A second person has come forward claiming the town of Greece placed them under surveillance after raising concerns about town government improprieties.
Tina Bachman claims her family was trailed by private investigators and her husband, Greece police officer Matthew Bachman, faced retaliation at his job, after raising concern about a two official’s private use of town contractors.
Bachman filed a federal lawsuit against the town on Friday. In the complaint, she said that she was a part-time housekeeper hired to clean the home of former Deputy Town Supervisor Michelle Marini's son-in-law. Marini currently faces felony charges based on allegations she used town resources to have renovations done on her children’s houses.
Before Marini was charged, Bachman read a Facebook post from Greece resident Ryan Murphy which accused Marini of “extorting contractors to do work on her and her kids houses," according to the complaint. She raised concerns to her husband about the renovations she was seeing at her job, and he shared those with other officers.
“For nearly 19 years, Officer Bachman had never been the subject of an internal affairs investigation,” the complaint reads. “Officer Bachman is now the subject of 2 internal affairs investigations, both audaciously opened while Officer Bachman is on disability leave after being seriously hurt on duty while subduing a suspect.”
The complaint claims at least one GPS tracking device was placed on their vehicle and it tracked them 24/7. Last month, Murphy sued the town, accusing it of placing a tracking device on his vehicle and placing him under constant surveillance.
Marini also faces an official misconduct charge. She is also accused of using a tracking device on a private citizen and is set for trial in March.
The Bachman complaint also alleges that that Greece Police Department Deputy Chief Aaron Springer interviewed family, friends, and neighbors of the Bachmans to solicit negative information about her. The complaint alleges that those interviews were intended to give people close to Bachman the impression that she had done something criminal.
“Bachman believes that her neighbors, co-workers and friends treat her differently because Deputy Chief Aaron Springer has given them all the impression that she is a criminal who is being investigated by the second highest-ranking officer in the Greece Police Department,” the complaint reads.
Attorney Maureen Bass represents both Murphy and Bachman.
“When a government starts using government resources to turn on individuals for their own personal benefit, there’s no other definition for it besides abuse of power,” Bass said.
Greece Town Supervisor William Reilich did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Bachman complaint marks the fifth federal lawsuit filed against the town since 2023 over alleged abuses of power.
Those complaints include an accusation that Reilich used the deputy commissioner of public works as unpaid labor on his classic car collection, and a complaint from a police sergeant that he was retaliated against for trying to blow the whistle on former Police Chief Drew Forsythe’s 2021 drunken driving crash.
In the complaint, Bachman said that she and her children have feared for their lives since the surveillance began on her family and have suffered significant mental health repercussions.
“Tina Bachman lives in constant fear that she and her husband will be killed, and her children will be orphans,” the complaint reads. “...Bachman can no longer enjoy travel soccer and hockey games because not only does she believe she is being watched, but she has a persistent worry that other spectators either do not want her there because of the surveillance or believe she is a criminal.”
In the complaint, Bachman alleges that the town violated her First Amendment right to free speech, Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and Fourteenth Amendment right to due process and equal protection under the law.
Bachman is seeking unspecified damages for pain and suffering and loss of business.
