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SCHENECTADY
Deal leads to man’s guilty plea in cocaine case
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.com.

   Last-minute negotiations Monday led to a guilty plea in a drug and weapons case, and avoided a trial that raised the specter of calling a disgraced Schenectady police detective to the witness stand.
   James L. Outlaw, 37, admitted Monday afternoon in Schenectady County Court that he possessed cocaine intending to sell it. The case was one of 17 where a police investigation found drug evidence to be missing. It was also the last of the 17 to be resolved.
   Defense attorney James Davis and prosecutor Amy Burock worked out the deal after lunch, just before jury selection was to begin.
   The deal got past a major sticking point for Outlaw — the two guns he was accused of possessing, which he vehemently denied knowledge of, Davis said.
   The case was also complicated by the presence of former Schenectady police detective Jeffrey Curtis in the investigation and the nonpresence of 15 baggies of alleged crack cocaine and two bags of alleged powder cocaine in the trial. The evidence had disappeared from the police vice squad.
   Davis had vowed to call Curtis as a witness for the defense if the prosecution did not call him first. Curtis admitted in June to taking drug evidence in another case and he is suspected of taking evidence in the others, including Outlaw’s.
   “[Burock’s] happy with it and I’m happy with it,” Davis said of the deal. “The key to Outlaw was from the moment he made his confession to possessing the drugs, he denied knowing anything about the guns in the house. He was adamant about that.”
   The police drug scandal was sparked in January, after defendant Anthony Best pressed his drug case to trial. The 85 pieces of alleged crack cocaine tied to him had vanished. Curtis later admitted in court to taking them for personal use, pleading guilty to a felony.
   A subsequent state police review of evidence of city police vice squad cases found a total of 16 where drugs were missing, with 17 defendants affected.
   Outlaw’s plea marks the final defendant of the 17 to see his case resolved. Many were resolved before the scandal broke, attorneys apparently not checking the drugs.
   Prosecutors had pressed on in the Outlaw case, offering a plea deal, but arguing the prospect of Curtis testifying could be overcome. Two co-defendants had pleaded guilty to lesser crimes earlier.
   Prosecutors argued that Curtis could explain how evidence went missing, but not evidence that remained.
   Burock admitted Monday that it would have been difficult to relive the scandal at a trial. “However,” she said, “I don’t think that [Curtis’] involvement in the case changes the fact that the defendant was a drug dealer.
   “I think the jury would have seen the truth,” she said.
   Davis also admitted the drug charges would have been difficult to overcome. Police had a statement from Outlaw where he admitted to possessing them, Davis said.
   Outlaw was arrested in a Dec. 13, 2006, drug raid at 535 Seneca St. that police said uncovered 2.5 ounces of suspected crack cocaine, 6.86 grams of suspected powder cocaine, 17 small bags of marijuana and 21 Ecstasy pills, according to papers fi led in court then.
   Police said they also seized the two handguns, a .380-caliber Bryco and a 9mm Jennings.
   Missing, however, was a portion of the crack and powder cocaine. Curtis’ name was all over the paperwork filed in the case.
   Davis said he believed he could have gotten past the weapons counts, though. The guns were in a different part of the home.
   But even if he had beat the gun counts, a drug conviction could have brought the same sentence or a stiffer one, Davis said.
   Outlaw is to be sentenced Sept. 25 to eight years in state prison. The sentencing is to take place 10 days after Curtis is scheduled to be sentenced in his case. Curtis faces four years in state prison.  

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Senator Farley Obtains Funds for Schenectady Public Safety
The funding comes from reprogramming of the unexpended balance of federal law enforcement grants allocated to the State Senate in 2004


Friday, July 13, 2007

State Senator Hugh T. Farley (R,C - Schenectady) has obtained $165,000 for public safety programs in the City of Schenectady, most of which will be used to expand surveillance camera coverage to additional neighborhoods.

"Video cameras in public spaces have proven to be valuable crime deterrents in other communities," Senator Farley said, "and I am pleased to cooperate with State and local law enforcement agencies to help Schenectady expand its current surveillance network."

"Schenectady's camera surveillance project is proving so effective in preventing and fighting crime that it is considered a model program for New York and the nation. Thanks to Senator Farley's continued partnership and generous support, we are expanding the camera project to more areas of our city," said Mayor Brian U. Stratton.

The cameras and their support network will cost $102,000, which will be administered by the Schenectady County District Attorney's Office. The Schenectady Police Department will receive $59,000 to cover personnel costs associated with the surveillance program and with a parallel initiative to expedite the serving of arrest warrants. The Schenectady County Sheriff and the Probation Department will each receive $2,000 as part of the warrant initiative. The Schenectady County Legislature accepted the funds on Tuesday night.

The funding comes from reprogramming of the unexpended balance of federal law enforcement grants allocated to the State Senate in 2004. Since the federal funds must be expended by this September, the Senate cooperated with the State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) in selecting a project which can be immediately implemented.

The Schenectady County District Attorney's Office previously announced the funding allocated to County agencies, but did not identify that a large portion of it is coming from the State Senate. Senator Farley also obtained a $25,000 member item in the 2007-08 State budget for cameras in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood.

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SCHENECTADY
Vice squad to merge into new offi ce
Official says move not linked to scandal
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

   The Schenectady Police Department’s Vice Squad will soon be reduced in size and merged with another group in the department, officials said Thursday.
   The embattled squad will be merged with the department’s relatively new Office of Field Intelligence and become the Special Investigation Office, Assistant Chief Michael Seber said.
   Seber said he sees more focus on mid- and upper-level dealers, by sharing information more closely.
   “The idea is to work in unison,” Seber said, “strategizing about more targets.”
   But the net effect will be a reduction of positions assigned to the vice squad. Six squad members will move to the new office, a seventh will move to the detective division. Three other open vice squad posts will not be filled. The squad had not been at full strength for some time, Seber said.
   The new office will also work the day shift rather than the vice squad’s old day and evening shift format. Investigations would be extended to the evening as needed, Seber said.
   Seber said he sees the move as consolidation. “This is a move to better arm detectives with information and better coordinate within the department,” Seber said.
   Seber also said the move came out of the Operation IMPACT work the department has been doing in recent years and is not a reaction to this year’s scandal involving a former vice squad member.
   The squad has lost two members this year to the scandal, one to criminal charges, the other to internal charges.
   The squad’s day side supervisor, Daniel Diamond, returned to work last week after being out since February on administrative leave. He was demoted from sergeant to patrolman. Authorities, however, characterized the demotion as not related to the conduct of former vice squad member Jeffrey Curtis.
   Curtis admitted in June to stealing drugs from the department’s evidence locker for personal use. He is suspected of taking drugs from more than a dozen cases.
   He retired in March, just days after his arrest. He is to be sentenced next month to four years in state prison.
   On Thursday, a woman linked to Curtis and his drug use admitted to drug possession in court.
   Heather Martin, 36, admitted to possessing crack cocaine at 1336 Hodgson St. with 58-year-old codefendant George Finney. Finney’s case remains pending.
   Curtis’ drug activity was linked to the home, authorities have said.
   In return for her plea to thirddegree criminal possession of a controlled substance, Martin was placed in a drug treatment program. There was also a cooperation agreement.
   The drug scandal placed a cloud over the vice squad and over the police department. Each member of the squad submitted to multiple drug tests after the scandal broke in January. Curtis’ test came back positive for a high level of drug use, authorities said previously.
   The scandal resulted in tighter controls over evidence and reductions in the number of officers who have access to it. The scandal also helped usher in a return of a public safety commissioner for the city. Wayne Bennett was appointed to the post in April, responsible for overseeing the police and fi re departments.
   Seber, however, said the move toward consolidation had been in the works since last year as part of Operation IMPACT. It is also a reflection on the department’s current manpower shortage.
   The Office of Field Intelligence was formed under the operation. Two city police detectives, along with an assistant district attorney, sheriff’s sergeant, parole and probation officers are assigned to the office at city police headquarters.
   There will now be a total of eight city police officers assigned to the new offi ce.
   The new officers will be assigned to days, Seber said, to prevent time in court from going on overtime. Some members are in court two or three days each week, he said.
   Shifts will be extended as needed. But, Seber said, drug sellers should not let their guard down outside day shift hours.
   “Anyone selling drugs in the city of Schenectady should be worried regardless of the hours detectives work,” Seber said. “Intelligence will be gathered 24 hours a day and seven days a week. We will deploy detectives as the investigation requires.”
   City police union head Lt. Robert Hamilton did not return a phone call for comment Thursday.  

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Probation officer, teacher face drug charges
3 arrested in incident on Putnam Street in city
BY TATIANA ZARNOWSKI Gazette Reporter

   A Schenectady County probation officer, a math teacher at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School and a Greenfield man are facing drug charges after their early morning arrests in Saratoga Springs over the weekend.
   Stephen A. Farina III, 30, of 1242 Viewpoint Drive, Niskayuna, was fired from his job as a probation officer after being charged with a single felony count each of possessing a narcotic drug and possessing a narcotic drug with intent to deliver on Putnam Street just after 3 a.m. Saturday.
   He was a probation officer for less than a year, according to Schenectady County Attorney Chris Garner.
   Saratoga Springs police said Farina was found with 4.9 grams of white powder that tested positive for cocaine and a hand-rolled marijuana cigarette.
   He also allegedly resisted arrest Saturday on Lena Lane, struggling with police as they tried to handcuff him. He faces a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest and a violation count of unlawful possession of marijuana.
   He was released on bail, set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond.
   Farina appeared in City Court on Tuesday and is next scheduled to appear Sept. 18.
   Police said with Farina when he was arrested was Bret C. Weise, 32, of 1904 Baker Ave., Niskayuna, who was charged with a single misdemeanor count of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Police said he had cocaine on him.
   Weise taught math at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School starting in 1998, said district spokeswoman Christy Multer.
   He resigned from his job this week, Superintendent Jim Schultz said Thursday in a statement.
   “I am disappointed that one of our heretofore valued professionals is involved in a situation like this in another city, particularly when we have an expectation of zero tolerance regarding illegal substances on our campus,” Schultz said in the statement. “We have been pleased with our association with Mr. Weise over the past nine years, and we wish him well in his new endeavors.”
   Weise was released on $500 cash bail or $1,000 bond and appeared in court Thursday. His next appearance is scheduled for Sept. 20.
   Schultz said a substitute or retired teacher likely will pitch in until the district hires a permanent replacement for Weise.
   The third man charged in connection with the Saturday incident was Robert P. Faith, 22, of 46 Wil- ton Road, Greenfield Center. He was charged with a misdemeanor count of criminal possession of marijuana and posted $500 bail.
   Police said he was holding a burning hand-rolled marijuana cigarette on Putnam Street.  

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SCHENECTADY
Woman endures 4-hour attack
Police arrest alleged rapist
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

   Assaulted for an estimated four hours in the woods of Vale Cemetery on Thursday, the victim saw her chance to free herself when she spotted a police car driving nearby.
   The patrol cars were in the area investigating reports of a woman screaming and a man yelling at her.
   The woman screamed again and ran toward the officers. She covered herself as she ran, according to an account in court papers.
   Police soon tracked down her alleged attacker, whom they identified as 59-year-old ex-convict David Jones Jr., and charged him with first-degree rape.
   He was being held Friday at the Schenectady County Jail.
   A prosecutor said Friday she is also reviewing rape accusations made against Jones in 1993, looking for similarities in the accounts.
   The victim in Thursday’s attack told police she had been walking in Vale Cemetery around 4:30 p.m. Friday when a man on a bicycle approached, police department spokesman Capt. Peter Frisoni said.
   “He dropped the bike and dragged her into the woods,” Frisoni said. “He then proceeded to rape her.”
   Jones told the woman to do what he said and she wouldn’t get hurt, according to papers.
   The attack lasted for four hours, authorities said. It only ended when a resident on Maple Avenue heard the commotion and summoned police.
   It was Officer Dwayne Johnson who first encountered the woman. He heard her yelling in the heavily wooded area. She then came running out toward him, according to police reports.
   She told the officer she had been taken into the woods and raped. Her attacker, she said, was still there.
   Johnson then placed the woman in his patrol car and went into the woods himself. He soon found a pair of pants and three shoes, one of which was the woman’s.
   The woman was taken to Ellis Hospital and treated for injuries she suffered in the attack, Frisoni said.
   Officers called in a K-9 unit and Lt. Jason Temple of the sheriff’s department responded with his dog Duke.
   The dog, however, couldn’t get a scent track, Temple said. He soon began checking backyards on Moyston Street. A man without shoes — Jones — soon came out and surrendered, Temple said.
   He followed all directions and gave his name. “That’s why he didn’t get bit by the dog,” Temple said.
   The arrest was not Jones’ first. The accusations were also not the first accusations of rape made against him, records show.
   Jones spent about nine years in prison on a six- to 12-year sentence for a 1994 Schenectady burglary conviction.
   Jones was accused then of breaking into Davidson Dormitory at Union College, stealing a watch and a bottle of vodka, newspaper accounts said. He was confronted by dorm residents, who held him until police arrived.
   The burglary happened on the same day as Jones was released from custody after a grand jury found there was not enough evidence to indict him on charges related to an August 1993 rape, according to newspaper accounts.
   In that case, he was accused of grabbing a woman by the throat in the early morning hours, choking her and throwing her to the ground in a parking lot. He then was accused of forcing her to take off her clothes and raping her, according to the account.
   The account also refers to accusations from July 1993 that Jones allegedly raped a woman in a vacant lot off State Street. The outcome of those allegations could not be determined.
   Prosecutor Andra Ackerman, chief of the Special Victims Bureau of the District Attorney’s Office, said Friday she was aware of the previous accusations and had ordered the fi les.
   She said she’ll be comparing them, looking for similarities with the current case. Ackerman said she was unsure of the exact outcomes of the old rape charges.
   Jones, however, ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony burglary count related to the Union College breakin. He was released in 2001, then returned to prison in 2004 on a parole violation. He was released again in 2005 and is no longer on parole, state officials said.  

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Maybe we'll have Jessica's Law by then

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You know, if they didn't wait until October 1st to push the sex offendors out of Schenectady and into Rotterdam and beyond, this person could have been living in a house right around any of us.  There's plenty of graveyards around here this actually could have happened in.  I do feel sorry for this woman that this happened to her.  I am glad that this was not someone in my own family who this happened to.  Actually, the thing is, since this guy wasn't actually convicted before, he would not have been pushed out of Schenectady yet.  We would be safe...until he gets out of jail and Koiurs Law is in full effect.  Maybe we'll have Jessica's Law by then, instead.