Herkimer New York’s a picturesque crime-ridden village along the Mohawk. It’s cursed by a booming drug trade abetted by a rich history of failed governance. Our video-enhanced posts document a vivid public rape threat, drug trafficking, malicious trespass, child abuse, drug abuse, public drunkenness and brawling, harassment, public menacing, and crime coddling police responses.
Herkimer drug thug Kim Vargas goes from success to success: after several years of harassment and drug trafficking along Pleasant Avenue, she wrapped up her stint next door by helping her son Jordan Bormann on his way to prison, charged with a class D violent felony. Jordan Bormann, 21, assaulted an elderly neighbor, sending the old veteran to Albany Medical center with a traumatic brain injury.
Vargas, the subject of many herkimerpost.com articles, enjoyed a two-and-a-half-year reign of unchecked criminality next door to us at 328 Pleasant Avenue, long a gang sanctuary and retail drug thug front.
This March makes our ninth year in Herkimer. For seven of those years, 328 Pleasant Avenue has been tenanted by a succession of low criminal types trafficking drugs and occasionally kids, and doing their inept best to force the “weak old people” from “their” street. As with all else in their wretched lives, they failed. Here’s a 328 Pleasant Avenue rogues gallery:
The Froth On the Scum Of The Earth: 328 Pleasant Avenue Rogues Gallery
Herkimer Monster Mom Kim VargasHerkimer elder-basher Jordan Bormann, unfortunate son of Kimberly (Bormann) Vargas, with vile friends on the porch of 328 Pleasant Avenue.Kim Vargas’ son Jordan Bormann assaults elderly neighbor in front of 328 Pleasant Avenue, causing traumatic brain injury. Officer Jason Crippen’s investigation found elderly neighbor guilty of the assault. Reinvestigation based on victim’s surveillance cam footage saw Bormann charged with Class D Violent Felony.Curtis Cool. Cop-coddled Herkimer drug thug and probable child trafficker ally, menacing his neighbors from driveway of 328 Pleasant Avenue.328 Pleasant Avenue’s wacky Amanda West harassing old folks on their neighboring porch.328 Pleasant Avenue’s Xavier Rowe harassing neighboring old folks.
Herkimer police officer Jason Crippen responding to Kim Vargas’ call. from 328 Pleasant Avenue. Crippen threatened one of us with arrest for using foul language in our driveway.
I’ve speculated at length as to who controls 328 Pleasant Avenue, using it as a retail drug trafficking front. The demographics of the Herkimer area are rapidly going upscale. We’ll see if they sell the place or move another set of gang scum in there. Whatever happens, there are a lot of surveillance drones around and our cameras stand ready.
In March, with a wave of his magic plea bargaining wand, Herkimer District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter signaled open season on Herkimer elders.
Ignoring a tough new law written to protect the elderly from violence, Carpenter offered a sweetheart plea deal to a 21-year-old thug who violently attacked a 74-year-old retired Special Needs teacher. The thug was fined $100 and went home on probation. The vicious assault, captured on two cameras, left the victim unconscious and bleeding on the sidewalk with a traumatic brain injury, from which he still suffers.
The message to Herkimer’s criminals? It’s ok to beat up the old folks–Jeff Carpenter’s got your back. No jail, no bail, a chump-change fine. Enjoy!
Herkimer DA Jeffrey Carpenter, the People’s Attorney.
Here’s how Carpenter flouted a tough New York law written to protect elders, putting a vicious criminal back on the street. It’s the same technique he’s long used to make Herkimer unsafe.
On 9/30/22, I was assaulted by Jordan Bormann, the 21-year-old son of our neighboring drug thug family. I was videoing harassment of my wife. The hefty young Bormann left me out cold and bleeding on the sidewalk with a deep brain bleed. Then kicked me as I lay unconscious. Medevaced to Albany Medical, I was treated for a subdural hematoma. If he’d shoved me a little harder or kicked me in the head, he could have killed me.
Here’s one of two videos of the attack given to Herkimer PD, as captured on two of our 22 security cameras:
…when with intent to cause physical injury to a person who is sixty-five years of age or older, he or she causes such injury to such person, and the actor is more than ten years younger than such person…
Effective in 2019 and cosponsored by Herkimer State Senator James Seward, the law recognizes the “uniquely depraved and heinous nature of attacks on the vulnerable elderly.” It carries a sentence of up to 7 years in prison, with a minimum required sentence of 2 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
Two brief court appearances later, Bormann was back on the street and home free. For this we have our District Attorney, Jeffrey Carpenter to thank.
People v. Jordan Bormann– Illustrated
Jordan Bormann savagely attacks his elderly neighbor…DA Carpenter waves his magic wand…
…transforming Bormann into a free man.
Legal Process Just As Brief and Cartoonish
Jordan Bormann’s Arraignment 10/19/22
Absent was my advocate, the People’s Attorney, District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter. Or anyone from his office, 7 miles away.
Based on my complaint and accompanying video of the attack, Bormann was arrested on 10/19/22 and arraigned that day for felony assault before Judge Joshua P. Bannister in Little Falls City Court. Banister is a practicing attorney and a fairly new part-time jurist. Present in the court were Judge Bannister, the court clerk, and Jordan Bormann. Bormann was represented by his court-appointed attorney, Joesph Macri, Esq., of Herkimer, appearing online.
Absent was my advocate, the People’s Attorney, District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter. Or anyone from his office, 7 miles away.
Judge Bannister several times expressed his opinion that the bail request of $2,500 was “a little light”(p.10) for a violent felony assault on an elder.
But DA Carpenter did send in a bail request. Even with bail reform, New York law still permits bail or jail in violent felony cases. Judge Bannister several times expressed his opinion that Carpenter’s bail request of $2,500 was “a little light” for a violent felony assault on an elder. (arraignment transcript, p.10, below) Had DA Carpenter been there, he might have argued in support of his bail request. But he wasn’t.
Bormann’s attorney argued for his client’s release pending trial. Bormann, obviously well-prepped, offered a litany of lies in reply to Judge Bannister’s questions:
Bormann’s only relationship to teaching is attacking a 74-year-old retired Special Needs teacher, sending him to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury.
Jordan Bormann’s Well-Rehearsed Litany of Lies
1. Bormann told the Court that he wanted to be a teacher and was an online education student in early childhood development at Utica College. (transcript, p.5). He said that it was his third year at that school. Utica College became Utica University 8 months previously, in February of 2022. It doesn’t offer an online early childhood development program or any degree in education.
Bormann’s only relationship to teaching is attacking a 74-year-old retired Special Needs teacher, sending him to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury.
2. Bormann said he lives with his parents and three siblings, ages 20, 16 and 13. (p.6) We lived next door to Bormann for three long years. Other than Bormann, the only child of the family there was his younger brother, about 13. Bormann’s parents are long separated; his father hasn’t lived there for several years. His mother’s Facebook page lists her marital status as “separated.”)
Herkimer’s camera-shy Jordan Bormann, the day he violently assaulted his 74-year-old neighbor.
DA Carpenter’s Nonappearance Assures Bormann’s Release
With DA Carpenter a no-show, Judge Bannister released Bormann without bail, setting him free with only a monitoring bracelet from the Probation Department and a Protection Order directing him to stay clear of me. (p.11)
Bormann’s family was poor–bail would be a financial hardship. (p.8) Bormann was both working and working toward a degree. (p.5)
Bormann has ties to the community. (p.7)
Jordan Bormann Felony Assault Arraignment Transcript 10/19/22
A trial date of 4/19/23 in county court was assigned. Felonies are tried only in the county court.
Bormann told the judge he was concerned that I’d use the Protection Order to try to entrap him into a probation violation, falsely stating that my wife and I were always hanging in front of his house (which happens to abut his porch and is impossible to avoid if we walk from our driveway to the public sidewalk). Bormann’s attorney told him to call the District Attorney or the Herkimer Police if I “maliciously used” the protection order. (p.12-13)
Jordan Bormann was given first-class treatment, his bail-free release eased by the absence of District Attorney Carpenter. The Herkimer PD gave him a ride home from the Probation Department, a 1/2 mile away.
Later that same morning, Officer Jason Crippen appeared at our door and handed me a copy of the Protection Order, shook my hand, and left. An hour later, Bormann and his mother were enjoying takeout on their front porch, across the driveway from our living room window.
Jordan Bormann’s mother, Kimberly Bormann Vargas. (No, not a caricature.) Jordan Bormann, left rear.
Only later did I discover Crippen’s malicious role in support of my attacker, intentionally not requesting videos of the attack and blaming me for instigating it. Through DA Carpenter, this bogus report would later further deprive me of the protection of law.
Bormann’s 10/22/22 Protection Order–Note the Charge is Class D Violent Felony, Assault on Elder
I settled down to slowly heal, buffeted by headaches, dizziness, and hypersomnia from the attack. All of which I put in my victim statement for the court, and submitted to DA Carpenter’s office, along with photos of my injury and the pool of my blood I was left lying unconscious in.
Jordan Bormann’s unconscious victim bled profusely.
Bormann’s handiwork required much stapling.
While awaiting Bormann’s April felony hearing in county court, I had the pleasure of watching him over the next five months, 15 yards away on his front porch, smoking smelly stuff, enjoying more takeout and hanging with his friends.
New Protection Order Reveals DA Carpenter’s Magic Wand At Work
On 3/17/22, I was stunned to receive a fresh one-year-only protection order from the Little Falls City Court. There would be no felony trial. District Attorney Carpenter had waved his magic wand, downgrading Bormann’s felony charge to a misdemeanor. It was over.
Rather than being tried under law for felony assault on an elder with serious injury, which carries a mandatory prison sentence, basher Bormann copped to a 3rd-degree misdemeanor assault charge. It’s an appropriate charge for a barroom brawl with minor injury.
Slam, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am: Jordan Bormann’s Sentencing
Here’s the transcript from Bormann’s 3/16/23 sentencing hearing before Little Falls City Court Judge Sarah M. Brinski. Brinski is a part-time judge with a full-time law practice. District Attorney Carpenter was present. I wasn’t–his office had said they’d let me know if the original trial date and place changed. They didn’t.
Although a misdemeanor assault can carry a one-year prison sentence and a $1,000 fine, Carpenter had proposed a sentence of two years probation and a $100.00 fine, which Judge Brinski approved.
Bravo Zulu! High-Five All Around for District Attorney Carpenter’s Office
The ever-surly Bormann seemed to feel he’d suffered enough.
At their request, I gave copies of my unreimbursed medical expenses to Carpenter’s staff. I was told the DA would seek a money judgment for restitution. Not true: the sentencing transcript revealed that I am responsible for requesting a separate hearing seeking reimbursement from my attacker, at which Bormann would be present. Neither he nor I liked that. The ever-surly Bormann seemed to feel he’d suffered enough.
A few months after his sentencing, Bormann’s mother secured a mortgage and the family moved to a new home. (Perhaps the Cartel has a credit union for its franchisees?)
The federal surveillance drones that hovered over their part of Pleasant Avenue are gone, hopefully taking up station above the new Bormann-Vargas home, God help their neighbors. After decades of gang occupation, quiet has returned to Herkimer’s Pleasant Avenue.
Carpenter never intended to prosecute the case. He was always going to plea bargain it, no matter how heinous the assault. Young thug Jordan Bormann was always destined to fly free.
The Outrage Continues: DA Carpenter and Dodgy Herkimer Cop Jason Crippen
Carpenter’s mindless parroting of Crippen’s disproven report was an example of the unconcern and indifference Carpenter displayed throughout this case. Surely his initial felony charge against Bormann was based on my irrefutable video evidence showing Bormann’s unprovoked attack on me? Why then did he just regurgitate Crippen’s bogus report? Or did he never even look at the evidence?
The only plausible explanation? I believe Carpenter never intended to prosecute the case. He had no need to look at the evidence. He always intended to plea bargain it. If I’d been killed, would he have looked at it, or just accepted Crippen’s report and moved on, just another oldster dead by misadventure? Not prosecuting felonies is what Carpenter does, says his old boss. As a Herkimer criminal, young thug Jordan Bormann was always destined to fly free.
Carpenter’s Old Boss, Judge Michael Daley, Calls Him Out
Carpenter’s old boss, former Herkimer County District Attorney and retired Supreme Court Judge Michael Daley, says sweetheart deals are the norm for Carpenter:
“Every felony is plea bargained and violent criminals put back in our community. There is a statute in place and that must be followed. When you plea bargain every single case, what that tells me is that the offers are so low that the defendant has to take them. When you’re offering such sweetheart deals that the defendants can’t turn them down, you end up with no trials.”
Judge Michael Daily
Daley ran for District Attorney against Carpenter in 2016, campaigning under the slogan “Make Herkimer Safe Again.” Carpenter, as he does, toadholed throughout the election. TheRepublican Party ole boy network had his back, refusing to set up a debate between the two candidates, according to Daley, leaving Carpetner’s assertions of his history of felony convictions unchallenged.
Carpenter had more lawn signs than Daley. Carpenter won. It wasn’t even close. Carpenter ran unopposed in 2020. As folks here say with a shrug, “It’s Herkimer.”
Que Bono? Who Profits from Jeffrey Carpenter’s Sweetheart Deals with Criminals? Herkimer’s Gangs
Plea bargaining’s a hidden process. Only the outcome is public. We’re forced to rely upon the presumed integrity of the negotiators, as attorneys and officers of the court. If money changes hands to sweeten the deal, we’d never know.
Carpenter’s freewheeling use of prosecutorial discretion to flout New York law, aided by bail reform, helped make Herkimer a welcoming criminal haven. Well-staffed trafficking gangs, operated with impunity out of police-safe properties, terrorizing the law-abiding and dominating streets. Herkimer police, whose chiefs report to Carpenter, were and still are reluctant to register complaints. Bloggers, the last bastion of genuine journalism in Herkimer, justly fear for their lives. In our 9 years in Herkimer, we’ve been harassed, vandalized, beaten in the street, and much poisoned.
Thanks to climate change, Herkimer is an area in transition. Whatever recent improvements we’re seeing as the swamp drains of criminals aren’t due to DA Carpetner’s kindnesses to the worst among us, but to increased Federal and state law enforcement–those aren’t Jeff Carpenter’s drones up there. The gangs and their useful idiots in Herkimer government never saw how profoundly climate change would impact the region.
As chip fabs build out in the Mohawk Valley and climate emigres continue to arrive here, waving their checkbooks, authentic law enforcement is ramping up. Carpenter and his magic misdemeanor wand won’t survive the increased scrutiny. Like the gangs, the welfare of the community requires that Jeffrey Carpenter be sent packing. Election 2024 is the next best chance.
Betray the public trust? Always expect that knock on the door.
New York’s New Commission On Prosecutorial Misconduct
Plea bargaining takes place in the dark. Jeffrey Carpetner’s alleged extensive use of plea bargaining should be investigated for a pattern of misconduct. For that, we need the State of New York.
After much opposition from New York State’s prosecutors, New York’s new Commission on Prosecutorial Misconduct is about to open for business, the first in the nation. I’ll post when that happens and how to file a complaint. I can’t be the only one with just a grievance against District Attorney Carpenter. I’ll be first in line with my complaint. There’s no statute of limitations on administrative punishment for attorney misconduct.
Criminal Lawyers and The Hardcore Gang Unit
When we lived in Los Angeles, I worked with some of the prosecutors from the LA District Attorney’s Hardcore Gang Unit. (For the record, then-gang unit prosecutor Lance Ito is one of the world’s funniest comedians.)
The gang prosecutors were brought in by the California State Bar’s discipline branch to investigate years of backlogged complaints against California attorneys. We went back, and back and back through years of attorney misconduct complaints from people who’d lost their homes, their savings, their freedom, their sanity. Attorneys found guilty were publically censured. Some were disbarred. Some went to prison. Shock, amazement, consternation, whining, when that knock on the door finally came: “But it was a long time ago! What about forgiveness?”
Betray the public trust? Always expect that knock on the door.
Ban the Fat Fairy! Oust Jeffrey Carpenter! Herkimer DA Election November 2024
Jeffrey Carpenter has been Herkimer County District Attorney since 2013. He’s up for reelection again in 2024. This is July of 2023–not too early for viable candidates for Herkimer District Attorney to consider running for office. They might begin by researching Carpetner’s history of plea bargains. See if Judge Dailey’s charges of all those sweetheart deals are valid. If so, highlight them on social media, in the press and in public debates at election time. Don’t let Carpenter hide and stonewall as he did with Judge Daley in 2016.
A great campaign platform is one of reform. Here’s Bill Daley’s from 2016:
“I will stand up to our crime problem by seeking lengthy sentences for child molesters, rapists, murderers, robbers and other violent felons. I will review and present cases left dormant by my opponent to the grand jury, including infant deaths, serial forgeries, police misconduct, and domestic violence cases, and end the ‘good-ole-boy’ system in Herkimer County.”
herkimerpost.com crime editor Stephen Ames Berry is a four-times published author, a former officer of Harvard University and a magna cum laude graduate of Boston University. A veteran of US Army Intelligence, Berry was a Special Needs teacher for behaviorally challenged teens in Florida.
This pair of apprentice vandals from 333 Pleasant Avenue have been bombarding our house daily this week with ice balls. They took out a window. 333’s the former Barton Gang place, across the street from us. Joyce Barton and her crew left it with kindred spirits, who are apparently raising their kids in the Herkimer gang tradition of vandalism and harassment.
The young man who’s the principal thrower is careful to video his work–assume he’s being paid. Assume probably by neighboring drug thug and monster mom Kim Vargas, who’s upset that her son Jordan Bormann’s facing a felony prison sentence for savaging an elderly neighbor in the street.
333 Pleasant Avenue apprentice vandal joyfully breaking window with fresh iceball.333 Pleasant Avenue, Herkimer. The Joyce Bartons moved on, their trash heaped proudly. behind them.Herkimer Monster Mom Kim Vargas
Will send this on to the police. They’ll have a chat with the kids and their folks.
“One does see so much evil in a village.” Miss Marple (Agatha Christie)
Dereliction of duty is the purposeful or accidental failure to perform an obligation without a valid excuse, especially an obligation attached to one’s job. Websters
In September, I was attacked on the sidewalk next to our home by 21-year-old Jordan Bormann, son of our neighbor, Kimberly (Bormann) Vargas. The strapping young Bormann slammed me backward onto the pavement, causing a brain injury that is slowly healing. A bit harder, he could’ve killed me or left me drooling on myself in a permanent advanced vegetative state. I’ve been exposing Kim Vargas’ drug trafficking and menacing since she moved next door several years ago.
Herkimer PD officer Jason Crippen responded to the “man down” report. In June, I filed a substantial, well-documented misconduct complaint against Crippen with his department, alleging malfeasance over a period of six years. Whatever action his department may have taken based on my complaint, Crippen was the investigating officer that day of my assault, still driving about our pastoral village, armed to the teeth.
Crippen’s report of the incident (below) , found I’d assaulted Kim Vargas, shoving her, and that her son Jordan had rightly leaped to her defense, shoving me back. Crippen stated the incident was 2nd Degree Harassment, of which I was the perpetrator. Had I not been scraped off the pavement and transported, Crippen might have charged me.
Here’s Crippen’s full report, which was reviewed and forwarded by Herkimer PD Chief Michael Jory:
Crippen based his finding of my presumed guilt upon interviews with my attacker, his mother, and two of their neighboring friends, the Snyders:
Officer Crippen’s Witnesses
Witnesses Theresa and Adam Snyder of 332 Pleasant Ave., Herkimer.9.30.22 Witness Kimberly (Bormann) Vargas, other of Jordan Bormann.9.30.22 Jordan Bormann (right; circled) with friends as they harassed us from their porch, just before Bormann attacked me.
c
Crippen didn’t interview the only other person who’d supposedly been on the scene the entire time–my wife Linda Kaidan. He stated that:
Linda Kaiden (sic) was yelling, swearing, and getting in the way of medical. Kaiden was advised by officers to stay away from medical, to calm down, and allow medical to do their job. Kaiden calmed a little, but continued to yell, and make comments to officers, medical, and people at the Vargas house.
Not true. Here’s the video clip:
Kaidan only raised her voice when Kim Vargas lied to the first responding officer, who was not Crippen.
Vargas can be heard asserting that I hit her. Kaidan was there during the assault and responded indignantly to the drug thug’s lie. Despite Kaidan having witnessed the attack and having access to the two cameras that recorded it, none of the officers interviewed her or asked for footage from our obvious, 22 CCTV cameras–cameras whose footage Herkimer PD have requested in the past; cameras whose existence Crippen commented on before, in a separate video.
“You have to wonder how long this sort of murderous collusion has prevailed here in Herkimer.
Despite Crippen’s acrimonious history with me, his superiors apparently didn’t question his report and failed, in the days, to send an officer to interview Kaidan or request footage of the assault. (We get along well with most of the Herkimer PD officers.)
The Herkimer Village Police Department wallows in resources. It has a budget of $1.5 million a year, for a village of 7,000. As of 2021, it had 25 offices, including a chief, a captain, an investigator, and a squad of sergeants. Yet despite Crippen’s well-known animosity toward me, and his superiors’ knowledge of our video cameras covering the assault, they kept Crippen as the investigating officer and blessed his reports through their silence. Seems no one wanted to see a video of the attack.
Only when I returned from Albany Medical Center, and recovered enough to review the videos of the attack, and file a complaint, did the Herkimer police charge Jordan Bormann. Had Bormann killed me or left me in a coma, Crippen’s report would have prevailed–I’d officially have died in an incident I provoked with my good neighbors, senile dodder that I am. You have to wonder how long this sort of murderous collusion has prevailed here in Herkimer.
Lies aside, here’s what really happened:
Jordan Bormann’s charged with a Class D Violent Felony, with enhanced sentencing required due to his attacking an elder. He’s looking at 2+ years in prison and yet I’m looking at him next door on that porch, eating takeout, smoking dope and leisurely awaiting his Spring trial. (New York bail reform.)
“Case Closed,” Or Be Your Own Cop
Crippens report concludes: Due to patrol’s knowledge of the several cameras Berry has … there were no arrests made on-scene. Case closed unless Berry brings forth evidence and/or wants to pursuit charges. JCC/240
Reporting Police Misconduct to New York’s Attorney General
If complaints to the officer’s department don’t have any good effect, your next stop is the Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office. Reading between the lines on their website, complaints documenting a police agency’s systemic failure to protect rise to the top of the inbox.
Qualified Immunity On Its Way Out
The doctrine of Qualified Immunity, which has long protected police nationwide from private lawsuits, is on its way out: NYC has abolished it; abolition is pending the New York Legislature. With qualified immunity gone, it becomes much easier to hold rogue police officers accountable in lower courts. And to attract an attorney on a contingency fee basis.
“Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein
On November 4, members of the neighboring gang from landlord Jay Smith’s 332 Pleasant Avenue attacked my wife, Linda Kaidan, as she exited her car in our driveway after a 500-mile drive. One kept shouting “I’m gonna drag her!” before assaulting Linda in our driveway. They broke off their attack on the 68-year-old grandmother and returned to their front yard when the police arrived. Linda counted nine of them, in and around the driveway. (Not to be confused with the gang that hangs out at the gang house on the other side of us: 328 Pleasant Avenue. The gang meat puppet currently living there is Herkimer Mother of the Year Kim Vargas.)
11.4.22 Herkimer teen from 332 Pleasant Avenue attacks 68-year-old grandmother in our driveway as she exits her car.
“Those cameras don’t work at night.”
For some time now, we’ve been overhearing that our cameras don’t work at night because the little red lights aren’t always on. The little red lights are the infrared beams that illuminate the dark in the absence of enough ambient light. When there is sufficient ambient light, they don’t come on. Thus they are off. The cameras work fine.
11.4.22 This photo was taken without the use of infrared enhancement, as the gang’s porch light and the street lamp provide enough light.
The detail provided by this blind camera is more than enough for me to identify familiar faces:
11.4.22 332 Pleasant Avenue gang who supported or participated in criminal trespass and harassment of the assault on the 68-year-old grandmother. Left to right: drug thug and gang den mother Kimberly (Bormann) Vargas of 328 Pleasant Avenue. The Pirate, seen trespassing and throwing stuff prior to the assault. Teenager and frequent criminal trespasser and hate graffiti artist called “Lem” by his friends, all of whom hang out at Kim Vargas’ house. And the “Gonna drag you!” teen, who assaulted Linda Kaidan. She is most probably the sister of Kyle Stone, ace crack trafficker from 332. Not circled, but to the top of Vargas, next to the police officer: Kylee Figueroa, Joyce Barton’s daughter. The Bartons moved recently, leaving Kylee at 332 but taking their beloved dog. Bare ruined choirs: Joyce Barton moved out recently, leaving a mound of trash and daughter Kylee behind. (Their dog, they took.)
So yes, the cameras work at night. We’ve forwarded more videos to the police and expect charges to soon be filed. Of course, we’ll just keep, what was it? “Dragging,” on the blog.
On November 11th, someone spray-painted our front door with hate graffiti. Videos of previous criminal trespassing suggest it was one of the several teens who hang out at Herkimer drug thug Kim Vargas’ 328 Pleasant Avenue, adjacent to our house. Surveillance videos show Vargas to very much be their den mother, providing them with food and whatever.
Vargas is the mother of 21-year-old Jordan Bormann, charged with a Class D Felony Assault on a 74-year-old neighbor, sent to Albany Medical Center on 9/30 with a brain injury.
Herkimer Monster Mom Kim Vargas
Thanks to New York bail reform, young Mr. Bormann is at home on an appearance ticket, visible to his neighboring victim (me), hanging out on Vargas’ porch, eating takeout and smoking weed as he awaits trial this Spring. Confined to home, Jordan has the Lost Boys of the video to keep him company. (And Democrats wonder why they lost seats in New York.)
The hate sprayer is of the age and size of one of the criminal trespassers caught on a previous video, raiding our property from Vargases. His friends call him Lem. (video-3:26) We’ve seen Lem several times in the driveway of 326-326 ½ Pleasant, the house on the other side of Vargas’. As we walked by there on 11/11, he called my wife a “Crazy fucking bitch.” He might have gone on, but I pointed to my bodycam and he shut up.
Lem – Herkimner criminal trespasser and suspected hate crime perpatrator. Often seen at Kim Vargas’ 328 Pleasant Ave.
The sturdy lad doing hate art may also be Chunky Monkey, caught on camera vandalizing one of our security lights—a light Kim Vargas complained often and bitterly about, lighting up her drug trafficking as it did.
Video Timeline
0:01-0:41 The Hate Spraying
0:42-2:16 Previous recent criminal trespass incidents from Vargas’ house.
2:17 Trespasser’s friends on Vargas’ porch encourage him, call him “Lem” as he enters our driveway.
3:37 – End “The guilty flee where no one pursues.” (Proverbs 28:1
This behavior has gone well beyond youthful hijinks and has been reported to the police and the State of New York Attorney General’s Hate Crimes Unit. No one in our family is African American, but several are Jewish. These guys aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed and may confuse a darkly-complected Ashkenazic Jew — my wife–with an African American. Not that they would know what a Jew was. But you don’t need to get your victim’s ethnicity right for it to be a hate crime. For example, I’ve overheard people expressing sympathy for “the old Jew who got beat up in the street.” My wife is Jewish; I’m Icelandic Dane. Doesn’t matter–hate’s hate.
The Herkimer Post is widely read. Lots of folks in this time of change looking for places up here to move to and invest in. If Herkimer doesn’t want the image of a racist community, it needs to track this kid down and charge him.
Things have livened up here on Herkimer’s Pleasant Avenue since I survived a vicious street assault on 9/30. Formerly quiet gang-allied neighbors have grown aggressive, harassing and assaulting my wife and daughter in our driveway. A squad of them went after my daughter Alex and wife Linda on 10/24, 10/25, and 11/4. The pattern keeps repeating: one of us enters our driveway after dark, and the swarm descends from next door at 332 Pleasant Avenue, long a gang haven— trespassing, throwing stuff, menacing, and attacking a 68-year-old grandmother as she defends herself. They scatter as soon as they spot the police. It’s a miracle no one here has been injured as the gangers practice elder abuse. I went down with a brain injury when Kim Vargas’ son Jordan Bormann threw me to the sidewalk and kicked me. (I was videoing his mother, drug thug Kim Vargas accosting my wife.)
“We do not retreat—retreating is how Rust Belt Herkimer became a pirate haven.
If this continues, one of us will be injured. We do not retreat—retreating is how Rust Belt Herkimer became a pirate haven. These folks aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed and may not know what a Class B Violent Felony verdict would do to their lives—the sort of verdict young Mr. Bormann is facing. No more probation-only: it’s a mandatory multiyear prison sentence. Used to be, beating up old folks in New York was a misdemeanor blood sport, just youthful hijinks. No more. And if you kill or permanently injure one of us oldsters, you won’t be seeing the Outside for a very long time. Open Season on the elderly in New York is now closed. The Herkimer Police responded promptly. Hopefully, they’ll soon shut this dangerous game down.
The video is of all three incidents, somewhat edited. Those familiar with South Herkimer gangdom will recognize Kylee Figueroa, Joyce Barton’s daughter. (The Bartons left town about a month ago, leaving their trash and Kylee behind.) The young woman trespassing and assaulting my wife is also from 332 Pleasant, probably the colorful Kyle Stone’s younger sister. (She’s the one shouting “I’m gonna drag her!” meaning my wife.) 10:07
Don’t know who the ball-hugging, object-throwing trespasser is.
Don’t know who the ball-hugging, object-throwing trespasser is. Probably from somewhere here on our Pleasant Avenue. (There are people still living who swear it was once pleasant.)
Sorry, I couldn’t join the fray, but am still recovering from a subdural hematoma, courtesy of Jordan Bormann. (I get to see him each day as he lounges on his mother’s porch, 15 feet away, eating takeout and smoking weed. His trial’s tentatively scheduled for April. Until then, he gets to lounge at home, courtesy of New York bail reform. Don‘t worry, I’m protected from my violent mercurial assailant by a restraining order and his ankle monitoring device.)
Frankly, I think this is all about rage at the loss of drug and child trafficking income here in the ‘hood. We’ve lived here for 9 years and trafficking’s never been this light. Plus, our attackers keep checking in with mother-of-the-year Kim Vargas, who may be incentivizing their behavior. The dynamics of the Mohawk Valley are rapidly changing, fueled by an influx of affluence, itself catalyzed by climate change and the chip fab construction boom.
Things are quickly changing here, hopefully for the better.
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.
Boy-next-door Jordan Bormann–far right, on porch railing. He’s with his heckler friends.
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.)
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 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 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 Berry’s injured skull in front of Vargas’ house.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.
“Misuse of power, possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of state law, is action taken under color of state law.” United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 326
Herkimer police officer Jason Crippen, again! Suddenly he’s in our driveway and faces, hectoring and lying and rude. Summoned, per Herkimer normal, by yet another thug playing the victim. This time it’s our latest neighboring drug trafficker, Kim Vargas. We’ve written a lot about her harassment and trafficking.She’s a peach.
“I can’t decide if he’s complicit or just an idiot.”
We’ve been subjected to Crippen’s abuse of power multiple times over the last six years. In all instances, Crippen has malfeasantly supported our criminal neighbors, using his office to intimidate us and deny us the protection of law. It’s obvious when you speak with him that Crippen’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. As I said to a state police investigator when he raised the subject of Crippen’s conduct, “I can’t decide if he’s complicit or just an idiot.” There’s enough material in this post for you to decide for yourself. Certainly, the performance Crippen puts on here would discourage anyone but a criminal from calling the Herkimer police.
Here’s his pattern: Crippen responds to a 911 complaint from one of our trafficking gang neighbors. He advises us that their accusations are valid, that we’re in violation of criminal law, and threatens us with arrest. He either ignores anything the complaining thugs have done to us or says their actions aren’t subject to criminal law.
On one occasion, Crippen refused to accept a complaint from us while he was manning the desk at the Herkimer police station. The complaint was carefully written and supported by video evidence. (See below, “Another Crippen Encounter”.)
This most recent incident on 6/16/22 is classic Crippen. The video should be used in police training classes as an example of intimidation under the color of law.
Herkimer drug thug Kim Vargas holding court on her 328 Pleasant Avenue porch. Small children come and go. Vargas says she’s a licensed daycare provider. She’s not.Kim Vargas. Sadly, not a caricature.)
Our Latest Thuggish Neighbors, the Kim Vargases
Kim Vargas has lived next door at 328 Pleasant Avenue for two years–the Doolen gang’s most recent placeholder. Afternoons she holds court on her front porch, along with her supposed brother-in-law, a heavy-set, low-browed antisemite. The two chain-smoke the day away. A bong is sometimes shared. In the afternoon small children come and go–Vargas’s latest lie is that she’s a licensed daycare provider. She’s not.
The porch people’s chain-smoking quickly fills their porch ashtray. In the morning, we often find cigarette butts heaped in our driveway, next to Vargas’s patch of paradise.
The Right Response To Outrageous Behavior Is Outrage
On June 16th, wife Linda had had enough of the butts and spoke to Vargas firmly, in words typically used by Vargas, to drive home her point. Vargas, horrified by the foul language coming from our driveway, called 911, falsely stating that she was a licensed daycare provider and that children were in danger. Vargas is not a licensed daycare provider. You can cuss in your driveway all you want.
“Crippen…stepped into his familiar role of intimidation through misrepresentation of the law
Children in danger, Officer Jason Crippen immediately responded, followed shortly by two other Herkimer PD officers, seemingly as adult supervision. (The sight of Crippen armed with pistol and taser is as worrying as the sight of Vargas caring for children.)
6.16.22 Herkimer Police was officer Jason Crippen confronted by Stephen Ames Berry and Linda Kaidan in their 330 Pleasant Avenue driveway. Kaidan repeatedly challenged Crippen to follow through on his threat to arrest her for child endangerment: she’d used the word fuck in her driveway within hearing of children, speaking to neighboring drug thug Kim Vargas (on porch) in words Vargas typically uses in front of children.
Crippen quickly stepped into his familiar role of intimidation through misrepresentation. Below are listed highlights drawn from our video. (A detailed timeline is in the video’s description on our Herkimerpost.com YouTube channel.)
Here’s my bodycam video preceded by a brief street cam clip.
Video
Caught In The Act: Highlights of Crippen’s Attempted Intimidation
Twice threatened to arrest Kaidan for child endangerment for saying “fuck” in her own driveway 6:35 7:26
Crippen states to Berry that “your reports of child trafficking were reported to the Herkimer and State Police and found false.” (They weren’t reported to either agency-the FBI has sole jurisdiction over child trafficking matters.) 10:37
Also discussed was our perception of Officer Jason Crippen’s conduct in possible support of alleged child trafficker Little Mama.
State Police Investigation and Officer Jason Crippen
Our Herkimer Child Trafficking went viral, helping bring over a quarter-million combined views to our posts and videos. Apparently, many folks read our cornerstone child trafficking post after Facebook News picked it up. (It’s taken on a life of its own. Surprisingly, it’s big in China.) Many readers expressed their concern about Herkimer child trafficking to New York state authorities in Albany.
2016, Linda Kaidan makes the Nanny Nanny Boo Boo at neighboring drug thug Curtis Cool, aka Curtis Doolen, ignorant that it was exculpatory for harassment in Herkimer New York, per Herkimer Police Officer Jason Crippen.
Has Crippen Intimidated Others Under the Color of Law?
Surely we’re not the only ones Officer Crippen’s intimated under the color of law? According to Chief Michael Jory’s report to the Village Trustees and Mayor, Herkimer Village Police respond to about 500 phone calls a month. How many of these calls have been complaints Crippen has suppressed?
Not everyone’s a pigheaded blogger and filmmaker with a well-established social media presence. Confronted by a belligerent, bullying Crippen, most folks are going to fade. No wonder the local gangers strut about with such an air of entitlement.
Below is my complaint about Crippen to Chief Jory. There’s at least one other current complaint about Crippen in the police database, according to the Herkimer Times Telegram, but you won’t be able to read it: After the Village refused to make its police complaints’ records available, as required by New York law, it was sued by the Gannet Organization, owner of The Herkimer Times Telegram and the Utica Observer. Rather than releasing the records, The Village of Herkimer hired a law firm to keep this public resource from the public.
Herkimer Village won the first round in its attempt to avoid fully complying with New York’s Freedom of Information Law as it pertains to police discipline reports. The matter is on appeal.
We wondered the other day, as we tottered over Herkimer’s heaving stretches of ancient broken sidewalks, how our impoverished Rust Belt village justified spending an unpublicized amount of money to flout state law. But then, to quote The Herkimer Post, “‘It’s Herkimer,’ folks say with a shrug.”
Herkimer Only Releasing Recent Substantiated P0lice Conduct Complaints: Jason Crippen’s Released
Interviewed by the Herkimer Telegram’s Donna Thompson for her excellent coverage of Herkimer Village’s FOIL non-compliance, Herkimer Police Chief Michael Jory expressed his support for the law. One reason for that may be that, as it stands now, bad apples can be passed from Herkimer County police agency to police agency, inflicting their bad behaviors on unsuspecting communities, with the county’s police chiefs unaware until the complaints start coming in.
Herkimer Village won’t release any unsubstantiated complaints made about officers, and then will only release substantiated ones filed since the FOIL was amended. This means the copies of complaints of the two officers it did release were substantiated complaints. One of those officers was Patrolman Jason Crippen. Perhaps someday we’ll get to read it, or them.
It took the Village a year to provide those records to Gannet-Herkimer Telegram. Which can publish them as it sees fit. But only here on the doughty Herkimer Post can you read the most recent complaint against Herkimer’s Officer Jason Crippen. Or you can request a copy from the Village, and if it’s substantiated, wait a year or so to receive it. (All our PDFs are downloadable.)
As I noted to Chief Jory in my complaint, in a heated part of my exchange with Officer Crippen I refer to “other complicit cops.” To the best of my knowledge, those who abused their authority to intimidate us are gone. Since Chief Jory took command, all of his officers but Crippen have been very supportive of us and often gone out of their way to offer encouragement and advice during some very stressful incidents, treating us as concerned citizen partners.
Digging Deeper: Jason Crippen And Revamp Fitness
Jason Crippen’s Revamp Fitness, 131 East Albany St., Herkimer, NY
Officer Jason Crippen came to widespread attention in Upstate New York during the pandemic threatening to reopen his Herkimer Revamp Fitness facility in violation of state law. “Those are only civil penalties that result in fines, not laws being broken.,” He was quoted as saying about possible fines “This is America … We’re not a communist country.”
“Members enjoy being part of a private and respectful community,” says the gym’s website. Respect is what I think of when I think of Herkimer’s Officer Jason Crippen.
Looking spotlessly new and unused, gleaming equipment abounds in Jason Crippen’s Revamp Fitness, Herkimer.
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.
called 911, falsely stating that she was a licensed daycare provider and that children were in danger. 
