursday. The board had convened for a special meeting to put out notices to bidders related to cleanup after Superstorm Sandy. While the matter of lifting Sickles' suspension was not originally on the agenda, Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst asked to walk-on the resolution as a last-minute addition. The board unanimously approved the walk-on, and unanimously approved the settlement.

According to past Town Board resolutions, Sickles was appointed a part-time police officer in September 1998, though he did not officially begin until completing the Suffolk County Police Academy. In September 2000, he was appointed a full-time officer.