Lori Rieman sues Cattaraugus County over health insurance denial, Legislators kept in the dark
Olean Star – Eric Firkel – Junior Reporter, pictured is Reiman
On April 27, 2026, former District Attorney Lori Rieman sued Cattaraugus County over the County’s refusal to provide her health insurance in retirement. In her petition, Rieman alleges she was wrongfully denied the benefit after she refused to retire early at the request of then legislative Vice-Chairman and current deputy administrator Michael Brisky.
According to Court documents, on May 1, 2024, Brisky pressured Reiman to retire early in an effort to help his preferred candidate, Ashley Smith become the District Attorney “presumably because [Smith] was relatively unknown.” Ashley Smith had served as County Attorney since 2020; however, prior to that the bulk of her experience was in family law, working with the department of social services in Chautauqua County. Smith had never worked as a criminal prosecutor.
When Rieman declined to retire, Brisky sent her a text message saying that he “can’t guarantee the health insurance outcomes that far into the future.” In the days following her refusal, Brisky called Rieman’s husband and effectively threatened that if she did not retire early, it would affect her entitlement to health insurance in retirement.
Despite the pressure, she declined to retire.
In 2025, Rieman reached out to Legislator Ginger Schroeder to inquire whether the legislature would pass a resolution recognizing her service for Cattaraugus County to remove any doubt as to whether she would be entitled to retiree health insurance considering a gap in her employment in 2009.
According to Court documents, on June 2, 2025, Schroeder told Rieman that the Legislature was not interested in passing any resolution. This was a deviation of past practice for the Legislature, since it has a practice of passing resolutions for long-time employees with larger gaps in their employment. Resolutions passed for two other long-time employees with larger gaps in their employment were attached to Reiman’s Petition and are publicly available.
Rieman hired Buffalo Labor attorney Harvey Sanders, who sent a letter to then County Attorney Ashley Smith in October 2025, seeking clarification on whether Rieman would receive retiree health insurance after her retirement on December 31, 2025. Smith did not provide any commitment to Rieman.
Then on December 31, 2025, outgoing County Attorney Smith sent an email to Rieman denying her health insurance in retirement because she did not retire directly into the NYS retirement system, as it would take 16 days to process her paperwork through the NYS retirement system.
Rieman contends in Court documents that there is nothing in the employment manual requiring employees to go directly from employment to retirement without any gap to be eligible for retiree health insurance.
LEGISLATORS NOT INFORMED OF THE LAWSUIT.
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