Mayor apologizes for sending cops to question resident at work regarding parody page

North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WIVB) — City of North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec apologized at Tuesday night’s board meeting for sending two police officers to a business to question an employee about a spoof Facebook page.

News 4 Investigates reported Tuesday that two uniformed police offers entered Restful Sleepin’ to question Jacob Quinn about the social media page that lampoons Tylec.

“So, I will apologize, though, that they went to your place of work, and I’d be happy to call your boss and explain the situation further,” Tylec said during the board meeting.

Quinn denied involvement with the Facebook page and accused the mayor of abusing his power and weaponizing the police department for his benefit. He asked city officials to launch a formal investigation.

Quinn said Tylec “has targeted me for years” after circulating a photograph that depicted Tylec as Adolph Hitler. Tylec said the photograph was a fake.

“It breaks my heart that not even a day after newly elected President Donald Trump promised the American people that this type of abuse of governmental power would no longer happen in this free country, the mayor did just that,” Quinn told council members.

Tylec’s request for police intervention raised eyebrows.

First Amendment attorney Joseph Finnerty said the parody page has clear disclaimers and obvious signs of being a constitutionally protected activity of free expression. He said using the police to question Quinn and others about the spoof page is an “improper reaction to somebody’s expression of views about a public official.”

“That’s intimidating, it’s chilling speech, and there’s nothing wrong with the speech here,” Finnerty said.

Tylec told Quinn he has nothing against him and does not hold grudges. However, the spoof page has pushed false information and posted egregious statements that have riled some residents, Tylec said.

“In this position, as well as any elected up here, we do not abuse power, or we should not abuse our power to target anyone for any reason whatsoever,” Tylec said.

He said efforts to get Facebook to remove the page have been unsuccessful. Facebook did not respond to several requests for comment.

“It’s getting to the point where it’s really become an issue of misinformation to our general public, so I asked the police department, can you look into this and see if you can find out who is perpetrating false information?” Tylec said.

The council did not commit Tuesday night to launching an investigation and City Attorney Edward A. Zebulske III did not immediately return calls.

The controversy could be over: the spoof mayor page has disappeared from Facebook.

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Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

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