{"id":140757,"date":"2026-02-21T04:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140757\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T04:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:14:22","slug":"state-police-terminate-michael-oflaherty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140757\/","title":{"rendered":"State Police terminate Michael O’Flaherty"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 19, 2026, the New York State Police terminated Michael O’Flaherty’s employment after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of making false statements to federal investigators. The press release from the US Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York can be found here: https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/new-york-state-police-officer-pleads-guilty-lying-federal-investigators<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O’Flaherty, an investigator assigned to Troop K, was placed on administrative duties at the start of the investigation in\u00a0the fall of 2022, and suspended following his arrest in November of 2024 (corrects date of suspension). From the outset of the federal investigation, the New York State Police fully cooperated with the United States Attorney\u2019s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Our Professional Standards Bureau worked in coordination with federal authorities throughout this matter. Accountability is not optional within this organization; it is foundational.<\/p>\n

The following is a statement from Superintendent Steven G. James:<\/p>\n

“Michael O’Flaherty’s actions are a betrayal of the public trust and the oath he took as a member of the New York State Police. Every member of our agency is entrusted with extraordinary responsibility. When someone abuses that responsibility, it undermines the confidence our communities place in us and compromises the work of the dedicated professionals who serve honorably every day.<\/p>\n

“We will not tolerate conduct that violates the law, our policies or ethical standards. The vast majority of our members carry out their duties with integrity, courage, and professionalism. When one individual fails to meet those standards, we act decisively, and we hold them accountable.<\/p>\n

“I remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of professionalism to ensure\u00a0the trust of the communities we serve.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On February 19, 2026, the New York State Police terminated Michael O’Flaherty’s employment after he pleaded guilty to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-140757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}