ALFRED (AP) – York County Sheriff Philip Cote has appointed an officer who was once suspended for not performing background checks to run the county jail’s new oversight unit.

Cote said he stands by Capt. John Angis, who two years ago was suspended for two weeks after failing to complete background checks on new employees. Angis was overworked at the time, and Cote said he has no qualms about appointing him to become one of two leaders of the new Support Services unit.

“I overworked the guy. I gave him too much work to do,” Cote said. “We never had any repeats or problems … John’s gotten a bad shake and he’s the most faithful loyal person who’s worked with me.”

The Support Services unit, created in response to the March 31 escape of a prisoner from the county’s new jail, will oversee training, policy reviews, incident tracking, investigations and background review for new employees.

Angis and Sgt. David Dumond led the internal investigation into the escape by Michael Christopher Barbaria. Barbaria allegedly slipped away by prying open a woven metal fence.

in a recreation yard off his cell block.

No corrections officers have been placed on administrative leave in connection with the escape.

County Commissioner Joseph Hanslip said he had concerns about Angis’ appointment. “I am not sure that (Angis) is the person in the department best possessing the skills and ability to do those tasks,” he said.

And another commissioner, Marc Meserve said the county could swap personnel investigations with another jurisdiction instead of conducting them internally.

“I have concerns about our conducting the investigations ourselves,” he said. “Some we can do internally, some like this, I don’t think so.”

AP-ES-05-11-04 1601EDT