KINGSTON – The State Attorney General’s office has filed a lawsuit against the Lower Esopus River Watch, Inc. and a number of people who were members of the Environmental Management Council, directors of LERW or both.

Also named in the suit were Frederick Fritschler, R. Dixon Onderdonk, David Straus, Bruce Duffy, Jennifer Mcleroy and Joel Schuman. Fritschler was the chairman of the EMC during a six-year period covered by the complaint.

The suit, filed in Ulster County Supreme Court on Friday, charges that parties named breached their fiduciary duties to Ulster County by causing the EMC to contract with LERW while each of them held an interest in both entities and by failing to disclose those interests to the Ulster County Legislature.

The suit also claims that through the concealment of their interests, Fritschler, Onderdonk, Strauss and Duffy surreptitiously transferred control over EMC’s assets to LEWR and caused the county to suffer significant financial losses.

The lawsuit charges the others “abdicated their fiduciary duties to LERW by failing to oversee Fritschler’s use of LERW’s charitable assets.”

The complaint contends that as early as 1997, “Fritschler identified LEWR as a small charity he could use to divert county funds earmarked for the EMC program. And having joined the LERW Board he then proceeded to funnel large portions of the EMC budget to LERW by causing the EMC to enter into contracts with LERW and by concealing from the County Legislature his dual roles of MEC chairman and LERW board member.”

The complaint charges that Fritschler made over $800,000 in “unsubstantiated purchases” and that he used the LERW checking account and American Express credit card as he saw fit. It claims he used a “substantial part” of the county money – almost $300,000 – to purchase both land and equipment, placing them in the name of LERW and then removing them when the county terminated its relationship with LERW at the beginning of 2007.

In the lawsuit, the attorney general is seeking restitution to the county for all government monies paid out “as a result of their wrongdoing;” a judgment dissolving the LERW as a not-for-profit corporation; and distribution of the LERW’s assets to the county.

“When taking office in 2006 we made it clear that we would not tolerate fraud, waste or abuse,” said County Legislature chairman David Donaldson.

The state investigation was initiated as a result of an almost unanimous January 2007 resolution of the County Legislature which directed the county attorney to request that the Attorney General look into the operation of the EMC, and in particular, its relationship with LERW – with which the EMC had contracted to administer some of its environmental programs.