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Archive for the ‘Cops news’ Category

If it weren’t for the sad fact of the suicide in this story, it would be laughable.

Oksana and Yuri Naumkin are suing Edward O’Rourke and his son for causing the death of their son, Nicholas, on Dec. 22 last year. A criminal case against Edward O’Rourke for leaving his handgun and ammunition unsecured where the boys could find them, is ongoing in city court.

Katherine Seeber, the woman who pleaded guilty to killing her step-great-grandmother in 2000 will go on trial for murder Jan. 17.

Seeber, now 29, entered her plea before her trial was to begin in 2001 but won the right to take back her plea and have a trial when a group of lawyers working on her behalf argued successfully the evidence against her was tainted.

Saratoga County DA Jim Murphy is appealing Judge Jerry Scarano’s decision to give Seeber a trial.

Seeber testified against her boyfriend at the time, Jeff Hampshire. He was acquitted and the record sealed. Hampshire has revisited the court system since then, most recently when he was convicted of helping Travis Carroll hide evidence after Carroll hit and killed Ryan Rossley during a hit-and-run on March 18, 2010.

David Forbes

Update: town officials react.

The Milton highway superintendent was one of 12 Saratoga County persons arrested on drug and conspiracy charges in a case in which more than two ounces of powder cocaine, five pounds of marijuana and a vehicle were seized, according to city police.

A five-month investigation by the Saratoga Springs Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration officers focused on illegal drug trafficking in and around the city. Police started making arrests last month and announced them Thursday.

Police confirmed late Thursday that one of several persons charged with fourth-degree conspiracy, a felony, was David C. Forbes, 43, of Ballston Spa. Forbes was among those who were caught either buying or selling cocaine around the city, Lt. Greg Veitch of the Saratoga Springs Police Department said. The Milton highway superintendent since 2002 had faced misdemeanor drunken-driving charges from a 2003 traffic stop on Geyser Road in Milton. The disposition of that case could not immediately be obtained.
Also charged with felony conspiracy were Robert K. Allen, 43, and April L. Allen, 34, both of Mechanicville; Thomas R. Kopach, 52, of Ballston Spa; Edward Fitzgerald, 59, Thomas W. Williams, 40, Susan M. Forbes, 41, Jose A. Cruz, 39, and Paul M. Fasulo, 68, all of Saratoga Springs; Heather Chittenden, 38, and Deborah M. Risso, 50, both of Gansevoort; and Thomas J. Bowe, 44, of Schuylerville, according to police.

Police said Robert Allen also was charged with three counts each of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, both felonies, and Kopach and Cruz, face two counts each of the same crimes.

The police investigation began in August under an Operation IMPACT-Tools grant sponsored by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Police requested help from the DEA following their initial investigations in the case. Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III also played a role in the investigation.

Police believe the arrests will have a significant short-term impact on drug activity around downtown. Public Safety Commissioner Richard Wirth credited the cooperation among police agencies for the arrests. Police expect to make additional arrests in the case.

Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner Richard Wirth is quietly remaking the police department’s leadership before he leaves office Jan. 1.

About a week after appointing Lt. Greg Veitch to assistant police chief, Wirth promoted Sgt. John Catone to lieutenant, effective Saturday. Catone is a 24-year veteran of the department who started his career on the force on the midnight patrol shift. He became an investigator in 1999 and sergeant in 2006. His new salary could not immediately be obtained.

“Sgt. Catone has shown time and time again that he possesses outstanding organizational, personal and leadership skills that are necessary to carry out the duties of lieutenant, especially within the investigations division,” Wirth said.

The last shakeup in the department’s leadership occurred in December 2009, just before Wirth took office. That’s when then-Public Safety Commissioner Ronald Kim named Christopher Cole to succeed Ed Moore as police chief.

A judge on Friday shortened a court order that protects a 25-year-old woman from a former police officer accused of stalking her, but the judge refused to immediately vacate it as the ex-cop had sought.

Saratoga County Family Court Judge Jennifer Jensen-Bergan reduced to two years an order of protection placed against former Saratoga Springs patrolman Patrick Arpei, saying prior county Family Court Judge Gilbert Abramson had erred when he imposed a five-year order on Sept. 21, 2010.

But Jensen-Bergan, the first woman elected to the bench in the county, rejected Arpei’s petition for immediate relief from the order, which prevents Arpei from contacting his ex-girlfriend, Kaela Priester of Wilton. The judge instead gave Arpei’s attorney, recently retired state Supreme Court Judge Frank Williams, a choice between a two-year order of protection or having the entire case retried.

After meeting with Arpei, Williams accepted the two-year order, which expires Sept. 21, 2012.

“I feel like I got the most that I could,” Priester said after the proceeding. She represented herself. She said that she will feel safe for only as long as the order remains in effect.

Priester had accused Arpei, 30, of bombarding her with thousands of text and phone messages and threatening to use his police powers against her after she broke up with him. State Police charged Arpei with fourth-degree stalking, a misdemeanor. The criminal charges were adjourned pending Arpei’s compliance with the order. But Arpei resigned from the Saratoga Springs Police Department in February after he new allegations surfaced that he used police data to pull over several of Priester’s friends and relatives in the city and ticketed them for non-existent traffic infractions.

No criminal charges were brought, but Abramson granted – and Arpei agreed to – a five-year order that prohibited him from being within 250 feet of Priester.

But after a year, Arpei petitioned to have the order discontinued, saying it prevented him from getting a job as a police officer. Arpei’s parents worked on the Saratoga Springs police force, and his two brothers presently do. During a court break Friday, Williams lobbied Priester and her father to agree to ending the order if Arpei pledged to not try to get a job with Saratoga Springs police or the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. She declined.

“She likes the press,” Williams said after the decision. “We’re very happy.”

71 Thompson St., Ballston Spa

Today’s story.

Deborah Thompson, the Ballston Spa woman who stole from the 85-year-old woman who trusted Thompson as her guardian, will get another four months to sell her house and come up with the money she owes her victim.

Thompson, 63, put her house at 71 Thompson St. on the market when she pleaded guilty in August to attempted grand larceny and said the sale of the house would cover the nearly $30,000 in restitution she owes. The house, despite two price cuts, hasn’t sold. I’m guessing it has to do with whatever prompted Coldwell Banker to write in its listing, “a little TLC goes a long way.”

Thompson, whose husband is outgoing Milton Supervisor Frank Thompson, is due back in court March 13.

71 Thompson St., Ballston Spa

Deborah Thompson, the Ballston Spa woman who stole from the 85-year-old woman who trusted Thompson as her guardian, will get another four months to sell her house and come up with the money she owes her victim.

Thompson, 63, put her house at 71 Thompson St. on the market when she pleaded guilty in August to attempted grand larceny and said the sale of the house would cover the nearly $30,000 in restitution she owes. The house, despite two price cuts, hasn’t sold. I’m guessing it has to do with whatever prompted Coldwell Banker to write in its listing, “a little TLC goes a long way.”

Thompson, whose husband is outgoing Milton Supervisor Frank Thompson, is due back in court March 13.

Greg Veitch, shown here on the job in August, 2010, will be the city's new assistant police chief.

Lt. Greg Veitch has been promoted to assistant chief of the Saratoga Springs Police Department, effective Dec. 17.

Veitch, 38, is a lifelong resident of the city and a 16-year veteran of the department. He was hired as a patrol officer before moving into the special investigations unit as an investigator assigned to drug-related crimes. In July 2006, Veitch was promoted to sergeant and in 2007 to lieutenant. The base salary for Veitch’s new position as of 2008 (the most recent contract) is $84,299.

Veitch holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice studies. He is working toward a Master’s degree. In 2008, he completed the 10-week FBI National Law Enforcement Academy in Quantico, Va.

The position of assistant chief has been empty since Michael Biss retired in February.

Capt. Michael Chowske and Lt. Sean Briscoe were also interviewed for the job.

A view of Ann Arnold's farm Thursday. Skip Dickstein/Times Union

Ann Arnold, a Wilton Road woman already facing 19 counts of animal cruelty after the SPCA and State Police visited her farm in September, was charged this week with criminal nuisance after her horses broke through her fence. Story here.