Let’s work together … to a point
In recent weeks, Town of Ulster and City of Kingston police have launched a series of joint investigations targeting drug dealers who operate across municipal boundaries. But Ulster Town Supervisor James Quigley III says liability and labor issues make any formal consolidation of police services between the adjacent communities unlikely. On March 26, members of...
Deadly déjà vu
On Nov. 30, 1994, Paul DeGraff Jr., then 23, spent a Wednesday evening drinking beer, doing shots and shooting darts with his league buddies at a bar on Broadway. His girlfriend, Debra Scism, drove him home, he told police later. Around 11:30 p.m. at his residence in Boice’s Trailer Park in the Town of Ulster,...
Audelis Cruz indicted on murder charge, was on suicide watch at jail
An Ulster County grand jury has handed up an indictment against a parolee accused in the murder on a Ponckhockie woman. Audelis Cruz has been indicted on a single count of second-degree murder and one misdemeanor count of petit larceny in the death of Anita Jacobs-Royer. The March 1 indictment comes exactly one month after...
Town of Ulster PD seeks ‘suspicious male’
A release from the Ulster PD issued Tuesday afternoon: “The Ulster Police Department is investigating a complaint received on February 24th 2013 at around 7:30 p.m. regarding a suspicious male at the Budget 19 Motel, on Route 28 in the Town of Ulster. Information received is that an unknown white male approached a 7-year-old child...
Cops, feds target local head shop selling ‘bath salts’
When local police found their attempts to bust a local head shop for selling synthetic drugs stymied by loopholes in state drug laws, they turned to federal authorities. Now the shop’s owner and an employee are facing a potential 20 years in state prison following a six-month investigation into the sale of the synthetic dope...
Accused killer no stranger to violence, prison
A parolee with a long history of violent crime is under arrest for the murder of a woman found dead in her Ponckhockie house last week. On Sunday, Feb. 10 around 2 p.m., Audelis Cruz, 49, was arrested as he stood on a subway platform on 96th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Cruz’s arrest ended...
Current mayor says ex-mayor let ex-chief get extra pay
In a City Hall press conference last Friday, Mayor Shayne Gallo claimed his predecessor, James Sottile, knew that former Kingston fire chief Rick Salzmann had been paid for days he did not work — and that Sottile condoned the practice. Gallo leveled the accusation one day after Salzmann was arrested on misdemeanor charges, alleging that...
KPD calling Third Avenue death a homicide
Police in Kingston are investigating what they’re now calling “an active homicide investigation” of a woman found dead in her home last Sunday. The body of Anita Jacobs-Royer, 45, was found in her home at 53 Third Avenue in the city’s Ponckhockie neighborhood around 5 p.m. on Feb. 3. Police responded to the residence following...
Matthews back in court, accused of not paying back stolen money
Disgraced former Kingston cop Tim Matthews was back in town briefly on Wednesday to answer charges that he has failed to pay back more than $200,000 in police funds stolen from city and county taxpayers in a scandal that rocked local law enforcement. On Jan. 30, a slimmed-down Matthews, wearing prison greens, shackled hand and...
Taped in court: Judge Williams orders defendant’s mouth sealed
County Court Judge Donald Williams sentenced an Internet predator to a long stretch in state prison for sending bestiality videos to a teenage girl, but not before imposing a literal “gag order” that left the disruptive defendant pleading his case through duct tape. Clifford William Wares, 40, was in Williams’ courtroom on Wednesday, Jan. 16...
Dog shot, man in deep trouble after he lets pit bull attack officers
A routine arrest on a misdemeanor warrant turned into a wild melee on Broadway involving three Kingston cops, an Olive man and an angry pit bull. The Jan. 13 brawl left one cop with a bite wound to his hand, the dog recovering from a gunshot wound and 32-year-old David Smith facing felony charges after...
Read governor’s release on new gun laws and reactions from local lawmakers
Editor’s note: What follows is the complete text of the release just issued by Gov. Cuomo’s office on the historic Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, which will give New York some of the most strict gun laws in the nation. Below will be the unedited reactions from several local and regional lawmakers. As of about...