Adam Rupeka is CopBlocking again, this time in Clinton County.

The man from Troy who videotaped a Saratoga Springs police officer pepper-spraying him after he tested the officer by flipping him a middle finger recently got into it with corrections and police officers outside the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, according to a video and paperwork posted on the website titled CopBlock.

On the video, a State Trooper accuses Rupeka, 36, of operating a remote-controlled drone above the prison, from which two inmates escaped in June. The video shows a man in uniform demanding identification from Rupeka, who refuses to provide it while videotaping the encounter. Rupeka alleges the officer used unwarranted force in an attempt to knock the cell phone out of his hand.

“You’re gambling your job right now,” Rupeka tells the uniformed man, according to the video. The incident took place Wednesday in a park located across from the prison, Rupeka said.

Rupeka won a $50,000 settlement in the case involving a Saratoga Springs cop. He seemed disappointed when authorities at Dannemora didn’t recognize him.

“If you don’t know who I am, it’s sad,” he says in the latest video. Watch it here:

Second update: The Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office reported Thursday night that the man who went missing from the Cook Adult Home was located at an Albany hotel and is safe. Read the latest here.

Updated blog: Saratoga County Sheriff’s patrols are searching neighborhoods and rural roads for a man who is missing from the Cook Adult Home in Halfmoon.

Michael Russell, 62, was seen walking south on Route 4 in Halfmoon shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, and south on Route 4 in Waterford after 8 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. “Although his whereabouts remain unknown at this time, it is now believed that Mr. Russell’s disappearance may have been intentional and not accidental or a result of foul play,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement released just after 4 p.m. Thursday.

Police have been searching for Russell since he was reported missing Wednesday night. Officers established a command post at the sheriff’s sub-station in Halfmoon on Thursday morning. Police were using all-terrain vehicles and State Police aviation equipment to check riverbanks and wooded areas. Investigators are conducting interviews and following leads.

Initial police reports that stated Russell suffered from dementia were incorrect, though he is mentally ill, the sheriff’s office said. Russell did not take any clothing with him other than what he was wearing, police said.

Anyone with information about Russell’s whereabouts are urged to call the sheriff’s office at 885-6761.

Initial blog: Police are trying to locate a man who is missing from the Cook Adult Home in Halfmoon.

Michael Russell, 62, was last seen at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, when he went for a evening walk, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. He typically walks from the home on Prospect Street to the Stewart’s Shops on Central Avenue in nearby Mechanicville, police said.

Russell requires medications for dementia, and he suffers from mental illness, the sheriff’s office said. He is white, 5-foot 3-inches and 160 pounds, and has gray hair and blue eyes, according to police. He was last seen wearing a blue button-down shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. He’s known to tilt his head to the side when he walks.

If anyone has information on Russell’s whereabouts, please call 885-6761.

The Clifton Park Zoning Board of Appeals upheld variances it approved for a proposed redevelopment of a shopping plaza and new Market 32 at routes 146 and 146A, reaffirming a July 21 decision that it was sued for last month.

Board members voted Tuesday to reapprove the same 16 zoning variances for Clifton Park Plaza Associates’ plan to build the plaza at the intersection, and put on the record reasons for their original decision, town Attorney Thomas McCarthy said.

The applicant’s attorney, Jonathan Lapper, asked ZBA Chairman Michael Dudick for a vote on a revamped resolution after Whitney Lane Holdings LLC, the owner of North Country Commons, which is near the project, filed an Article 78 lawsuit alleging the board improperly authorized the variances. Dudick and the board then unanimously agreed to reopen the application and hold a new public hearing.

“They wanted to respond to the concern they had not adequately stated the rationale for their basis of the decision,” McCarthy said.

Andrew Brick, an attorney for Whitney Lane, argues the variances were not justified. He filed the lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Saratoga County on Aug. 21, challenging the basis for the decision and alleging the ZBA acted without comment when it approved the variances. In an interview on Wednesday, Brick said the board’s latest vote wouldn’t change his client’s course of action.

“From our perspective, the requirements of state law were not properly applied,” Brick said. “They didn’t take any different action from what we challenged in the lawsuit. The suit is pending and a judge will make a decision.”

Clifton Park Plaza Associates proposes demolishing an approximately 30,000-square-foot Price Chopper at the southeast corner of the intersection and replacing it with a Market 32 nearly double the size. The redevelopment would include other new stores that would be built in phases. The project is now before the Planning Board.

A Saratoga Springs man is charged with stealing a $36,501 check from where he worked and trying to cover it up.

While working as an automobile dealer in Halfmoon, Phillip J. Belair, 60, deposited in his own account a check from his employer that was supposed to have been paid to a bank that held a loan on a vehicle, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.

Belair, of Whitney Drive South, Saratoga Springs, manufactured a lien release in an effort to cover up the larceny of funds, police said. He was arrested Tuesday and charged with third-degree grand larceny and second-degree forgery, felonies, according to police.

Cusson (From police)

Scott M. Cusson Jr., 20, sprayed flammable liquid – isopropyl alcohol – on the face and ear of a nine-month-old pit bull and lit the dog on fire, Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen said. His actions caused such serious injuries to Roxy the dog, that its ear had to be surgically removed.

County Judge James A. Murphy III sentenced Cusson under “Buster’s Law” for aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony. Roxy did not receive treatment for the burns for several days, prosecutors said. A veterinarian contacted police. State Troopers in Clifton Park investigated the case. Roxy’s owner, Edward M. Turner, 19, faces a misdemeanor charge of failure to provide sustenance, according to police. That case is scheduled to be heard Oct. 27 in Halfmoon Court.

Turner forfeited Roxy, and a loving family adopted her, Heggen said.

A man who allegedly fell asleep behind the wheel in Saratoga Spa State Park and a woman who was driving with her 13-year-old son in a car were charged with driving while intoxicated in separate incidents Sunday in Saratoga Springs.

Police say they found Michael J. Borger, 27, “sound asleep” behind the wheel of a Ford Ranger that was parked with its lights on in a travel lane of The Avenue of the Pines at around 4:45 a.m. The Ballston Spa man was charged with driving while intoxicated – a second offense – and aggravated driving while intoxicated, both felonies, according to Saratoga Springs police. Authorities could not say if Borger had been arraigned.

At around 11 p.m., an officer stopped a Toyota Prius on Union Avenue for an alleged equipment violation and arrested the driver, Diane L. Lachtrupp, 55, of Saratoga Springs. She was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated, a felony also known as Leandra’s Law, endangering the welfare of a child, and other vehicle infractions, police said. Lachtrupp was held pending an arraignment, police said.

A Moreau man faces drug trafficking charges.

Scott H. Lortie, 25, sold “substantial amounts of heroin and other opiate-based drugs” in the county, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.

He was charged with two counts of third-degree degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, fourth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, all felonies, and three counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor, according to the sheriff’s office.

Lortie was an inmate in county jail at the time of the latest arrest. He was arraigned in Moreau and Malta town courts and held on $25,000 bail, the sheriff’s office.

Robert J. Chauvin. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Chauvin, a Republican, sided with county Republican Chairman John Herrick last week in a decision that knocked Kurt Mausert, an independent running as a Democrat, off November ballots for the town judge seat. The Saratoga Democratic Committee’s bylaws require it to nominate candidates through a caucus vote, not a certificate of nomination that was filed with the county Board of Elections, Chauvin ruled.

Herrick and six others petitioned the court to restrain the Board of Elections from placing Mausert on the town ballots. The suit named Mausert, Board of Elections commissioners Bill Fruci and Roger Schiera, and Democratic Chairman Todd Kerner as respondents.

In his complaint to the Commission of Judicial Conduct, Kerner argued Chauvin had a conflict of interest and should not have heard the case. Kerner two years ago called for former county District Attorney James A. Murphy III to investigate if Chauvin concealed his financial interests in development projects when Chauvin served as Halfmoon town attorney and assistant district attorney.

“Sitting on a case where I am a named party is just unfathomable,” Kerner said Thursday. “At a minimum, Chauvin should not be hearing election law in Saratoga County.”

Kerner called for an investigation of Chauvin’s past property deals after a 2013 Times Union story disclosed Chauvin, while he was an attorney for the town of Halfmoon, took steps to conceal his financial interests in development projects that were approved by the town. Citing court records, public documents and interviews, the story reported Chauvin, a town attorney for 25 years, recruited a former close friend, Gregory S. Mills, to serve as the “public face” of about a half-dozen residential development projects that were approved while Chauvin was both town attorney and an owner of the projects.

Mills was listed in public records as the owner or applicant of the projects. Chauvin testified in a deposition that Mills did little or no work on the project. Mills told the Times Union that he received 25 percent or more of the profits to pose as the primary owner, and claimed Chauvin misled the public about his stake in the projects because of “political concerns.”

At the time, Chauvin owned a home in Lake George and nearly 200 acres in Halfmoon, Clifton Park, Stillwater and Mechanicville, according to financial disclosure forms Chauvin filed with the state Office of Court Administration. Murphy referred Kerner’s request to the state attorney general, saying he couldn’t examine the allegations because Chauvin worked under him for years until 2011, when Chauvin was elected to the bench.

The attorney general never took any action in the case, but the state Commission on Judicial Conduct reviewed the allegations, also taking no public action.

Two years ago, Chauvin threw out two absentee ballots cast for Democrat Cynthia Young in her race against incumbent Republican Paul
Sausville for supervisor of Malta because they contained extraneous scribbling on the back of the ballots. The decision swung the election to Sausville by a single vote.

Meanwhile, the Saratoga town justice position opened up this summer when Justice Timothy Williams stepped down because he no longer lived in town. In September, the town Democratic Committee nominated Mausert, an attorney who works in Saratoga Springs, to fill the vacancy. Herrick and petitioners Grace Sherman, Shawn Soderberg, Thomas Almy, Mary Sherman, Lee Richards and Ron Austin objected to the nomination, and argued a caucus was required to make the nomination. Chauvin’s ruling assures the Republican candidate for the bench position, Charles Sherman of Schuylerville, will run unopposed.

Kurt Mausert (John D’Annibale, TU)

Chauvin did not respond to a request for comment. Herrick said the GOP challenged Mausert’s nomination because “the rules are the rules.”

LaPosta, 52, (Saratoga Springs Police Department)

Chef John LaPosta and his partner, Tina Kruger, were arraigned in Saratoga County Court Wednesday morning for allegedly stealing more than $50,000 – and as much as $200,000 – from Maestro’s at the Van Dam in Saratoga Springs from 2011 through 2014.

A county grand jury on Tuesday indicted LaPosta, a longtime chef and manager at Maestro’s, and Kruger, a former part-owner of the restaurant, on 10 felony counts each: Two counts of second-degree and third-degree grand larceny, three counts each of second-degree forgery and three counts of first-degree falsifying of business records, according to District Attorney Karen Heggen. On Wednesday, they pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on $10,000 bonds.

Reached by phone Wednesday, LaPosta said he had faith in his attorney, Dennis Schlenker, who characterized the case as a business dispute and said it would be vigorously defended.

“Prosecutors have created a criminal case out of a civil dispute,” Schlenker said. Kruger’s attorney, James Linnan, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Kruger, 55, (Saratoga Springs Police Department)

Police arrested LaPosta, 52, and Kruger, 55, in their Rexford home on April 17, and seized computers from the address. At the time, authorities said the pair embezzled about $200,000 from the restaurant. They were initially charged with a count of second-degree grand larceny.

Heggen on Wednesday would not share the total amount the two were charged with taking.

LaPosta worked as chef at Maestro’s from 2006 until fall of 2014. He also led kitchens at the former Conservatory Grill in Clifton Park, Jack’s Oyster House in Albany and the former Cambridge Hotel.

Kruger owned Maestro’s with Bill Donovan through a limited liability corporation until 2014, Schlenker said. LaPosta and Kruger are now sole owners of Innovo Kitchen in Latham, which opened Oct. 1. Donovan also owns Harvey’s Restaurant and Pub in Saratoga Springs and a horse-breeding farm in Easton.

The Pedinottis (John D’Anibale TU)

The suit filed Friday by David and Diane Pedinotti, the owners of the Mouzon House, accuses City Council members of voting to change the city’s solar access law to resurrect the city center’s proposed 480-space parking garage plan for near High Rock Park. The Zoning Board of Appeals had previously voted against providing a variance for the project, saying the five-story design would violate the zoning law by casting a shadow on solar panels built on the neighboring restaurant’s roof.

In the suit, the Pedinottis ask the state Supreme Court in Ballston Spa to invalidate the City Council vote and a subsequent Planning Board vote to subdivide the land the garage would be built upon. They also seek a judge’s order directing the city to provide unredacted copies of emails sent among members of the City Council and city center authority between March 22 and June 9, which the couple had sought under the state’s Freedom of Information Laws.

Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan called for changing the city’s 25-year-old solar ordinance in the downtown T-6 zoning district, and the City Council approved it in a 3-2 vote on July 7. The Pedinottis say the vote constituted “spot zoning,” and deprives them of their real property right to solar access.

“Madigan’s proposed amendment to the solar access provision was proposed and ultimately enacted for the singular purpose of benefitting the city center parking garage project by purporting to permit the project to move forward, despite it impeding the Mouzon House solar collectors’ solar access and despite the fact that the ZBA had already denied the project,” the suit says. (Read prior story with Madigan’s response here.)

Named as defendants in the suit are the city, Planning Board, City Council and Saratoga Springs City Center Authority. The Pedinottis are represented by attorney Jonathan Tingley. Here is the lawsuit:

Pleadings.pdf by Steven Bailey

Julia M. Jurgensen of Stillwater. (Saratoga County Sheriff)

Julia M. Jurgensen, of Ferry Lane, Stillwater, used a knife to cut a 30-year-old woman in the right leg Tuesday, causing a severe laceration that required hospitalization, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. Jurgensen fled the scene and police located her on an arrest warrant, the sheriff’s office said.

Jurgensen was arraigned Thursday in Mechanicville City Court. She was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, according to police. City Judge Sheehan released her pending a future appearance in Stillwater Town Court.

Also, a 43-year-old contractor from Brant Lake was charged with cashing a $3,000 check from a homeowner in Corinth and not performing any of the home repairs for which he was paid.

Paul V. Cleveland, 43, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony, according to the sheriff’s office. He was released pending an Oct. 27 court appearance in Corinth, police said.

(Hochman) From Saratoga Springs police

The thefts took place over months during the summer, police said Monday morning. As a manager, Hochman, 29, had access to the restaurant’s business office and stole cash from a safe for his own use, police said. He was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony, according to police.

Hochman was no longer working at Boca Bistro, police Lt. Robert Jillson said.

Brendon T. Mahoney, 19, Hadley. (Saratoga Sheriff)

At around 10 p.m. Tuesday, a Saratoga County patrol officer observed Brendon T. Mahoney allegedly having sexual intercourse with the female at a park located on Palmer Avenue in Corinth. The officer arrested Mahoney for having sexual relations with an underage person, according to police.

“There was no indication of any force involved, and the defendant was subsequently charged with rape in the second degree due to the ages of the parties involved,” the county sheriff’s office said in a statement released Wednesday. Mahoney will appear in Corinth Town Court at a later date, police said.

A 21-year-old man from Mechanicville was charged with selling MDMA, or ecstasy, in the city, police said.

Following an investigation, Dillon Wagner of South Main Street was arrested Tuesday and charged with fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, both felonies, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.

Wagner was arraigned in City Court and taken to county jail on $2,500 bail.

The Saratoga County Jail and sheriff’s offices Oct. 9, 2013, in Milton, (John Carl D’Annibale / Times Union)

In an interview Friday morning, Sheriff Michael Zurlo confirmed plans to construct a 10-foot metal fence with raised wires around the jail, which is located in a mostly residential area on County Farm Road, just outside the village of Ballston Spa. The jail was built in 1987 and does not have any fencing.

“It’s an additional safety factor,” Zurlo said. “You see other sheriffs’ facilities have it. It was an idea I had a couple of years ago.”

The Saratoga County jail has capacity for 255 inmates and employs 80 corrections officials. Workers will start erecting the fence in the next couple of weeks, the sheriff said.

He said the added layer of security will be paid for through a homeland security grant.

Madesia McDowell (police)

On July 25, Madesia D. McDowell, 41, and her daughter, Kalila L. McDowell, 21, both of Albany, beat up a 19-year-old female co-worker during a dispute involving the distribution of tip money at the end of their work shift at the racetrack, according to Saratoga Springs police, who were called to the scene that day.

Kalila McDowell (police)

The victim sustained lacerations and bruising, police said.

Madesia McDowell was charged with third-degree robbery, a felony, and both she and her daughter were charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, according to police. They turned themselves into police on Monday.

Saratoga PAC

The super PAC sent the mailing, headlined “Violent Crime Spikes,” to thousands of city residents just before Election Day. It lists crime statistics reported to the state, and urges recipients to vote for Mathiesen’s opponent, Republican Rick Wirth. The mailing cites triple digit increases in reported violent crimes, such as aggravated assaults and robberies, during four years of Mathiesen’s tenure.

“Crime has increased at an alarming rate under Mathiesen’s watch,” Saratoga PAC says in the mailing.

Saratoga PAC is made up of mostly Republican business owners from Saratoga Springs who formed earlier this year to have a voice in political affairs and development projects, especially Saratoga National Golf Club’s proposed hotel expansion near Northway Exit 14. The PAC raised more than $56,000 in donations, and endorsed Wirth for next Tuesday’s election. Mathiesen, a Democrat, opposes changing city zoning of its outside district, or green belt, to accommodate the golf resort concept.

Saratoga PAC culled the statistics from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The state index shows the number of violent crimes reported in Saratoga Springs increased last year to 61 from 33 in 2013 (31 in 2010); robberies doubled to 16 in 2014 from the previous year (nine in 2010); forcible rapes doubled to six in 2014 (two in 2010); and aggravated assaults nearly doubled to 40 from 21 in 2013 (20 in 2010).

The PAC does not mention that the statistics also show total reported crimes in the city dropped to 650 in 2014 from 675 in 2013 (there were 630 in 2010); property crimes decreased to 589 from 642 the previous year (599 in 2010); larcenies went down to 482 from 550 (498 in 2010); and there has been only a single murder in the city – in 2013 – since Mathiesen was elected. If you check the state’s reported violent crime data from the 1990s in the city, much of those numbers dwarf the ones from 2014, but the numbers from the 1990s are not nearly as reliable because of the way police departments tracked crime classifications.

In response to the PAC mailing, Mathiesen released a statement that’s below. He said the increase in robberies reported in 2014 stemmed largely due from a group of offenders that were identified and arrested. He said Saratoga PAC’s criticism of the police department was unfounded and unfair. While there were 61 reported violent crimes in Saratoga Springs last year, the city of Albany reported 770; the city of Schenectady, 546; and the city of Troy, 369, according to the state.

“The truth is that Saratoga Springs has a relatively low crime rate that has been pretty consistent over the past six years as evidenced by the overall crime index in the statistics cited by Saratoga PAC,” Mathiesen said. “The truth is that Saratoga Springs will continue to have low crime rates no matter who is elected as public safety commissioner so long as we have an adequately staffed police department and continue to allow Police Chief Veitch and Asst. Chief Catone to manage their department. Our police do an excellent job of protecting our community as Saratoga Springs continues to be a very safe place in which to live or work and to visit.”

Form Public Safety Christian Mathiesen:

Chief Greg Veitch stated in the most recent annual report of our police department that ‘overall crime reported in Saratoga Springs has remained stable over the past several years’. The 16 robberies reported in 2014 were up from the 4 reported in 2013 but that was largely due to ‘one group of offenders’ that has been identified and arrests have been made. Otherwise there were few changes and he stated that the crime rate in our City has ‘fallen considerably over the past two decades’.
Contrast this with the claims of the Saratoga PAC which they describe as the Mathiesen Mess. They state that crime has increased at an alarming rate under the Mathiesen watch and provide their analysis of crime statistics to support their claims. They criticize Mathiesen for stating that, regarding the homeless population of our City, ‘there’s not a lot the police can do’ and then suggest that, to put safety back in public safety, we should vote for Rick Wirth.
The truth is that Saratoga Springs has a relatively low crime rate that has been pretty consistent over the past six years as evidenced by the overall crime index in the statistics cited by Saratoga PAC. The truth is that Saratoga Springs will continue to have low crime rates no matter who is elected as Public Safety Commissioner so long as we have an adequately staffed police department and continue to allow Police Chief Veitch and Asst. Chief Catone to manage their department. The truth is that Saratoga PAC’s criticism of our police department is unfounded and unfair. Our police do an excellent job of protecting our community as Saratoga Springs continues to be a very safe place in which to live or work and to visit. The truth is that ‘there’s not a lot that the police can do’ about the homeless because we are blessed to live in a free country where everyone has rights, including the homeless. Law enforcement can only intervene if individuals break the law. The truth is that Saratogians will have to decide on election day whether to trust the words of Police Chief Greg Veitch or the claims of Saratoga PAC.

The Saratoga PAC and candidate Rick Wirth have criticized Commissioner Mathiesen for failing to solve the EMS and fire protection problem on the eastern ridge. The PAC complaint includes the statement that ‘Mathiesen selectively tailored terms for public sale of a prime City owned parking lot to a preferred downstate developer with access to a specified land east of exit 14’. This statement deserves a more detailed explanation.
With the help of the Accounts Dept., we did issue an RFP to reflect the need for the City to acquire a parcel of land on Union Avenue east of the Northway. We were determined to find land to meet a long-standing need for a third fire/EMS station. The only available and suitable piece of property that we had found was under the control of Joel Aronson who also owns the Algonquin Building on Broadway. In early 2013, he suggested to us that he would sell to the City his parcel if the City was willing to sell the Collamer parking lot to him. The Collamer lot is immediately adjacent to his Algonquin Building which is now being extensively renovated. We had both properties independently appraised and, once the Aronson family agreed to our values, we brought the proposal to members of the City Council and to our City attorneys. Two Council members wanted us to issue an RFP and we complied. A year later, after two public hearings and a resolution approved by the Council in a 4-1vote, the two land transaction contracts were approved unanimously by the City Council.
Since then, former DPW Commissioner Tom McTygue and two other former Council members have sued the City over the land transactions. It is hard to understand why these individuals feel that they know better than the five current Council members who spent so much time looking into this proposal. Unfortunately, we have indeed been forced to spend taxpayer money to defend this suit. I have consistently suggested to Tom McTygue that he drop his lawsuit. Doing so would not only save our taxpayers thousands of dollars but, most importantly, would expedite the acquisition of land necessary to improve City-wide fire and EMS service.
It is ironic that Saratoga PAC has criticized the land transactions. Saratoga PAC is closely associated with Sonny Bonacio. Larry Novik of Bonacio Construction advised us on how to proceed and acted as our intermediary with the Aronson family. He was the facilitator, assuring us that such related land transactions are not at all unprecedented. It was he who suggested that we get independent appraisals for both parcels. Sonny’s company provided valuable assistance on the land transactions that is now being criticized by Sonny’s committee.
Chris Mathiesen

Brandon K. Wilson (State Police)

Brandon K. Wilson, 21, robbed Cobble Pond gas station on Round Lake Road Oct. 9 while armed with a knife, State Police allege. He was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree robbery, a felony, police said.

Wilson was arraigned in Malta Town Court and taken to Saratoga County jail on $25,000 bail, according to State Police in Saratoga. He is expected to return to court next week.

There will be no charges brought in the police shooting of an armed man outside his rural Saratoga County home because the man threatened authorities multiple times, the Saratoga County district attorney said Tuesday.

Richard LaPort, 51, fired a shotgun twice into the air and later pointed it at police officers that he called to his home on Fox Hill Road in Edinburg during the night of June 29, District Attorney Karen Heggen said. LaPort had told a 911 dispatcher that he was going to shoot himself, and ignored numerous pleas from police to drop his weapon, Heggen said, in closing her review of the case.

LaPort called 911 on the night of his death to say he wanted to tell the district attorney something, Heggen said. “He never explained what this information was,” she said. When police arrived at his home, they tried to negotiate with him, but he paced in and out of his home in an agitated state while holding a shotgun, Heggen said.

At the end of a 45-minute exchange, LaPort pointed his shotgun at officers, “presenting an imminent threat,” Heggen said. Two members of the sheriff’s department and a State Trooper fired at him, Heggen said. LaPort was struck once just before midnight and died at the scene. At the time of the shooting, Sheriff Michael Zurlo described the case as an example of “suicide by police.” Toxicology tests showed alcohol and prescription medication in LaPort’s blood, Heggen said.

I tried to contact LaPort’s daughter for a reaction to Heggen’s decision to close the case. A man who answered the phone at her home said she would not be interested in commenting.

Sheriff Michael Zurlo with Toys for Tots volunteers on Wednesday. (Clifton Park & Halfmoon Emergency Corps, Inc.)

This year, to boost participation in the Marine Corps’ 2015 Toys for Tots program, Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo is partnering with the Clifton Park & Halfmoon Emergency Corps. They want the county to play a greater role in donating and distributing toys to less-fortunate children.

The Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots program collects new, unwrapped toys each October, November and December, and distributes the toys as Christmas gifts to children in 12 counties stretching from the Canadian border to Newburgh and as far west as Binghamton. The campaign reached 114,000 children last year, and distributed 10,00 new winter coats, hats and gloves/mittens.

Announced Wednesday was the Sheriff’s Convoy for Toys, which takes place at 9 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 29. A convoy of about 200 first responders will take off from Shenendehowa High School and finish at Malta Commons. 

The Toys for Tots distribution train will run this year on Dec. 4 and 5. Here is the toy drop off locations.