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Kevin Riford
Harassment — and Federal Inaction
In 2019, my family reported serious misconduct to the Buffalo, NY FBI Field Office. At the time, two U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were working off-duty as private investigators for Peter Vito & Associates. These “private investigators” were being used to harass my sister, Katie Riford, during her Niagara County family court case.
Katie later submitted an affidavit to Niagara County Family Court stating she was going into hiding with her children — a drastic step that underscores the level of fear and harassment she was experiencing.
Following our initial visit, we returned to the FBI field office several more times to report what we believed was deeper corruption within the Niagara County Family Court system. On all five occasions, we were let into the building by security and escorted to the second floor — where we met exclusively with FBI Special Agent Brian A. Burns.
FBI Agent Brian Burns: Conflicts and Concerning Behavior
$1,000 Donation to Judge DeLabio — and a Potential Burns Family Tie
Public records from the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) show that in 2017, a man named Jason Burns, a Niagara County resident, donated $1,000 to Judge Erin DeLabio’s campaign — one of the largest single donations on record that year.
This is the same Judge DeLabio who presided over Katie Riford’s family court proceedings in 2019. It’s also the same judge our family reported directly to FBI Agent Brian Burns.
The potential conflict? It is suspected that FBI Agent Brian A. Burns is related to Jason Burns, the campaign donor.
Even more notably, Jason Burns and his brother Robert (Bob) Burns own every Tim Hortons location in Niagara County — making them prominent local business owners with political influence.
This discovery has only added to the growing list of concerns about how Katie’s case was handled, and whether any connections between the Burns family and local officials may have played a role in what happened — or didn’t happen.
Still No Accountability
Despite our repeated efforts to report misconduct, harassment, and apparent conflicts of interest, the FBI has taken no meaningful action. The connections between federal agents, private investigators, local law enforcement, and judicial figures remain hidden in plain sight — unanswered, unexplained, and uninvestigated.
We invite others to ask the same questions we’ve been forced to confront.