SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — After months spent in the court of public opinion, the contest for the office of Sullivan County Sheriff will soon shift to the voting booth. 

The primaries will take place on Tuesday, June 24; for voting information and a full list of candidates, see sidebar. 

The marquee race has incumbent Sullivan County Sheriff Mike Schiff running in the Republican primary against Tim Dymond, a former New York State Police investigator. 

The race has attracted significant discussion in the months leading up to the primary election. 

A key factor in Dymond’s campaign has been allegations of misconduct against Schiff’s sheriff’s office. When Dymond announced his run at the January 16 public safety meeting of the Sullivan County Legislature, he claimed that the sheriff’s office is hostile, lacks protocol and is under FBI investigation.

A River Reporter investigation published in February reported that two former sheriff’s office officers had accused Schiff and Undersheriff Eric Chaboty of ordering an accident report to include incorrect information and running a hostile work environment and had alleged that the office is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For that article, visit bit.ly/RR-2025-sheriff-office. 

Schiff told the River Reporter prior to the release of the article that some of the allegations from Dymond were “a real stretch.” Following the article’s publication, Chaboty responded and called it a hit piece; visit bit.ly/RR2025-Chaboty for more. 

Following the article’s release, Det. Jack Harb—one of the officers quoted in that article—was suspended; Chaboty denied that the timing of the suspension had anything to do with the article’s release. Visit https://bit.ly/RR2025-detective-suspended for more. 

Supporters of both Schiff and Dymond have had a significant public presence, online and in this publication’s editorial pages, in the months leading up to the primary. 

The Dymond campaign made additional specific allegations of misconduct in the last weeks of the campaign. 

On Thursday, June 12, Dymond released a statement on his campaign Facebook page, referencing a video circulating online which he claims shows evidence of misconduct from Chaboty. He called for a full investigation into the alleged improprieties. 

Schiff responded with a statement on his official Facebook page on Friday, June 13, claiming that the video “leaves out important facts so that an air of impropriety can be created,” and says that the allegations “are baseless and have no merit.” The River Reporter reached out to Chaboty for comments on Friday, June 13; he did not provide a response by press time.

The video, as reviewed by the River Reporter, contains short clips of security camera footage and radio messages, with text overlaid to make the allegations referenced in Dymond’s statement. The River Reporter could not independently verify any of the claims made in the video or in either statement.