June 2007

High Speed Chase - Tracy Baxter @ 11:07 am EST
It all started early Thursday morning. A city of Newburgh police officer noticed a car parked in the middle of First Street. When he approached, the car sped off and a chase began. At least two cars...including a taxi...were run off the road. Red lights were ignored and the suspect drove into the town of Newburgh. He jumped out on North Pierpont Avenue and started to run. But Officer Kevin Lahar had his K-9 partner "Tanzo" with him and Tanzo latched onto the suspect until Officer Lahar arrived. 40 year old Junior Parker of the town of Newburgh was charged with felony reckless endangerment, reckless driving, resisting arrest and driving without a license. A check determined Parker was on parole for felony drug possession that also involved a vehicle pursuit.

Grand Larceny Indictment - Tracy Baxter @ 11:02 am EST
A former accounting manager for a company in Saugerties has been indicted for stealing 630 thousand dollars from her employer. 27 year old Amie Nigro had been working for Simulaids, a company that manufactures training aids for rescue, medical and emergency equipment. Police say the thefts occurred over the past five years. Nigro faces up to 15 years in prison if she's convicted on the grand larceny charges. She reportedly told investigators that she embezzled the money because she found it difficult to raise her two children on a single mother's salary.

Animal Cruelty Arrests - Tracy Baxter @ 10:58 am EST
Complaints about barking dogs have led to animal cruelty charges against a couple from Lake Katrine. Ulster County Sheriff's deputies say when they got to the house on Leggs Mills Road, they found two dogs, 7 cats, 2 birds and a turtle that appeared to have been mistreated and were living in deplorable conditions. 45 year old Christopher Closi and his 44 year old wife Gloria were charged with torturing and injuring animals. Deputies were told the house was in foreclosure and wasn't supposed to be occupied.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Fugtive Arrested - Tracy Baxter @ 12:53 pm EST
Last week we told you the story about Michael Decker.....and Michael Decker. Port Jervis Police Officer Michael Decker was injured while chasing another Michael Decker. Suspect Decker...of Matamoras Pennsylvania...had run off after a state trooper pulled his car over for traffic violations in Port Jervis. There was a warrant out for Decker's arrest on a marijuana charge. That's when Officer Decker gave chase. Suspect Michael Decker got away after jumping into the Delaware River and crossing into Matamoras. Tuesday night, Decker turned himself in to Port Jervis police. Now he faces charges of assault and resisting arrest.

Parting Shots - Tracy Baxter @ 12:30 pm EST
Let the verbal jousting begin. Governor Eliot Spitzer is pointing the finger of blame at the Republican-led State Senate, saying they adjourned as planned without dealing with some important legislation. The governor's comments came during a speech at the State Broadcaster's Convention Tuesday night in Bolton Landing. Spitzer says the legislature needs to pass bills that deal with property taxes, generating more energy and campaign finance reform. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno wasted no time firing back. He says Spitzer apparently doesn't understand the job of being governor.

Flood Relief - Tracy Baxter @ 12:24 pm EST
While the search continues for the bodies of two people
missing from last week's flash flood in Delaware County, people in nearby Roscoe are organizing relief efforts. All proceeds from Roscoe's 4th of July Festival will be donated to the fund and Roscoe resident Lisa Chesney has organized a clothing drive that'll kick off this Sunday on Main Street in Roscoe. Checks can be sent in care of the Flood Relief Fund to M&T Bank ....Stewart Avenue...Roscoe, NY 12776. Roscoe businesses want people to know they were not flood-damaged and that the village continues to be open for business.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Marijuana Business - Tracy Baxter @ 12:01 pm EST
The Orange County Sheriff's Department and Walden Village Police say they've arrested members of a family that were in the marijuana selling business. Early Wednesday morning, police...armed with a search warrant...raided an apartment at Walden View Apartments on Oak Street. 41 year old Everett Jackson was arrested along with his wife Felicia and their 16 year old son and their son's 15 year old friend. They've been charged with sale and possession. Police say the Everetts had been selling pot to members of the Sheriff's Department Narcotics Task Force for the past three months.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

River Escape - Tracy Baxter @ 4:23 pm EST
It was Michael Decker versus Michael Decker in the Port Jervis area late Monday night and the Michael Decker that was being chased is still on the loose. It all began when a state trooper pulled a car over for traffic violations on Pike Street in Port Jervis. A passenger jumped out and started running. Port Jervis police determined it was Michael G. Decker who was wanted for assault and resisting arrest. Port Jervis police officer Michael Decker began a chase that ended when Officer Decker fell and broke a rib while crossing railroad tracks. Fugitive Decker jumped into the Delaware river and crossed into Pennsylvania. He was yet to be found.

Fatal Drag Race - Tracy Baxter @ 4:13 pm EST
Two Orange county men were sentenced Tuesday for their roles in a fatal drag racing incident last year in the Town of Newburgh. 22 year old Ryan Woods of Walden was sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter for crashing into a car while racing on Route 17K. The crash claimed the life of 76 year old Ralph West of the Town of Newburgh. The man Woods was racing....20 year old Brandon Ruud of Newburgh...was sentenced to a term of one and a third to 4 years. He had pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.

School Death - Tracy Baxter @ 4:10 pm EST
There was tragedy on Tuesday in the Port Jervis school district where a kindergartener collapsed and died. It happened outside the Anna S. Kuhl elementary school where children were taking part in the district's annual end-of-school-year field days program. Assistant Superintendent John Bell said the 5 year old girl...who lived on Ball Street in Port Jervis and who the district did not identify...collapsed while running a relay race. An EMT tried to revive her but she was pronounced dead at Bon Secours hospital. Bell said the girl's mother was at the school helping with the field days program. Grief counselors will be at A-S-K school tomorrow.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Sullivan Fatalities - Tracy Baxter @ 3:17 pm EST
A two-car head-on collision took the life of an elderly woman Monday morning in the Sullivan county town of Lumberland. It happened at about 8am on Route 97 in the Pond Eddy area near Newman Road. A car driven by 36 year old John Robertson of Barryville veered into the oncoming lane, hitting another car head-on. Both Robertson and the other driver, 59 year old Gerald Rumsey of Barryville, were airlifted to Westchester Medical Center. One of the two passengers in Rumsey's car, 84 year old Madeline Walter of Yulan, was dead at the scene. Her 52 year old son Thomas Walter was taken to Bon Secours Hospital in Port Jervis. Rumsey was driving Madeline Walter to a medical appointment at the time of the fatal collision. In Sullivan county Sunday night, 63 year old David Marshall of White Lake died when his pick-up truck flipped over on Route 17 westbound in Rock Hill. Police believe speed may have been a factor.

Campbell Indicted - Tracy Baxter @ 3:08 pm EST
An Orange County grand jury has handed up an indictment against the man arrested for planting a gun and drugs in the car of his estranged wife. 44 year old Anthony Campbell of Kiamesha Lake was indicted for possession of a weapon, possession of drugs and falsely reporting an incident. Middletown police say Campbell called them about the illegal gun and drugs in the car but an investigation determined that Campbell had put the gun and drugs there to try to sway...in his favor...a custody dispute over their daughter. He's currently free on 75 hundred dollars bail.

Tax Theft - Tracy Baxter @ 3:03 pm EST
Monday was sentencing day for the woman who stole thousands of dollars in tax payments while she was employed in the village of Fishkill tax collector's office. 45 year old Donna VanTine of Wappingers Falls had pleaded guilty to a felony grand larceny charge for stealing about 55 hundred dollars worth of cash payments. The thefts were discovered during a village audit last year. VanTine was sentenced to five years probation and 50 hours of community service. She had already paid back the stolen money.

Vehicular Manslaughter - Tracy Baxter @ 3:01 pm EST
State Police in Ulster county have charged a town of Woodstock teen with vehicular manslaughter in connection with a fatal crash in May on Glasco Turnpike in Woodstock. Investigators say tests determined that 18 year old Zephyr Dresser-Peck was drunk when he crashed a car in the early morning hours of May 19th. The crash killed a passenger...19 year old Andrew Dean-Lipson of Woodstock.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Extended School Year - Tracy Baxter @ 11:36 am EST
It's a new take on summer school in the Newburgh district. This summer, Newburgh is starting up an extended school year program. Superintendent Dr. Annette Saturnelli says they're adding another marking period and another semester to the school year for students who need more time to complete course work. Courses for the extended school year program will be held in July and August. Dr. Saturnelli says they want to ensure that students in all grade levels enter their assigned grade this Fall with the skills that will allow them to succeed.

Crash Investigation - Tracy Baxter @ 11:30 am EST
Town of Tuxedo police think a prior medical condition may have been the reason behind a motorcycle crash and the death of the driver. Eyewitnesses told police the motorcycle veered off Route 17-A and into a ditch late Thursday afternoon. 63 year old Walter Atkinson of Queens was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Suffern. Police say he was taking heart medication. Atkinson reportedly had a summer home in Greenwood Lake.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Cocaine Sales - Tracy Baxter @ 12:29 pm EST
It's a reminder just how sophisticated drug dealing has become. Members of the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team raided an apartment on Downs Street in Kingston this week. It was in response to reports of cocaine sales from that residence. Inside was found quantities of crack cocaine and packaging materials. Officers also found a web cam that was used as counter surveillance from inside the apartment. It was set up to overlook the street so people could be watched as they approached the house. Felony possession charges have been filed against the two apartment residents, 35 year old James Mayo and 33 year old Corey Mayo.

Ice Cream Store Robbery - Tracy Baxter @ 12:22 pm EST
He walked into an ice cream store late Tuesday night but he didn't want ice cream. Town of Poughkeepsie police are looking for the man who was wearing a black ski mask and took an undisclosed amount of cash ...at gunpoint...from the Stewart's Ice Cream Shop on Manchester Circle off Route 55. It happened shortly before 11 last night. It was the second time the store had been robbed in the past two months.

Teacher Charged - Tracy Baxter @ 12:19 pm EST
A school teacher from Pennsylvania has been arrested by Town of New Windsor police on a rape charge for a sexual relationship with a 16 year old girl. Police say Michael Culp from the Hershey Pennsylvania school district was charged in connection with an incident in April at a motel in New Windsor. Police say the teacher had been entrusted to drive the female student to her home in New Hampshire for spring break.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Bank Robbery Indictment - Tracy Baxter @ 1:23 pm EST
An indictment has been handed up against the man arrested for robbing a bank in Middletown in May. An Orange County grand jury handed up charges of third degree robbery and grand larceny in the case of 56 year old Edwin Ives. He was arrested two hours after taking 22 hundred dollars from the Orange County Trust Bank on North Street May 25th. Ives continues to be held on 100 thousand dollars bail. District Attorney Frank Phillips said Ives was indicted for robbery in the third degree because he did not have a weapon and held up his hand in the form of a gun. He had served time for manslaughter for the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend in Middletown in 1975.

False Report - Tracy Baxter @ 10:45 am EST
The call came in late Monday afternoon from a 14 year old girl who lives on Campbell Avenue in the Town of Woodbury. She told police a man had broken into her home and fired a gun before running off. That report triggered a big police manhunt.....canine units were brought in and a helicopter was launched but it didn't take long for the girl's story to unravel. There was no intruder. She had accidentally fired off a round from her father's gun inside the house. No word on whether any charges will be filed.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Wurtsboro Stabbing - Tracy Baxter @ 12:44 pm EST
It began as an argument and ended with a stabbing in Wurtsboro Hills. State Police say 50 year old Frank Herald of Wurtsboro stabbed his former girlfriend inside her Longview Avenue home. When officers arrived they say he threatoned them with the knife before stabbing himself in the chest. Troopers were then able to wrestle the knife away from him. Herald was charged with burglary, assault and criminal contempt. Both he and the 50 year old woman were listed in stable condition. State Police say the woman had an order of protection filed against Herald.

Vehicular Homicide - Tracy Baxter @ 12:39 pm EST
An 18 year old from Salisbury Mills has been indicted by an Orange County grand jury for vehicular homicide and driving under the influence in connection with a car crash in March that took the life of his passenger. Richard Lewis was arraigned on the charges and released following his indictment in Goshen. Lewis was driving a car that ran off Clove road and hit a tree in Blooming Grove. 22 year old Ryan Binassarie of Blooming Grove died a few hours later.

Food Stamps - Tracy Baxter @ 11:45 am EST
State Senator Bill Larkin calls it an invitation to fraud. He's speaking out against Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to eliminate the fingerprint verification and face-to-face interview process that food stamp applicants undergo to qualify for the billion dollar government program. Larkin says eliminating finger imaging would be a recipe for disaster that would lead to more widespread abuses of the food stamp program.

Bank Bag Theft - Tracy Baxter @ 11:41 am EST
State Police say a former JC Penney employee walked out of the Crystal Run Galleria last month with a bank deposit bag. But...they say...he didn't take the cash to the bank. 17 year old Sean Morris of Bloomingburg was charged with grand larceny. Almost 16 hundred dollars was in the bag. Police say none of the money has been recovered.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Suit Settlement - Tracy Baxter @ 2:00 pm EST
The owners of two Hudson Valley restaurants have agreed to pay employees nearly 53 thousand dollars in back wages and interest to settle a Labor Department lawsuit. George and Frank Georgakopoulos of Patra Foods....the operators of the Gateway Diners in Newburgh and Highland...were charged with violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. A Labor Department spokesperson said restaurant management failed to pay employees the federal minimum wage, required them to work overtime without proper compensation and failed to keep required records.

Driver's Licenses - Tracy Baxter @ 1:52 pm EST
The state's highest court has rejected a lawsuit that sought to require the state to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. In its decision, the Court of Appeals ruled that the D-M-V has the right to insist that driver's license applicants have valid federal immigrant documents. The lawsuit began in 2004 when the state began cracking down and several immigrants were faced with the loss of their licenses. Officials with Rural and Migrant Ministry organizations say that unfairly punishes hard-working permanent residents who aren't U-S citizens.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Probation Sentence - Tracy Baxter @ 1:28 pm EST
The man accused of standing by while his wife drove herself and their two daughters off a 300 foot cliff avoided prison time Wednesday and was sentenced to 3 years probation. 35 year old Victor Han of Queens pleaded guilty in March to child endangerment as part of a deal that kept him out of prison. The incident happened last June at a scenic overlook in Harriman State Park. His wife Hejin was killed when she drove the family mini-van off the cliff. Their two young daughters escaped serious injury. Han had admitted that his wife was sometimes suicidal and that he knew she and the children were in danger when he got out of the mini-van on the overlook.

Autopsy - Tracy Baxter @ 1:21 pm EST
Town of Ulster police say it does not appear that Iris Vega was the victim of foul play. Preliminary autopsy findings showed no signs of physical assault. The body of the East Kingston woman was found in a wooded area over the weekend, days after she had been reported missing. Town Police Chief Paul Watzka says a toxicology report is expected in about three weeks and it should confirm that the cause of Vega's death was a drug overdose.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Regents Audit - Tracy Baxter @ 2:52 pm EST
The results of an audit released Tuesday show that many schools aren't properly securing Regents exams before they're given and that the State Education Department isn't properly monitoring security measures in those districts. The State Comptroller's Office says auditors visited 235 schools across the state and found that 41 of them were not properly storing and securing exams. 19 schools from our region were a part of the audit and one of them....John S. Burke High School in Goshen...was among those singled out for opening the sealed exam materials before they were supposed to. Schools are required to keep the sealed tests stored in an approved safe or vault until the day of the exam. Next week, about 3 million Regents exams will be given at more than 2 thousand schools across the state.

Rape Arrest - Tracy Baxter @ 10:00 am EST
State Police in Orange County have caught up with the man...they say...raped an underage girl last December in the Town of Deerpark. 62 year old Nicholas DeGroat of Dimock Pennsylvania was found in a residence on Irish Cape Road in the Ellenville area. He'd been on the run since then. DeGroat was charged with rape for an incident at a house in Huguenot that involved a 16 year old runaway from the state of Illinois.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Arraigned - Tracy Baxter @ 12:44 pm EST
Bail has been set at 250 thousand dollars for the man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Middletown church last month. 44 year old John Petry was indicted for first degree attempted rape, first degree sexual abuse and resisting arrest. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday morning. Petry was arrested May 17th after video surveillance cameras caught a man sexually assaulting a 58 year old woman in a chapel at St. Joseph's Church. Off-duty Middletown firefighter Michael Benedetto spotted Petry after seeing the videotape on television.

Return Visit - Tracy Baxter @ 12:21 pm EST
Police in Monticello are getting to know an apartment house at #10 Bedford Avenue very well. Officers went there Wednesday night and made 4 drug arrests and recovered cocaine, ecstasy pills and drug packaging materials. Narcotics officers had hit the same place about a month ago. One of those arrested this time....29 year old apartment resident Joseph Alli...was out on 25 thousand dollars bail after pleading guilty to a felony possession charge. He was due to be sentenced in August.

Stolen Cards - Tracy Baxter @ 12:06 pm EST
State Police say he had a little scam going. He worked as a cashier at Sam's Club and a Citgo gas station in the town of Wallkill and at both places he'd distract credit card customers by striking up conversations with them. After the sale was completed he wouldn't return the credit card and would later use it to make his own purchases. 19 year old Jonathan Pantoja of Middletown has been charged with felony grand larceny. Investigators think there could be more victims than they are currently aware of.