Monster Mom Kim Vargas: People v. Jordan Bormann–The Apple Didn’t Fall Far

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Stephen Ames Berry

On 9/30/22, 21-year-old Jordan Bormann savagely attacked his 74-year-old neighbor, leaving the elderly veteran unconscious and bleeding on the sidewalk in front of his home. He was diagnosed with a brain injury. Bormann is charged with a violent felony against an oldster, a local blogger who was videoing a confrontation between Bormann’s drug peddler mother and the victim’s wife.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree: Bormann and his mother Kimberly (Bormann) Vargas, moved into the rental house next to the victim’s two years prior to the heinous attack. Mother Kimberly immediately began harassing and threatening the elderly homeowners, objecting to their surveillance cameras, their security lights and their activist blog, where they posted her alleged drug trafficking activities. She’d call the police and falsely report them for harassment and trespassing–charges given the lie by their surveillance videos.

The day of the assault, Kim twice threatened the victim’s wife with physical violence–in keeping with her history of threats and harassment. Bullied from Vargas’ porch as they were in their adjacent driveway, the couple sallied forth, the wife confronting Kim, her husband filming, Jordan’s friends heckling him and his wife as Jordan watched. (If you don’t confront bullies, they just escalate.)

With a role model like Kimberly Vargas, how else would Jordan turn out? Watch Kimberly strut her foul-mouthed stuff over the two years she’s lived next to us, the elderly couple: threatening violence, harassing our mentally ill daughter. Just a few brief highlights of her despicable behavior:

Jordan Bormann is of an age where he’s responsible for his actions and will be held accountable for them in court. He’s facing a mandatory minimum of 2 years, a maximum of 7, for a Class B Violent Felony.

As I told the District Attorney’s staff and the court, I hope his sentence sees him sent far away from his mother’s reach, where he can receive effective counseling and learn a vocation. To be just given probation would leave him where he is now, 15 feet from our house, lounging on his mother’s porch, eating takeout and smoking weed. He won’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of a decent life if he’s returned to his mother Kimberly’s foul clutches.  To reinforce my suggestion to the court, I included a copy of this video with my Victim’s Impact Statement, which is reviewed prior to sentencing.

You can imagine what I think of New York’s crazy gone-today-here-tomorrow bail law.

Jordan Bormann--far right, on porch railing. He's with his heckler friends.Boy-next-door Jordan Bormann–far right, on porch railing. He’s with his heckler friends.

Bormann;s unconscious victim bled profusely.
Bormann’s unconscious victim bled profusely. Bormann kicked him as he lay out cold.

11/2/22 Correction. The name of my assailant is Jordan Bormann, not Jordan Harris. (I worked with Harris at Harvard. He never beat me up.)

Murder On Their Mind–Knock ’em To The Ground, Kick ’em While They’re Down

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Stephen Ames Berry

On September 30th, in the Herkimer tradition of beating bloggers,  I was the victim of a vicious unprovoked street attack by Jordan Bormann, son of longtime Herkimer drug thug Kimberly (Bormann) Vargas.  Jordan Bormann, a strapping young adult, charged me as I was photographing his drug-dealer mother’s usual harassment of us, hurling me violently backward onto the public sidewalk and seriously injuring me. As I lay unconscious, he cursed me,  kicked me and shoved my wife away when she tried to help me.

I sustained a subdural hematoma (deep brain bleed) and was taken first by medevac to Little Falls Hospital, and then by ambulance to Albany Medical Center for neurological treatment. A subdural hematoma can be fatal.

It’s taken me several weeks to recover enough to compile video evidence of the attack, file a police complaint and write this post.  As I write,  the Bormann-Vargases are next door on their front porch, partying and smoking substances legal and illegal. 

The initial police investigation was conducted by an officer against whom I previously filed an extensive misconduct report. After interviewing my assailant, his mother and their friends, he determined me guilty of provoking the assault; seems young Mr. Bormann was just defending his mom. Not interviewed was my wife, present the entire time. Footage from our two CCTV cameras covering the attack was not requested. Happily, I was not arrested for littering the public pavement with the copious amount of blood from my wound.

We’ve been writing about Kim Vargases’ drug dealing, threats and harassment for several years. In response, Vargas often calls the Herkimer Police with bogus complaints. On September 30th, she called them to complain that we’d stolen her cat. Her cat, the malnourished Shadow, often lounges on our porch railing and is delighted to be fed the good stuff. Astoundingly, the police often respond to Vargas’ absurd complaints, as they did that day, a Friday.

The Varga’s porch, as on most nice days, was filled with aggressive pondlife harassing us as we went about our lives in our adjacent driveway. While the police were present, Vargas told an officer on camera that she would “punch that bitch [my wife] in the face before I move.” The officer made no remark. Obviously, Vargas’ son Jordan Bormann comes by his violent behaviors honestly.

9.30.22 Usual aggressive pondlife who gather on Kim Vargas' 328 Pleasant AVvenue front porch to smoke substances legal and illegal and harass homeowners next door. My assailant, Jordan Bormann, sits on the railing.
9.30.22 Usual aggressive pondlife gathered on Kim Vargas’ 328 Pleasant Avenue front porch to smoke substances legal and illegal and harass homeowners next door. My assailant, Vargas’ son Jordan Bormann, sits on the railing.
9.30.22 Herkimer drug thug Kim Vargas, aka Kim Bormann Vargas in front of 328 Pleasant Avenue. Son Jordan Bormann is to the rear.
9.30.22 A candid shot: Herkimer drug thug Kim Vargas, aka Kim Bormann Vargas, in front of her 328 Pleasant Avenue. Son Jordan Bormann is to the rear. Vargas has just invited neighbor, software engineer Linda Kaidan, to “Hit me! Hit me!”
9.30.22 Blood from Berrry's skull in front of Vargas' house.
9.30.22 Blood from Berry’s injured skull in front of Vargas’ house.
10.1.22 Wound to my head following attack by Kim Vargas' Jordon Bormann on 9.30.22., which resulted in deep brain bleed. Note staples. 75-year-old-bodies heal slowly.
10.1.22 Wound to my head following attack by Kim Vargas’ son Jordan Bormann on 9.30.22., which caused a deep brain bleed. Note staples. 75-year-old-bodies heal slowly.

We have several videos of the attack. Below is a portion of an audio video, covering from the time of the police responding to Vargas’ 911 cat call to the moment just before the first responders arrive to scrape me off the pavement. It ends with my wife dashing into our house to get her cellphone, evil laughter following her. 

Video Timeline

0:01-0:44 My cellphone video.  Typical harassment from pondlife on Vargas’ porch. Police arrive, police leave. Usual attempts to drive us from our property and then from the public sidewalk.

0:45 Action has moved down the public sidewalk. (Suspect Vargases believe they’re off camera.) Vargas invites Kaidan to “Hit me!”

04:02    Jordan Bormann charges me as I’m filming, hurls me backwards onto the pavement, knocking me unconscious, lacerating my scalp and causing a subdural hematoma (deep brain bleed).

04:06    Bormann shoves my wife Linda away as she tries to come to my aid, then curses and stomps me.

05:00-End          Vargas and male thug from porch ignore my wife’s repeated direction to leave me alone. Linda dashes into the house to get her cellphone, denouncing the twosome hunched over me as “Monsters!” Evil laugher follows her.

More to come: A longer higher quality video, clips and a critque of the initial police investigation by Officer Jason Crippen.

Dodgy Herkimer Cop Jason Crippen — “Complicit Or Just An Idiot”? You Decide.