Paul Arteta Wins Orange County, New York, Sheriff Race With Wide Margin

Paul Arteta stands in downtown Montgomery, N.Y., on Sept. 27, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

Montgomery Deputy Police Chief Paul Arteta won the sheriff race in Orange County, New York, on Nov. 8.

He got 60 percent, or 69,807 votes, as a candidate for both the Republican and Conservative parties, according to unofficial results published by the Orange County Board of Elections.

Bernie Rivers, the Democratic Party candidate, got 40 percent votes.

“Thank you, Orange County. Together, we delivered an overwhelming victory, and I’m honored to be your new Sheriff-elect,” Arteta wrote on his public Facebook page. “Now, let’s roll up our sleeves to make Orange County safer and even better!”

Rivers told The Epoch Times: “[I] just want to thank family, friends, and supporters. It was an exciting run, especially being that this was the first time in 20 years that there was an actual two-party election for the Office of Sheriff.”

“I would also like to congratulate Sheriff-elect Arteta on his victory,” he added.

Paul Arteta in his office at Montogometry Police Department in N.Y. on Sept. 27, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

In a previous interview, Arteta told The Epoch Times that he plans to add correctional officers through job reassignments and reduce mandatory overtime at the county jail.

He also plans to boost patrol in communities without local police forces, on county properties such as parks and heritage trails, and along the Hudson River.

“A lot of our job is not chasing after bad guys and arresting them; it is about deterrence and being out there for the community to see us and talk to us,” Arteta said in the previous interview.

His other plans include having more veteran sheriff deputies assist in police academy training and strengthening the county drug task force to curb illicit trafficking.

“I think the drug epidemic is probably the biggest problem in this county right now. Overdoses are rising, and a lot of property crimes are driven by drug addiction,” Arteta said in the previous interview.

Arteta spent most of his law enforcement career in the county sheriff’s office, climbing through the ranks from a deputy to investigator, to sergeant-in-charge of daytime patrols, to sergeant-in-charge of investigations, to lieutenant, and to captain, gathering a dozen of awards along the way.

The awards include Deputy of the Year, Federal Drug Agents True American Hero, and Lifesaving Award.

A lawn sign supporting Paul Arteta sits in downtown Montgomery, N.Y., on Sept. 27, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

He is also on a list of law enforcement officers with credibility issues in use by the county district attorney’s office, according to a document obtained by The Epoch Times on Oct. 12 through a FOIL request.

Shortly before he retired from the sheriff’s office, Arteta was internally investigated for an alleged cover-up of a use-of-force report involving a deputy dragging an uncooperative inmate inside a courthouse.

Arteta told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that he did not direct the deputy not to file a use-of-force report, adding that the inmate was not injured in the incident.

He said the investigation was politically motivated to mar his sheriff campaign.

At the time, Arteta was competing with Undersheriff Kenneth Jones in the Republican primary.

Jones told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that the investigation, having been initiated by a complaint from the inmate, was not politically motivated.

The incumbent Republican county sheriff, Carl Dubois, is retiring after 20 years in office.

Rivers, the sole Democratic contender in the race, spent most of his law enforcement career in environmental conservation.