A state trooper was suspended for letting a colleague who was not trained in underwater diving use his gear. That trooper, James Monda, drowned in the Great Sacandaga Lake one year ago.
Monda, 45, had been assigned to a marine detail near the boat launch in Fulton County on Aug. 22, 2021. State police said that about 4 p.m., Monda went into the water and did not resurface. Another trooper who was assigned with him located him in the bottom of the lake in about 9 feet of water and pulled him to the surface.
He performed CPR and then Monda was taken to Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville, where he was pronounced dead.
Monda was not a member of the dive team.
Police did not say much about the incident beyond its initial media releases. The report on the investigation, obtained by The Post-Star through a Freedom of Information Law request, provides more details of the events of that day.
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Monda was working a 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. shift and assigned to boat patrol duty that originated from a dock at the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District.
Monda attempted to scuba dive using another trooper’s equipment. That trooper was monitoring Monda from the bow of a docked state Department of Environmental Conservation boat that was in the immediate vicinity. Monda disappeared beneath the water and did not resurface, according to the incident report.
The other trooper, whose name is blacked out in the report, immediately entered the water and could not initially find Monda, but found him during a second attempt using a mask. He brought him to shore and began lifesaving efforts before medical personnel arrived and he was taken to the hospital.
An autopsy performed by Dr. Michael Sikirica determined Monda’s cause of death to be asphyxia due to drowning and the manner of death was listed as accidental.
Large sections of the report are redacted “to prevent an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” according to a letter accompanying the FOIL. Other sections are blacked out because it constitutes intra-agency material and exempt from disclosure under the Public Officers Law.
The Post-Star asked New York State Police to comment on the investigation of the circumstances of Monda’s death and if there had been any improvements to protocol to prevent future incidents.
In response, state police spokesman Beau Duffy said Monda was not a member of the team and not trained in the use of state police diving equipment. A member of the State Police Underwater Recovery Team allowed Monda to use his dive gear in violation of regulations.
Duffy said the trooper was removed from the Underwater Recovery Team, and, following an internal investigation, served a 14-day unpaid suspension.
“We are not releasing the trooper’s name since it was determined there was no criminality. The name was redacted from the report for privacy reasons,” Duffy said in an email.
Duffy added that state police and the Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau, which is part of the state Department of Labor, ruled that the death was an accident.
Monda, who was from Rotterdam, was a graduate of Mohonasen High School. He attended Schenectady County Community College and graduated from SUNY Albany with a degree in criminal justice. He had been with state police since September 2002. He had served most of his career in Troop G.
Monda was survived by his fiancée and mother and father.
Michael Goot is night and weekend editor of The Post-Star. Reach him at 518-742-3320.
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