The vandalized tree. (Photo courtesy Molly Wilson)

An Uptown homeowner believes someone with a deeply flawed understanding of the term “holiday spirit” is behind the mutilation and theft of her family’s beloved baby blue spruce.

Molly Wilson noticed the vandalism on Saturday when she went into the front yard of the family’s Washington Avenue home around noon and saw, to her horror, that the 5-year-old evergreen had been sawed in half. The vandal had made off with the top four feet of the tree.

“I had my husband take it out right away. I couldn’t stand to look at it like that,” said Wilson.

Wilson said the tree was given to her by her mother and grandmother to celebrate her son’s birth. It became a family tradition to take photos in front of the tree to give to relatives. Wilson said that she believes whoever vandalized the tree had had their eye on it and likely took it as a holiday decoration. Police canvassed the neighborhood, but were unable to find any trace of the missing portion of the tree. Wilson, meanwhile, said she would replace the tree, but not with a spruce.

“I will plant something there,” said Wilson. “Just not something that looks like a Christmas tree.”

The tree, in happier times. (Photo courtesy Molly Wilson)

Anyone with information on the vandalism should call Kingston police at (845) 331-1671 or submit an anonymous tip using the Tipsoft: app on the department’s Facebook page.

Paul J. Egan’s arrest photo.

Police are investigating whether a suicide pact was behind a case of carbon monoxide poisoning that left a Kingston woman near death and her partner charged with promoting a suicide attempt.

Kingston cops responded to a home on West Chestnut Street around 8:20 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 12 after family members asked them to check on the welfare of a couple living there. Police initially received no response from inside the house. After banging on several windows and doors, police said, Paul J. Egan answered the door. Officers immediately noticed a strange odor emanating from inside the house, later determined to be from a furnace emitting carbon monoxide. When Egan told cops that there was another person at home, police entered the house and discovered a 59-year-old woman unresponsive inside. Officers removed the woman from the residence; she was later found to be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. The woman, whom police did not name, was taken to HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus for treatment. She was later taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where she remains in critical condition.

Further investigation determined that Egan had disconnected a boiler exhaust pipe and turned on a gas generator, filling the house with carbon monoxide. Egan was taken into custody and charged with felony promoting a suicide attempt. He was arraigned in Kingston City Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail on $25,000 bail.

District Attorney Holley Carnright said that investigators were working to determine whether Egan’s actions were taken as apart of a suicide pact with the victim. He noted that Egan was inside the home when police arrived and had taken no steps to protect himself from the deadly gas filling the interior. Carnright said investigators were speaking to family and neighbors about the couple’s state of mind and looking for notes or other potential tip-offs to a planned double suicide.

“Had no one gone there would [Egan] have died, or was this a sham? That’s the question we have to answer,” said Carnright.

KPD Chief Egidio Tinti. (Photo by Dan Barton)

Crime in Kingston dipped slightly during the first 11 months of 2014, continuing a trend towards a safer city. Nearly as important, said Kingston Police Chief Egidio Tinti, the public perception of city crime seems to be keeping pace.

“That’s definitely the feeling I’m getting when I go to meetings and talk to people,” said Tinti. “The streets are calmer, it’s safer.”

Statistics generated by the KPD and verified by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services show that overall the seven major “index crimes” — murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft — fell to 693, a decrease of 1.7 percent during the first 11 months of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. Over the past 10 years, reported crimes have dropped significantly, if sometimes fitfully in Kingston. In 2005, the city experienced a decade-high 1,208 index crimes, in 2012 there were 842 and in 2013, 761.

In 2014, crime fell in every category except one — larcenies, which rose by 3.2 percent. Burglary, meanwhile, fell by 21 percent from 103 in the first 11 months of 2013 to 81 in the same period last year. Aggravated assaults, which frequently involve weapons and are a good indicator of the general level of violence in a community, fell 19.5 percent, from 41 to 33.

The numbers also show no letup in KPD’s efforts to crack down on street-level drug activity. One hundred-nineteen people were arrested on felony drug charges during the first 11 months of 2014, compared to 116 in the same period in 2013. Misdemeanor drug arrests rose by 16.9 percent, from 71 to 83. Cops also recovered 15 illegal guns in 2014, compared to 12 in 2013. There were just two shooting incidents leading to injury in the city last year.

Those numbers compare favorably to other Hudson Valley cities. In Poughkeepsie, for example, there were 841 index crimes and 12 shooting incidents involving injury in the first 11 months of 2014, while Newburgh saw 1,175 index crimes and 40 shooting incidents in the same period.

Tinti said it’s difficult to account for the downward trend in Kingston. But, he said, a number of innovations in the department had led to more and more visible police presence on the streets. According to Tinti, mobile data terminals now allow Kingston cops to file reports and other paperwork from the field, rather than the station house. Tinti also credited a new patrol scheme which emphasizes police presence on the Broadway Corridor with cooling off some of the city’s traditional crime hotspots. Tinti added that a series of major drug sweeps conducted in 2011 and 2012 which netted dozens of low and mid-level drug offenders had removed a number of gang members and violent felons from Kingston’s street scene.

“There’s no one thing you can put your finger on,” said Tinti. “It’s a lot of little things.”

Brandon Rifenburg’s arrest photo.

A Marbletown man who was shot and seriously wounded by an Ulster County sheriff’s deputy following a high speed chase has filed a lawsuit accusing police of violating his civil rights and using unnecessary force.

In the suit filed in state Supreme Court on April 10, Brandon Rifenburg names 32 individual officers, police departments and municipalities as defendants. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney’s fees.

Back on April 15, 2014, Rifenburg was driving a car that had been reported stolen when he was spotted by state police on Route 213. During the ensuing chase, Rifenburg led cops through the City of Kingston and the towns of Ulster, Kingston, Saugerties and West Hurley. During the pursuit, cops say, Rifenburg ignored orders to stop, drove over sidewalks and at one point crashed through a fence and drove across a lawn. The pursuit ended on Route 28 in West Hurley when, cops say, Rifenburg slammed into a police vehicle and ran off the road.

Police and prosecutors have never disclosed the circumstances under which he was shot twice by Deputy David Hughes. Hughes was cleared by a departmental investigation and an Orange County grand jury, which declined to bring any charges in the shooting (Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright recused himself from the probe because of previous business dealings with Hughes.). Hughes retired earlier this year.

In the lawsuit, Rifenburg’s attorney, John Ventosa, claims that Hughes and other officers involved in the chase committed a series of egregious errors in the moments leading up the shooting. According to the complaint, Hughes and other officers had ignored orders to call off the pursuit when they deployed a “spike strip” in front of Rifenburg’s vehicle. According to the complaint, Hughes then carried out a “police intervention tactic” using his police vehicle to run Rifenburg off the road.

The complaint claims that Rifenburg, pinned inside the overturned vehicle, was raising his hands in a gesture of surrender when Hughes fired two shots into his torso. The suit also names Ulster County Sheriff’s First Sergeant Eric Benjamin, claiming that Benjamin was directly supervising Hughes during the chase. The complaint also alleges that officers passed on inaccurate information that Rifenburg was armed.

The lawsuit cites both the police departments and municipalities in each town the chase passed through as defendants. Also cited are “Officers/troopers John Doe 1-10” — standing in for unknown officers involved in the pursuit. Hughes, Benjamin and State Trooper Brandon M. Bailey are cited by name as defendants; also named are New York City and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection Police. The suit lists eight separate causes for action including excessive force, assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Ventosa, an associate in Jonna Spilbor’s Poughkeepsie-based law firm, did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

Rifenburg recovered from his injuries. He remains free on bail while awaiting disposition of felony charges stemming from the chase.

David Beesmer. (NYSP photo)

“Front Row” Dave Beesmer says he was just looking for a potential client for his fledgling drone video business back in July when he recorded aerial footage of a new medical office building in the Town of Ulster.

But police saw things differently. Now, the 49-year-old videographer — previously best known as a fixture at local rock shows — finds himself at the center of a budding debate over privacy and technology in an age where the skies are increasingly filled with remotely operated aircraft. Beesmer went on trial Friday, May 1 in Ulster Town Court in what experts believe is the first American criminal case stemming from alleged unlawful surveillance by drone.

“Front Row Dave is not a professional martyr, he’s just a guy who likes to shoot rock shows and nature,” said Beesmer’s attorney, Eric Schneider. “It’s been scary for him to find himself in the position of a pioneer.”

Beesmer’s journey to the front lines of the drone debate began innocently enough when he took his mother to a medical appointment at Mid-Hudson Medical Group in Lake Katrine back on July 14 of last year. While he was waiting, Beesmer, who was looking to expand his traditional videography business with drone technology, decided to shoot some footage of the new office building’s exterior using a DJI Phantom 2 Quadcopter. Moments after taking the video, Beesmer walked into the lobby of the medical office, handed a business card to a receptionist and suggested that the new practice might be able to use the footage for advertising and promotion. Beesmer repeated the pitch to other office staff. A short time later, state police arrived and Beesmer was taken into custody.

Schneider said video from a state police interrogation room shows Beesmer, unaware that he’s about to be charged with a felony, describing his concept for an advertisement — “medicine soaring to new heights” to an apparently bemused trooper.

In fact, Schneider said, police appeared almost as perplexed as Beesmer at the situation. “At one point the state trooper in the video looks at Dave and says, ‘I don’t know what to charge you with.’”

As it turns out, the charge was second-degree unlawful surveillance, a Class E felony that carries a maximum sentence of four years in state prison. The statute, enacted to combat video voyeurs, targets anyone who “surreptitiously” and “for no legitimate purpose” uses or installs an imaging device in a place, like a changing room, where there is an expectation of privacy or for the express purpose of viewing an unwitting victim’s intimate parts. Prosecutors say that Beesmer violated the law when he flew the camera equipped drone within 10 or 15 feet of windows of exam rooms where patients might be viewed and recorded in various states of undress. The charge was later dropped to misdemeanor attempted unlawful surveillance which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

“When you have a drone that’s in a position where it can take pictures inside a room where people are undressing, it’s a problem,” said Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright. “You don’t want to create an environment where people can buy a new toy and use it to look in their neighbors’ windows or hospital windows.”

Dronophobia?

But Schneider believes that Beesmer’s arrest and prosecution has more to do with anti-drone hysteria than legitimate privacy concerns. Schneider said that there was nothing surreptitious about Beesmer’s filming — he was standing outside the medical center in broad daylight wearing an orange shirt and after filming he walked into the office identified himself and described the footage he’d just shot. Nor, Schneider said, did Beesmer’s actions meet the “no legitimate purpose” threshold. Schneider said Beesmer had purchased drone-video related Internet domain names, including droneweddings.com, and was clearly interested in securing the medical group as a client for his business.

“It was overkill,” said Schneider. “It should have been dismissed.”

Six people are facing charges after a multi-agency bust of several massage parlors in the towns of Ulster and Esopus.

According to a press release from the Town of Ulster Police, on Tuesday, May 6, the UPD, state troopers and the URGENT task force conducted an undercover operation looking for prostitution in spas in the two towns.

Seven establishments were checked to see if they were offering sex acts for money, as well as if they met state licensing requirements. Out of the seven, the release stated, a total of five were found to not be in compliance. All five were found to be providing massages without proper state licenses and three were found to have offered to perform sexual favors to undercover officers for money. The two establishments in compliance with state licensing requirements were Tranquility Day Spa and The Red Lantern Foot Spa, both located on Ulster Avenue in the Town of Ulster, the release stated.

Arrested were:

• Kingston resident Shan Su, 43, of the Kingston Spa on Morton Boulevard. Su was charged with the misdemeanor of prostitution and the felony of unauthorized practice.
• Flushing resident Yingyu Li, 61, of Spa Valhalla on Ulster Avenue. Li was charged with the misdemeanor of prostitution and the felony of unauthorized practice.
• Manhattan resident Zhao Mingxia, 45, of Blue Spa on Boices Lane. Mingxia was charged with felony unauthorized practice.
• Flushing resident Metzi Huang, 49, of Day Spa on Ulster Avenue. Huang was charged with felony unauthorized practice.
• Flushing resident Choon Hez Kim, 42, of Day Spa on Ulster Avenue. Kim was charged with felony unauthorized practice.
• Port Ewen resident Pook Choi, 52, of Sunshine Spa, Broadway, Port Ewen. Choi was charged with the misdemeanor of prostitution and the felony of unauthorized practice.

Su, Li, Mingxia, Huang and Kim were all processed and arraigned before Ulster Town Justice Susan Kesick and released on their own recognizance. Choi was arraigned in Esopus Town Court and sent to Ulster County Jail on $5,000 bail or a $10,000 bond.

According to the release, the investigation was launched after complaints about the establishments were received by the Town of Ulster supervisor’s office. “Landlords were contacted by the supervisor’s office, [which] raised concerns for them allowing these types of businesses to infiltrate our community,” the release stated. “As a result of this investigation, the town board will be reviewing its town code for possible changes in dealing with these establishments.”

Kristopher J. Surdis. (KPD arrest photo)

An inmate at the Ulster County Jail is facing a felony charge after, Kingston Police said, he phoned in a bomb threat Wednesday which led to the temporary evacuation of the Kingston Plaza Hannaford.

According to the KPD, Kristopher J. Surdis, 42, phoned in the bomb threat (from jail) at about 4:13 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, resulting in the supermarket being evacuated for about a half-hour. Police said Surdis had told the person who answered the phone at Hannaford that a bomb was about to go off.

Police responded and soon determined there was no bomb. Further investigation led to Surdis’ arrest and charge of first-degree false reporting of an incident, a felony. Police said a prior conviction on a false-reporting charge in 2008 led to the felony charge.

Surdis was arraigned and sent back to the jail without bail.

And on May 8, according to Ulster County sheriff’s deputies, Surdis placed a letter in the jail’s outgoing mail which made a threat to an unspecified local supermarket. The letter was intercepted and Surdis charged with another felony, making a terroristic threat. He will be arraigned in Kingston City Court at a later date, the sheriff’s office said. The investigation is continuing and further charges are possible, the sheriff’s office.

Photo: Dan Barton

It didn’t take long for the KPD’s Sherlock Gnomes to bust a pair of Kingston teens who allegedly stole “numerous” lawn ornaments from city yards.

According to the KPD, shortly after midnight on Monday, May 18, they received a report of the theft of lawn ornaments from a home on Clifton Avenue. Patrol Division personnel investigated and less than an hour later, found in Hutton Park and arrested Qumari Hylton-Jackson, 19, and an 18-year-old male they declined to identify and charged both with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a misdemeanor, and breaking the city ordinance of being in a park after the park had closed. Both were processed and released with appearance tickets for court.

Police ask that anyone who had a lawn ornament swiped in the 24 hours preceding midnight Sunday, May 17, give them a call at (845) 331-1671. Callers should be prepared to describe the ornament in question, police said.

A dog trapped in an unventilated car at the Hudson Valley Mall on Sunday, May 17, was rescued by Ulster town police after a tip from an alert passer-by. The owner, 24-year-old Joshua Rivera of Palenville, was arrested and charged with confinement of a companion animal in a vehicle during extreme temperatures, a violation under New York State Agriculture and Markets Law.

According to town police, they got a call at 2:17 p.m. on Sunday reporting a panting dog trapped in a car in the mall parking lot near Macy’s. Upon arriving, police located the car, parked in direct sunlight with the windows rolled up and a dog, panting and appearing to be in distress, stuck inside.

Officers got the dog out of the car; other than being overheated, the dog was not injured, police said. They added that at the time they got to the dog, the temperature inside the vehicle was estimated to be more than 90 degrees.

Rivera was issued an appearance ticket for court.

Photo: Dan Barton

A Kingston Police Department officer shot a man after the man pointed “what appeared to be a handgun” at officers responding to a burglary report at the Chase Bank in the Kingston Plaza late Thursday night, according to a release posted on the department’s Facebook page.

The release stated that at about 11:50 p.m. on May 28, officers received a report of a burglary in progress at the bank. When they got there, an officer, the release stated, “was confronted by a man who pointed what appeared to be a handgun at him. The confrontation ultimately led to the man being shot by the officer.”

According to the release, the man was taken to Albany Medical Center for treatment. The KPD stated that it’s asked the state police to investigate and that more information will be released when that investigation is finished. No further information was immediately available, including any on whether any police were injured in the encounter.

The state police have identified the man shot by a Kingston Police officer late Wednesday night as 18-year-old Alex Jeffries of Kingston.

According to troopers, who are running the investigation into the shooting at the request of the Kingston Police Department, KPD officers responding to a burglar alarm at the Chase bank at the Kingston Plaza saw, when they got there, someone fleeing the rear of the building. A KPD officer (whom the release did not name) stopped Jeffries. Jeffries, the state police stated, “displayed a weapon and the officer fired one round, striking Jeffries in the abdomen.”

Troopers stated Jeffries was then arrested and taken to Albany Med for surgery. “The injury is not expected to be life-threatening,” the release stated.

The KPD and the district attorney’s office asked the state police to take over the probe, the release stated. Troopers said state police investigators and the Troop F Forensic Investigation Unit processed the incident scene and conducted interviews.

Anyone who might have witnessed the incident or has information is asked to contact the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation at (845) 338-1777.

Shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday, May 28, the Kingston Police Department identified the officer who shot 18-year-old Alex Jeffries as Officer Steven Fellows, a decorated 22-year policeman and 14-year KPD veteran. Its release also stated that Fellows has been reassigned to “an administrative assignment” until the state police and Ulster County District Attorney’s Office finish the investigation into the incident.

According to troopers, who are running the investigation into the shooting at the request of the KPD, officers responding to a burglar alarm around midnight Wednesday at the Chase bank at the Kingston Plaza saw, when they got there, someone fleeing the rear of the building. A KPD officer (whom the state police release did not initially name) stopped Jeffries. Jeffries, the state police stated, “displayed a weapon and the officer fired one round, striking Jeffries in the abdomen.”

Troopers stated Jeffries was then arrested and taken to Albany Med for surgery. “The injury is not expected to be life-threatening,” the release stated.

Fellows was serving as senior officer on the 12-8 shift at the time of the incident, the Kingston police press release stated. It added that Fellows is a state-certified police field training officer and a general topics instructor and is also certified as an emergency vehicle operations course instructor.

In 1999, the release stated, the Town of Saugerties granted him its Dedicated Service Award. During his time in Kingston, he earned the KPD’s Distinguished Service Award in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

According to the release, Fellows is, “per Kingston Police Department practice,” under orders to not discuss the incident with the press or the public until the investigation is complete.

A Friday, May 29 undercover sting with cops posing as johns and using websites such as the infamous hooker-hookup site backpage.com resulted in four prostitution arrests – all of out-of-towners – and a man getting busted for pot, the Kingston Police Department and the Town of Ulster Police Department said.

According to police, the KPD’s Special Investigations Unit and the Ulster town police conducted the undercover detail targeting pay-for-play activity at local motels.

Arrested after, police allege, offering to perform sex acts for money were: Desirae M. Williams, 30, of Hyde Park; Dawn M. Busanet, 35, of Poughkeepsie; Kyla D. Blevins, 23, of Newburgh; and Christina L. Dayton, 33, of Marlboro. All four were charged with prostitution, a misdemeanor. Also arrested was a Washingtonville man, who was a friend of one of the suspects. Police, who labeled him a “suspicious male,” was found to have a small amount of weed on him and thus was charged with the violation of unlawful possession of marijuana.

Busanet and Dayton had outstanding warrants for their arrests – Busanet for petit larceny and Dayton for criminal trespass – and were turned over to Wappingers and Newburgh police. The rest were released with appearance tickets for Ulster Town Court.

Ismail Shabazz speaks at a 2013 rally protesting the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin. (Photo: Dan Barton)

A well-known Midtown Kingston community activist is accused of recruiting gang members into a black radical group, selling illegal guns and advocating violence against police in a case with roots in the four-decades long hunt for an alleged cop-killer from an earlier era of American radicalism.

But friends and neighbors of Ismail Shabazz say they don’t believe the 60-year-old grandfather — despite the sometimes-inflammatory rhetoric posted on his Facebook page — is a violent revolutionary.

Shabazz, previously known as Gary Faulkner, was arrested on Henry Street around 11 a.m. on Friday by FBI agents and Kingston police. A short time later, officers and agents swarmed around his home at 80 Prospect St., where a tattered red, black and green flag associated with the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s and ’70s hung from the porch. Inside, framed photos of ’60s-era black militants adorned the entryway.

It was inside the modest two-story home where, Ulster County prosecutors allege, Shabazz sold six illegal firearms to undercover federal agents. According to the district attorney’s office, Shabazz sold weapons on five separate occasions between May 2014 and May of this year. The sales allegedly included a pair of assault rifles, two loaded handguns, an unloaded revolver and a sawed-off shotgun with a defaced serial number. Cops say FBI surveillance picked up Shabazz discussing training members of the New Black Panther Party to disarm police officers and how the firearms he sold could be used to kill cops.

The alleged gun sales stemmed from an investigation that was, Carnright said, related to the ongoing hunt for 1960s radical and alleged cop-killer Assata Shakur. Shakur, also known as JoAnne Chesimard, was a member of the original Black Panther Party in the early 1970s. In 1977 she was convicted of the May 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. In November 1979, she escaped from prison, with help from members of a Black Panther Party offshoot. In 1984, she was granted asylum in Cuba, where she is believed to remain to this day. In 2013, she was added to the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list.

Shakur also became a cause célèbre in radical political circles. According to Carnright, Shabazz — who said he was a member of the original Black Panther Party as a teenager — was among her admirers. On his Facebook page Shabazz frequently referenced the fugitive and his support for the New Black Panther Party. In 2013, Shabazz attended a Harlem rally, organized by the NBPP, to support Shakur.

According to Carnright, it was apparently at this rally where Shabazz made contact with an undercover FBI operative. “They had feelers out in regard to [Shakur] and an FBI informant was introduced to him at a rally,” said Carnright. “Shabazz tried to recruit him into the New Black Panther Party and as a result the feds start an investigation, introductions are made and eventually you have the sale of the firearms.”

Carnright said that his office was involved in the case early on and worked in tandem with the FBI investigation. The probe was ongoing when, Carnright said, he discussed the possibility of bringing state-level weapons charges against Shabazz. Carnright said he was concerned that, given Shabazz’s volatile rhetoric and alleged efforts to recruit members of the Bloods street gang into the Black Panthers, authorities were running out of time.

Police leave Ismail Shabazz’s house on Prospect Street Friday afternoon. (Photo: Dan Barton)

“You have this person making a lot of noise about overt acts of violence against police officers and selling guns to felons,” said Carnright. “It got to a point where I said [to federal authorities], ‘We’ve got do something — are you going to make the move or am I?’ And they said we should go ahead with a state prosecution.”

On Friday afternoon, Shabazz was being processed at KPD headquarters and awaiting arraignment in Kingston City Court. He’s been charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a Class C felony. Carnright said that Shabazz may also face federal firearms charges.

Shabazz defended

But back at 80 Prospect St., friends and neighbors remained skeptical of the charges. They recalled Shabazz as a relentless critic of local police and an advocate for Kingston youth in their encounters with cops on the street. Several speculated that Shabazz’s militant rhetoric on Facebook may have drawn the attention of authorities.

“He’s very family-oriented, he goes to work, comes home, takes care of his wife and grandkids,” said neighbor Dawn Johnson. “I’ve never heard of him wanting to cause a ruckus with nobody.”

Tony Johnson, who said he was Shabazz’s nephew, said that he suspected that his uncle’s frequent denunciations of Kingston police and accusations of brutality and corruption may have sparked the investigation. Johnson circled the block on a bike shouting “free Ismail” as he passed a knot of cops on the sidewalk outside of 80 Prospect.

“He’s an outstanding citizen,” said Johnson. “He never said to attack any police, he just told us how dirty they are.”

Bryant Williams. (KPD photo)

According to Kingston police, a 22-year-old man burglarized and assaulted Wall Street resident on Sunday, July 5.

Bryant “BJ” Williams, 22, allegedly forced his way into Wall Street residence and assaulted a 38-year-old man. Another resident, a 21-year-old woman, had an order of protection against Williams, police said. After she called to report the assault, Williams took her cell phone to prevent her from calling the authorities and fled the residence, police said. The victim of the assault was sent to a local hospital and then transferred to Albany Med for treatment of a punctured lung, broken ribs and a broken jaw. He is in stable condition, police said.

At about 3:40 a.m. officers found Williams and arrested him. He was processed and held for arraignment on charges of first-degree burglary and second-degree assault, felonies, and second-degree criminal contempt and fourth-degree criminal mischief, misdemeanors.

Rodesia Jones. (KPD photo)

A Kingston woman is facing misdemeanor child endangerment charges after, police said, she let her child get into a fight with another kid, and stood by and watched the action.

According to the Kingston Police Department, on Tuesday, July 14, members of the KPD’s Special Investigations Unit got word that a fight was about to take place at 3 Garraghan Drive. Detectives arrived on scene, police said, to find 37-year-old Rodesia C. Jones amidst a group of juveniles. Police said Jones was letting her juvenile daughter “have a physical altercation” with another juvenile.

Police stepped in and broke up the fight immediately, they said, adding that no one was seriously injured. Jones was arrested and charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. She was processed and released with an appearance ticket for court.

A three-person scheme to shoplift from the Kohl’s in the Town of Ulster Saturday night didn’t go quite as planned, resulting in three arrests.

According to Town of Ulster police, at about 8:15 the evening of Saturday, Aug. 8, they received a report that a shoplifting incident involving multiple suspects was in progress at Kohl’s in the Dena Marie Plaza. When police got there, they discovered the suspects trying to escape in a silver SUV, but were able to stop the vehicle and two women were taken into custody. But, police said, a third male suspect ran away from them and then stole a 2001 Ford F-350 pickup from the parking lot. The suspect made his escape, fleeing onto Frank Sottile Boulevard, then to Route 32 south. Police said they called off the pursuit after the truck entered the City of Kingston, due to the suspect hitting another vehicle’s front bumper. (The occupants of the uninvolved vehicle were treated at the scene, police said.)

Police said a county-wide alert was issues for the vehicle and suspect; both were found by the New Paltz Police.

The probe is continuing, police said, adding that charges are pending for the alleged truck thief, Christopher Rega, 24, of Saugerties.

Arrested at the scene was Marianne K. Buboltz, 23, of Port Ewen. She was charged with felony fourth-degree grand larceny and misdemeanor fifth-degree conspiracy for, police allege, stealing merchandise with a value over $1,200, characterized by the police as mostly assorted clothing.

Charged with the misdemeanors of fourth-degree criminal facilitation and fifth-degree conspiracy was Catherine T. Buboltz, 22, of Port Ewen.

Both Buboltzes were arraigned in Ulster Town Court and sent to Ulster County Jail; Marianne on $10,000 bail and Catherine on $5,000 bail pending a future court appearance.

The survivor of an apparent suicide pact in Kingston has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of promoting a suicide attempt and will be sentenced next month to five years probation, the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.

The conviction of 63-year-old Paul Egan of West Chestnut Street stems from the death of Catherine Egan, his wife, due to complications from carbon monoxide poisoning at the couple’s home in Kingston on Jan. 12.

According to the DA’s office, Paul Egan, after entering into a suicide pact with his wife driven by depression and medical woes, stuffed clothing in a furnace ventilation duct allowing fumes to permeate throughout the house. A worried relative called the police, who arrived in time to save Paul Egan, but Catherine, 59, died a few days later in a Bronx hospital.

The Kingston Police Department is saying there’s no danger to the public after a 2:10 p.m. shooting on Monday, Dec. 7 left a 24-year-old male wounded.

According to a press release from the KPD, officers responded to a reports of a man being chased by “several individuals with a gun.” When they got to the area of Bruyn Avenue and O’Neil Street, they found the 24-year-old, with a gunshot wound to the upper body.

The victim. police said, was immediately taken to HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus. Police said he’s listed in stable condition.

The police said the shooting was directed solely at the victim and that they believe the public is not in danger at this time. They added that they were investigating numerous leads Monday evening.

Ramel Ruffin. (KPD photo)

Kingston police Wednesday night arrested the man they said pulled the trigger during the Monday, Dec. 7 altercation on a Midtown street that ended with gunfire which left one man wounded and residents of a nearby senior housing complex rattled.

The incident occurred around 2:10 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7 when Kingston police responded to a call about three men, one with a gun, chasing another male down the street. When police arrived at the corner of Bruyn Avenue and O’Neil Street, they found a 24-year-old man shot and wounded. Police say the three men assaulted the victim before one of them opened fire as he tried to flee. The victim sustained a gunshot wound to his arm; the bullet passed through his body before exiting his back. Two more rounds struck a nearby senior residence but nobody was injured by the stray bullets. By the time officers arrived, police said, the suspects had fled in a vehicle.

The KPD said that at about 9 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9, they arrested Ramel L. Ruffin, 18, who they believe fired the shots. Ruffin’s been charged with felony second-degree attempted murder and was, as of that night, being held awaiting arraignment.

On the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 8, police made their first arrest in the case. According to police, Alzaiah S. Jackson, 23 of St. James Street was not the gunman, but was one of the individuals involved in the initial assault on the victim. Police say Jackson struck the victim several times before one of his cohorts opened fire. Jackson is charged with misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree criminal facilitation and third-degree assault. He was arraigned in Kingston City Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail with no bail.

KPD Lt. Thierry Croizer said detectives believe the shooting was related to a prior altercation between the victim and the suspects. “These individuals were known to each other,” said Croizer. “There was some history there.”

Police say the investigation is continuing and more arrests are expected.