A month after getting exercised about five police officers accused of beating up a drunk driver, Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton isn’t saying a word about a report that the city hired a private investigator to check up on four vice squad members it suspected of goofing off on the job. What’s going on here? The news report eight days ago contained details like the cops’ names and where they’ve allegedly gone (a gym and restaurant in Colonie) when they were supposed to be working, but Stratton and won’t even confirm such an investigation exists. And all Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden will say is that confirming an ongoing investigation’s existence might compromise it; moreover, if the information proved incorrect, the city could get sued. Well, it would be one thing if the news wasn’t already out, but somebody leaked it to the Times Union newspaper. If it’s not true, the city should deny it, lest everyone assume that it is. And as far as the city getting sued, that shouldn’t happen if the allegations are true. Even if it won’t confirm the names, officials should at least acknowledge the investigation’s existence. That the mayor refuses to do so, only a month after he responded to a similar leak by providing the names of the cops, suspending them, threatening to fire them, then referring to them as “thugs” at a swearing-in ceremony for new hires, seems like an alarming contradiction for someone who has supposedly made cleaning up the police department a top priority.
10 will take exam for police chief First published: Wednesday, February 6, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- Ten police command staff will take next month's civil service examination for the city's vacant police chief job.
The field includes the three assistant police chiefs. The test is scheduled for March 8. Five others applied for the exam, but were disqualified because they didn't meet the educational requirements, county officials said. Schenectady County spokeswoman Theresa Cassiack said Tuesday the county will not release the names to protect the applicants' privacy. By law, if all the assistant chiefs pass the test, Mayor Brian U. Stratton must select one of them for the job. Former Police Chief Michael Geraci left in November to work for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington, D.C. -- Lauren Stanforth
SCHENECTADY 10 approved to take chief’s exam Secrecy surrounds identities of most candidates BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
A total of 10 candidates to be Schenectady’s next police chief have been approved to take the civil service exam next month, civil service officials confi rmed Wednesday. Three of the candidates are to take the promotional exam. They are believed to be the department’s three current assistant chiefs, Mark Chaires, Michael Seber and Jack Falvo. The seven other candidates are to take the open exam. They all hail from around the state. None currently hold positions outside New York, Schenectady County Personnel Administrator Kathleen Heap said. Heap said she could not release the identities of any of the candidates, citing civil service rules. A total of 15 applications were received for the open exam. Of those, seven were approved. One of the seven is believed to be Amsterdam Police Department Detective Lt. Thomas DiMezza, a 30-year veteran of law enforcement. DiMezza confirmed his interest Wednesday, and his resume appears to pass experience requirements that Heap said tripped up the applicants who were rejected. However, none of the applicants have been officially notified that they were accepted or rejected, Heap said. Rejection letters were expected to go out today with acceptance letters to go out later. The deadline to file was Tuesday. Other potential applicants could not be determined Wednesday. The chief’s exams have been slated for March 8. The location of the exams has yet to be determined. The tests are expected to take two months to score, with a new chief appointment not expected until summer. The open exam would only come into play if one or more of the department’s assistant chiefs failed the exam, officials have said. The applicants are vying to help run a department that has been wracked by scandal in recent years. Five officers remain suspended with pay while an alleged December beating of a suspect is being investigated. A detective was also sent to prison last year after admitting to taking drug evidence. The department has been without a chief since October. That’s when Michael N. Geraci Sr. left to take a job with the federal government. Since then, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett has been running the department with the three assistant chiefs. The position is advertised at a salary of $115,000, an increase from the $109,000 Geraci was to make this year. All three of the current assistant chiefs have vied for the top spot before. In the 2002 search that ended with Geraci’s selection, Falvo served as interim chief, while Chaires made the short list of three top candidates selected by then-Commissioner Daniel Boyle. Bennett has said he wanted to cast a wide net, sending the civil service posting to the state sheriff’s associations, to state troopers throughout the state, and to the state chiefs of police, including retired chiefs. He’s hoping to find someone with extensive experience in an urban setting — not a rural or suburban environment like Geraci’s background. While Heap could not identify the applicants by name, she did release some demographic information that does not appear to refl ect some of Bennett’s preferences. Each of the seven candidates comes from a police department. Though the Schenectady department is currently headed by a commissioner who had been a lifelong member of the state police, none of the seven applicants currently hold positions with the state police, Heap said. Also, none of them come from large departments in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse or Albany, Heap said. “It was pretty much all over the state,” she said. “Some were from downstate, some local and some came from the middle of the state.” Several of the rejected applicants did not have the required years of experience in “third line” supervisory positions. (First-line supervisors are those who oversee offi cers directly.) Those rejected on that ground included sergeants and even officers, Heap said. The secrecy behind the candidate names appears to extend to Bennett himself. Bennett said Wednesday even he had not been informed who they were. He said he had heard some rumors, but he declined to say what.
Man accused of lying about crash Schenectady police say story of cop running red light was false
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published: Friday, February 15, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- A Niskayuna man who was a passenger in a vehicle that plowed into an on-duty patrol officer's car last month, injuring him, has been charged with lying about the crash, according to authorities. Early Jan. 11, Franklin Longo was a passenger in a car driven by Aaron Kopp that hit Officer Darren Lawrence's cruiser at the intersection of Union and Lafayette streets near police headquarters.
Longo, 23, is charged with making a punishable false written statement. He surrendered to police on Thursday, was arraigned and released pending a court appearance. Longo initially said Lawrence ran a red light at 60 mph, according to Police Benevolent Association President Lt. Robert Hamilton. But a combination of audio and video surveillance footage from the dashboard-mounted camera of the officer's car and the department's accident reconstruction team showed Lawrence was actually going about 5 mph and had the green light, Hamilton said. He said the Longo case highlights the high number of groundless accusations against officers. "Our officers are sick and tired of being falsely accused of wrongdoing, and the PBA will be investigating any complaints where someone has lied about the actions of officers," Hamilton said. Earlier this month, the Civilian Complaint Review Board disclosed that nearly 40 percent of the complaints were for being rude, while about 27 percent were for excessive force. The board says it agreed with the department's ruling on complaints in all but two of the 44 cases, and that around 43 percent of complaints last year lacked evidence because of faulty or inactive video equipment in police cars. The panel reviews complaints against city officers that are investigated by the department's Office of Professional Services. Lawrence suffered neck and back injuries and hasn't yet been medically cleared to return to work. He is the same officer who grabbed headlines in October for allegedly leaving the scene of an accident on the Northway and then fighting with his passenger over whether to report what happened. The disposition of that case could not be determined Thursday. Kopp, 23, also of Niskayuna, has been charged with driving while intoxicated, aggravated driving while intoxicated and running a red light, said police spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen. The case has been adjourned until July 22, according to City Court officials. At the time of the crash, Kopp's blood alcohol level registered 0.18 percent, more than twice the threshold for DWI, officials said. Paul Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.
It's just too bad that this is what it has all come to. Criminals catching criminals. (in some cases)
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
SCHENECTADY Bennett: Police dept. leadership failed Official says changes at department ‘long, long overdue’ BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The Police Department now has policies in place for everything from handling informants to locking up drugs, in response to a scathing grand jury report. But all the procedures in the world won’t stop officers from breaking the rules if they want to, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said Tuesday. So he’s relying on his new captains to supervise their offi cers and keep them on the straight and narrow, he told the Schenectady City Council in a presentation on his actions following the grand jury’s report. “I’m asking them to have courage as supervisors to search out and find out if the improvements are indeed being made and people are being held accountable,” he said after the presentation. “I have great confidence that people like [new Capt.] Peter Frisoni represent the future of the Police Department. He represents what change is all about.” He told the council that many of the department’s scandals began with shoddy supervision, going back as far as the 2002 conviction of four officers in a federal probe on the mishandling of informants by paying them with drug evidence, and tipping informants off to drug raids. Far from not noticing the problem, supervisors praised the officers for arresting so many drug dealers. “You see where the failure was: supervision,” Bennett said. He said supervisors should have asked, “Where are they getting all these drug arrests? By the way, do these guys have any registered confidential informants? Boy, these guys are awfully lucky.” CLOSE SUPERVISION expects to start by the end of the year. But his main focus is on the supervisors, who need to watch for signs of misbehavior, he said. Among other issues, he wants them to check on officers who charge many people with resisting arrest, saying that the offi cer is probably to blame. To help the supervisors keep track of their charges, vice squad members — who are now members of the Special Investigations Unit — must document their time and specify what they’re working on each day. All officers must also sign in and out each day with an actual time, rather than just an “X” — a practice that Bennett said he couldn’t believe. “This isn’t a Civil War payroll of people who don’t know how to read, write and spell,” he said. Bennett has also posted 27 cameras throughout the police department, including in the evidence room. “They’re literally all over the building,” Bennett said. “You’re on Candid Camera.” The cameras record to a DVD in a locked area, which can only be opened by two people whose identities have been kept secret, Bennett said. He has also severely restricted access to various areas of the building. Until recently, members of other agencies and some retirees could still walk through the back door of the police department and current officers could access areas that they don’t need to get into, Bennett said. The evidence room is now among the most secure areas of the department, he said. The door can be opened only with a key and a keypad code. The four evidence technicians have the code and the three supervisors have the key, so no one can walk in on his own, Bennett said. The room used to be filled with piles of contraband, making it difficult to find anything. Now neat cabinets are lined up along the walls, with separate locked boxes for each piece of evidence. Locked bags hold rifles, which used to be carelessly shoved into barrels, Bennett said. Everything is barcoded, making it easy to find. “It’s head and shoulders above what used to be there. Long, long overdue,” Bennett said. DRUG TESTING He also started strictly enforcing the drug-testing policy, ending a quiet practice in which officers could be warned in time to avoid a test, he said. Only one supervisor now gets the names of the randomly chosen officers, who are now informed of their test as soon as they arrive at work. They are immediately taken to Ellis Hospital by an internal affairs officer, who witnesses the test. The grand jury recommended that change because Detective Jeffrey Curtis, who was convicted of drug crimes, hid his crack cocaine habit by taking days off whenever he was supposed to have a surprise drug test. He returned to work when he had cleared his system of the drug, Bennett said. Officers have also been given detailed rules for handling confi - dential informants, following the grand jury’s revelation that such rules had not been implemented after the 2002 informant misuse case. “Our policy went from four pages to 11,” Bennett said. “It covers literally every area the grand jury asked us to implement.” There are now guidelines on when to use informants and the informant’s background is reviewed every year to determine whether he or she should still be used. The informants must also sign a written agreement that includes rules about what they can’t do, and at least two officers must be present at every meeting with informants. The offi cers must document those meetings as well. Bennett has also implemented the grand jury’s recommendations for search warrant operations. An evidence technician now takes photographs of every room before and after each search, as well as photographing contraband when it is found. The only grand jury recommendation that he hasn’t implemented is a proposal to keep together all evidence from each case. The department’s newly reorganized evidence room separates types of evidence, with drugs in one area and firearms in another. But he’s taken every other suggestion to heart. “We’re in real good shape, we really are,” he said. The last recommendation to be implemented will be the elimination of a drop-box evidence safe by the sergeant’s desk. A new storage locker is expected to arrive on Feb. 25 with individual, locking slots so that evidence can be turned in without offering access to other evidence.
Bar codes to track evidence Schenectady maintains chain of evidence for drugs after scandal
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- A new bar code system to track evidence is the centerpiece of an effort expected to dramatically improve the way city cops handle and track seized drugs and other contraband, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said Tuesday night. The bar codes, providing a chain of custody, will be in addition to other changes, including limiting access to evidence storage area and constant video surveillance of those lockers, Bennett told city council members.
Bennett also detailed other changes in policies and procedures related to the department's drug testing policy, the use of confidential informants, case management and the supervision of narcotics investigations. The administrative changes -- largely patterned after the way the State Police operate -- are the police department's answer to November's highly critical grand jury report that said lax supervision led to a broken system ripe for abuse. Bennett, during his PowerPoint presentation, showed stills of the old, messy, cramped evidence room and what the new individual locker system will look like once it arrives in March. "It's professional, it's organized, and it cuts down on time a person needs to locate documents ... it's just head and shoulders above what used to be there, it's long overdue," he said. Officers will no longer find out in advance about random drug or chemical tests. They will now only find out after reporting to work, and then be accompanied by a member of the Office of Professional Standards until the test is given. Bennett reiterated his support of taking hair samples for drug testing, but said that's an issue that needs to be negotiated with the police union. It was an higher than normal hair sample reading that led to the arrest of vice squad Officer Jeffrey Curtis, who later admitted he stole narcotics to feed his drug habit and is serving prison time. Bennett said he was "shocked" to learn there was no department policy on the possession and use of illegal drugs and that officers put an X to show they had worked that day. Now there is both a policy and officers must sign their names. Confidential informants will undergo strict background checks and their files will be reviewed annually. Bennett said he also hopes to have a departmentwide case management system. Afterward, Bennett said he agreed with virtually all the grand jury's recommendations. "With very few exceptions, we followed all the recommendations," he said. Bennett said past problems with the force stemmed from a failure to routinely review its policies to make sure they were working. Mayor Brian U. Stratton called the changes a "real set of strong guidelines" that will hopefully prevent a repeat of the Curtis debacle. Paul Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.
Oh I wouldn't be too surprised if the PBA pres. isn't involved in this somewhere!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Since taking over as Schenectady Public Safety Commissioner last year, Wayne Bennett has sounded like someone who is serious about the daunting challenge he has undertaken: cleaning up a police department that has become an embarrassment to the city. He promised changes, and before the city council Tuesday night he revealed many of them. They seem feasible and common-sensical — and, notably, did not have to be negotiated with the union. In the past, we’ve suggested that the contract has been used as an all-purpose excuse for managerial inaction by the administration of the police department and city. Bennett didn’t oversell his reforms. He said that all the policies in the world will mean nothing unless there are supervisors willing to enforce them, which is certainly true. But before, in too many cases, there wasn’t even a policy, or at least one good enough to discourage abuses. Name a scandal — and there have been many involving this police department in recent years, such as cops shaking down drug dealers and using the drugs as currency with informants, tipping informants off to drug raids, stealing drugs from the evidence locker, working two hours and saying they worked a full shift — and you’ll find policies that allowed, if not encouraged, them to misbehave. On top of this was a lack of supervision. The officers did these things because it was easy to, and because they thought nobody was watching. And they were right. Bennett has a bunch of new policies — including ones for dealing with informants, handling and storing confiscated drugs, and drug testing of police — that the grand jury called for after the investigation of the crack-addicted Detective Jeffrey Curtis. Other police agencies routinely have these policies and, if followed, they will help. But that’s a big if. As Bennett pointed out, it will depend on supervisors who have the courage and integrity to do the right thing when they see guys under them doing the wrong thing. And not only see when they can’t avoid seeing, but actively watch. Bennett cites one of the supervisors, Capt. Peter Frisoni, as just the right person for the job. We have less confidence in Frisoni, based on the fact that it was his bachelor party that evolved into the infamous bar-hopping/eggthrowing/racial epithet incident 10 years ago (we don’t know whether Frisoni himself was involved, but we have never heard him deny it or express any remorse.) There was also his frequent uninformativeness when he was the department’s public information officer. But people can change, and we hope Bennett is right in his assessment of Frisoni. Police departments can also change —not only in terms of policies but culture — and we’d like to think that Schenectady’s can, although the past offers plenty of reason to doubt. With Bennett obviously serious about reform, this is the last real chance. If he fails, something more radical, like dissolving the department and starting over, will be necessary.
SCHENECTADY Deputy becomes like cop on the beat downtown BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
David Miller thought he was just going to provide security for the county buildings, and deal with irate residents or drunks at the DMV. But he has inadvertently become one of the downtown’s most recognizable beat cops, even though his uniform and motorized Segway are issued by the county. Business owners love him, and not just because he’s easy to spot on his distinctive ride. The sheriff’s deputy started out just gliding through the downtown streets on his way from one county office to the next. Then a business owner flagged him down to help with a shoplifter. Another owner asked him to disperse loiterers. A third man had locked his keys in his car. Soon Miller found himself essentially patrolling the downtown just as the city police do. To his surprise, the business community noticed. When his Air National Guard unit went to Iraq in 2006, business owners quickly tried to organize a goodbye party. Miller didn’t know about it, so he left before it could be arranged. Adirondack Take Out owner John Bendick told Miller about the party when he got back. He apologized for setting it up too late. Miller was just amazed they’d thought about him at all. “I had no idea they even knew who I was,” he said. Business owners said they noticed him right away. And they’re glad to have him. They said it’s great that the county is helping to patrol an area that is still viewed as dangerous, even though stastically it’s one of the safest areas of the city. “Any time we see a police offi cer go by, the perception of downtown changes,” said JoAnn Sifo, owner of Chez Daisie on Jay Street. “It is a safe place to be but there’s that perception.” And although some owners chuckle at the Segway — particularly when he takes it the wrong way down Jay Street — Sifo said it makes sense. “I think it’s a fabulous idea because he can cover more ground,” she said. “He can get there faster.” Owners also said they appreciate the fact that he shoos away the loiterers who gather around Center City — a job Miller says never ends. “The biggest problem downtown I see is the people hanging outside Center City,” he said. “You can tell people to move on, but as soon as you leave they come back.” He added that he talked it over with the city police, who assured him he was offering a valuable service just by walking through the area. “They said just the presence is important,” Miller said. BREAK IN ROUTINE Even though he’s rarely needed in a serious case, the incidents he deals with on his travels are a lot more interesting than the work inside county buildings, he said. “None of it’s exciting,” he said. “I have the most problems at DMV — once a guy with a restricted license for drinking and driving showed up to get his license back and he was drunk, so they called me. He agreed to take a Breathalyzer, he was drunk, that was that.” But in his out-of-doors work, Miller has chased down shoplifters, whom he detains until city police arrive. He’s never yet had to use his handcuffs and police usually arrive quickly, he said. Every so often, he needs the muscles he’s built while biking and walking during bad weather, when it’s not safe to use the Segway. “A guy tried to pull a knife on a person behind Center City,” he said. “I ended up getting up onto the railroad tracks trying to get him. I had the bike with me so that was tough, but I got it up there.” The man got away from him, but another deputy caught him in the Stockade, Miller said. The outdoor work has him patrolling alongside city police, but he said there’s been no arguments over territory. In past years, there have been complaints that deputies were treading on city police turf. A deputy said city police were slashing her tires to get her back for patrolling in the city at night. Miller said he thought the problems were caused by the former police administration, not the officers. “We’ve actually walked a bit together,” he said of the city’s downtown beat cops. “These guys, there’s no problem. A lot of the younger guys used to work for us.” Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said he welcomes Miller and any other law enforcement personnel who have spare time to spend patrolling city streets. “The more people are out on the street, the better the people are served,” Bennett said. “We don’t have an issue with it. He’s performing a useful duty.” He added that the city has no right to keep other law enforcement out even if the police wanted it that way. “We don’t have exclusive jurisdiction to the city. The [state] troopers can patrol the city,” Bennett said. “The sheriff has jurisdiction in the city. It’s part of the county.” But County Sheriff Harry Buffardi was quick to stress that Miller isn’t assigned to patrol the downtown. “He roves between office buildings. That’s why it looks like we’re patrolling downtown. We’re not,” he said. “But if we see something, we react.” Deputy David Miller of the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Department keeps an eye on things Friday at the county DMV office in downtown Schenectady. Miller, gliding through downtown on his county-issued Segway, has become a familiar presence appreciated by business owners. BRUCE SQUIERS/ GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE Sch’dy cops pitch in for colleague Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
I’m happy to discover after so many years of fault-finding on my part that the Schenectady police are a decent and compassionate lot, at least among themselves. Case in point: One of their number, Joseph McCabe, suffered the unspeakable loss last September of the death of his wife in childbirth, leaving him with a small son, plus the newborn. It’s the kind of loss I can hardly imagine myself — a horribly sad and tragic thing. How was he to manage? Well, his fellow officers got together and began donating to him their vacation time, their sick time, and their compensatory time so he could stay home and care for his children, with the result that he has hardly had to work since the tragedy of Sept. 4. He has reported for duty just a couple of days, part-time, to keep his hand in, which Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett thinks is a good idea, just as he thinks it’s fine and proper for the other officers to donate their time to him. Bennett assures me the offi cers do not and cannot donate time from their bank for catastrophic illness, which is good, since that would clearly be a misuse. And he also assures me that officers who have unlimited sick time, meaning those who were hired before 1995, cannot donate any of their infinitude of sick time either, which is surely a good thing too. I do have some reservations about the donation of sick time, but I will not be so mean-spirited as to quibble about it. Officers hired after Jan. 1, 1995, are allowed 15 sick days a year for their fi rst 15 years and 18 days a year thereafter, with the understanding they can take those days off only if they are actually sick. By donating them to someone else to stay home and take care of his children, they ensure that those days are used, at a loss to the city, and not precisely for sickness, but as I say, I won’t quibble. Commissioner Bennett thinks it OK, and that’s good enough for me. He tells me it’s standard practice in state government, which may not be the most rigorous measure in the world, but what the hey. There can be no quibble about the donation of vacation and comp time. Schenectady cops get 25 to 28 vacation days a year after fi ve years on the job, depending on how long they have been employed, and surely the understanding is that all those days will be used. If a guy gives them away, he makes an unquestioned sacrifice. And they are allowed an hour of time off — comp time — for every hour of overtime they work, up to a maximum of 480 hours a year, and again the understanding is that all that time will be taken. If a guy gives his time away, it’s his sacrifice. McCabe’s stepfather, John Matarazzo, tells me the officers have donated enough time that McCabe will not have to work for a year. It’s a fine and gracious thing the cops are doing, and I salute them for it, even if I sometimes wish they would be more gracious with the civilians they encounter in their jobs. WORD WATCH In the Metaphor Mixer we have the report from The New York Times that “some economists see a slow-burning economic unraveling playing out,” which I like. And we have the headline in the Times Union, “Red ink in Colonie spurs hue and cry,” which also is not bad.
Police: Shooting victim offering little information February 28, 2008 Updated 4:02 p.m. By Steven Cook (Contact) Gazette Reporter
Photographer: Marc Schultz Schenectady police are still searching for the people involved in a shooting this morning in the city. This Nissan Pathfinder, with its rear window smashed by a bullet, was found abandoned at the corner of Glenwood Boulevard and Union Street shortly before noon.
SCHENECTADY — The victim of this morning shooting was identified by police late this afternoon as a local man. Robert Daniels, who is in his late 20s, was driving an SUV on Morris Avenue just before noon when he was shot in the arm. His assailants fled, their car found abandoned in Niskayuna. Police were waiting for a search warrant before looking inside the vehicle, police said. Daniels drove the SUV blocks away to Union Street and Glenwood Boulevard, where he hit a light pole and fled, police spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen said.
Daniels ended up on Maryland Avenue, a block away, where he got a ride to Ellis Hospital from a Good Samaritan. A puddle of blood was found on Maryland Avenue. Daniels was conscious and alert at the hospital, but had yet to give police anything of substance, Kilcullen said. “He hasn’t offered us much to go on,” Kilcullen said. Meanwhile, Daniels was also issued two tickets, one count of aggravated unlicensed operation, a misdemeanor, and one for leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. Police also believe there was a passenger in Daniels’ car. That passenger was not believed to have been hit. He has not been found. Police initially responded to a report that a car hit a utility pole on Union Street near Glenwood Boulevard just before noon. Arriving officers found blood in the car but no victim at the scene. Niskayuna Police spotted a vehicle matching the shooter’s car in Niskayuna, giving chase briefly, Kilcullen said. The car was soon found abandoned at Hillcrest Village East. The discovery set off an intense search for two suspects in the area, prompting lockouts at Craig Elementary School and Niskayuna High.
Colonie man charged with killing former girlfriend February 29, 2008 Updated 11:48 a.m. By Justin Mason (Contact), Mark Robarge (Contact) Gazette Reporter
Photographer: Ana Zangroniz Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton, second from left, and city police officers speak with a man, second from right, believed to be a resident at 841 Stanley St., where a dead body was found early Friday.
SCHENECTADY — Police have charged a Colonie man with the murder of a former girlfriend whose body was found early this morning in a Stanley Street house. City police spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen said Richard R. Heinze Jr., 35, of 21A Ulinsky Drive, was arraigned this morning in City Court on a charge of second-degree murder and sent to the Schenectady County jail without bail. Heinze is due to return to court Thursday. Police and court documents said Albany police were initially investigating a missing person's report involving Mary Jeoney, 30, who had lived with Heinze in the past and disappeared back in January. Albany police took Heinze into custody Thursday as part of that investigation and obtained a search warrant for Heinze's father's badly blighted home at 841 Stanley St. Jeoney's body was found in the basement of that house about midnight. Police said Jeoney was reported missing Jan. 22, and they believe Heinze strangled her Jan. 23 in the basement where her body was found. Heinze had been named in at least one prior domestic violence report, police said, but details of the incident or incidents and whether Jeoney was involved were not available.
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