Mean and irrational neighbors at 333 Pleasant Ave harassed me as I enthusiastically sorted my trash and continued my driveway cleanout. There were plenty of them yelling and berating, but time being of the essence, I continued my outdoor trash organization.
Seriously, it seemed to me as if some of these guys were high, drunk, or looking for a fight.
I think I’m about 1/3 of the way through my cleanout and hope to be continuing at the same rate until I’m finished!
No one physically harmed me until someone named Heidi, who was taller, heavier and much younger, shockingly shoved me to the pavement, bruising my arm, skull, and neck. Believe it or not, this is the first time that I was injured by someone on my own property, bashing my head on the paved driveway. Make sure to view the video of this. It’s been submitted to the Herkimer police! You’ll be able to see dear Heidi in action.
Souvenir of Heidi
Impint of Heidi’s large trollish fingers on my arm where she hurled me to the sidewalk.
333 Pleasant Avenue — Long a Troubled Property
333 Pleasant Ave. We’re always watching. Used to be home to drug dealer Joyce Barton. She moved on, tired of our cameras. No drug trafficking now, but much consuming. The current tenants like to loudly harass us as they smoke their lives away
In May, the Herkimer Village trustees voted to continue providing a Village police officer to serve as SRO at the high school. This after long opposition by Herkimer Mayor Dana Sherry, who wanted to scrub the position due to cost–a problem the county school board obviated by funding it. Sherry then argued that if the village officer were injured in the line of duty, the village could be on the hook for a liability claim. She stated numerous times that the village is cash-strapped.
There was a groundswell of support for the position: folks packed an overfflow trustees’ meeting, signed petitions, and even started a GoFundMe site. A main reason was the current SRO, Officer Jessica Alberts, widely admired by students, faculty and parents. Alberts goes the extra mile for everyone. She’s of an age that students confide in her as a friend and mentor. Kids always know who really cares about them.
As a former teacher, I know how rare it is to have an involved SRO. Those I worked with were mostly older officers nearing retirement. Solid, conscientious guys. However, had we had a younger, involved SRO kids would have confided in, I suspect we’d have avoided several drug overdose deaths among our more vulnerable teens, as Officer Alberts has done in Herkimer. There’s some very moving testimony to this by grateful students in the video of the May meeting. Jessica Alberts has saved and changed some young lives.
Unmoved by this, Mayor Sherry continues her opposition, citing the risk of financial liability and vowing to fight on. It’s a specious argument.
Liability is not an issue: Police officers injured in the line of duty are typically covered by a combination of employer-provided and government-sponsored benefits, including Workers’ Compensation for medical expenses and lost wages, the federal Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program for disability and death benefits, and specific departmental Line of Duty Injury (LODI) benefits that may cover medical treatment and other financial support. These programs seek to provide financial relief to officers and their families during recovery or in the event of a permanent disability or death.
If anything God forbid were to happen to Officer Alberts, she’s covered, as are all our officers. Surely the mayor knows this. She refers to NY Municipal Law 407c. Had she read the law, she’d see that Section Two states that the wages of an injured officer will be replaced by insurance.
In another indication of her fiscal fanaticism, Sherry has moved to sell the Herkimer Public Library building, after its trustees rejected her demand for a rent increase from $400 a month to $3,500. The library serves as a community center and a quiet oasis for reading, research and gatherings in the heart of the village. Sued by the library trustees, Sherry reacted with an abrasive social media post, bristling with strident accusations of “Propaganda”, “Fake News!”, “Bullying!” and shaming.
As with the SRO dispute, Sherry seems to believe money management more important than student safety or quality of community life.
Her constant cry that the village is impoverished? No longer: the booming home sales, new cars everywhere and construction projects sprouting up attest that Herkimer is doing very well. Climate change has made us a national go-to spot.
Sherry’s misperception that the business of government is business, if allowed to triumph, would have endangered the lives of students and teachers and may yet scuttle our library. Abrasively defying the will of the community won’t help her gain reelection, should she run.
Herkimer giving sanctuary to disgraced former New York Supreme Court Judge Erin P. Gall is no surprise. To quote from our Herkimer crime posts, “‘It’s just Herkimer,’ folks say with a shrug.” It was done with a practiced sleight of hand, a bit of Herkimer Machiavellism, which has long succeeded as no one was watching. They’re watching now.
Who is Erin P. Gall?
Gall was a Republican New York State Supreme Court Judge in neighboring Oneida County. In 2022, she unleashed a vicious, 90-minute racist diatribe at a group of Black teens attending a party at her friend’s house. These were local, “clean-cut kids”, as one of the judges who recommended Gall’s removal remarked. The police video of Gall belittling the kids and threatening to shoot them eventually became public and went viral:
“It is utterly unacceptable for a judge to threaten gun violence, exhibit racial prejudice, promise favorable treatment for the police, or disparage a law intended to keep guns away from dangerous people. Any one of these things would undermine public confidence in the administration of justice. That one judge committed all this and more disqualifies her from further service on the bench.”
Jumping before she could be pushed, Gall resigned her judgeship on 12/15/24. End of story? No.
New York State found her conduct “utterly unacceptable.” But it was OK with Herkimer County. On 1/4/25, Gall began her new job as assistant county attorney in Herkimer at $108,105 a year, reported the New York Times. The job is responsible for juvenile justice matters, per the job description: [It}examines and coordinates materials and efforts related topresenting juvenile delinquency cases, represents Herkimer County in bankruptcy proceedings, and does general legal research for the Herkimer County Attorney’s Office.
Gall needed a job and Herkimer threw her a lifeline. Officially, she was appointed by Herkimer County Attorney Lorraine H Lewandrowski. Ms. Lewandrowski serves at the pleasure of the Herkimer County Legislature and is the perfect scapegoat for problems with the appointment of Gall. Folks familiar with the Herkimer government say Lewandrowski wouldn’t have made any appointment unless the county legislature supported it—specifically, Republican Chair Bob Hollum.
Herkimer County Legislature Chair Robert Hollum, is currently on probation for drug and gun charges.
No. 451 – A communication was received from the County Attorney submitting notice of appointment of Assistant County Attorney. Filed.
Herkimer’s assistant county attorney job had all the hallmarks of a political patronage plum. it was open for months, per reliable information. It’s a good, well-paying job and would have had numerous applicants. $100k+ goes a long way in rural New York. But only when Gall needed a job was it filled.
Resigning her judgeship on 12/15/24, Gall stated she’d accepted a position beginning 1/2/25, after searching for a job in September and October–the job with Herkimer County. In her accompanying affidavit, she noted the national and local coverage given the police videos of her diatribe.
Foolishly assuming that such a controversial appointment would have been brought before the Herkimer County Legislature, I searched its minutes. I found only a brief action item, noting the appointment of an unnamed assistant county attorney by the county attorney. It was buried in the minutes of the meeting of 10/23/24, page 2:
No. 451 – A communication was received from the County Attorney submitting notice of appointment of Assistant County Attorney. Filed.
Had the notorious Erin Gall’s been named as the appointee, objections might have been raised. County Attorney Lewandrowski would never have made that appointment on her own. It would have needed a sponsor, like County Legislature Chair Bob Hollum . Lewandowski went along to get along. Which makes her the fall guy should a wave of opprobrium slam the legislature.
Not to worry. Herkimer isn’t given to moral outrage. it’s been a month since the New York Times revealed Gall’s appointment—no wave of opprobrium. Folks in Herkimer tend to be either complicit, craven or cowed–conditioned by years of unchallenged gang activity the Feds finally squelched. Indeed, local Republicans, the ruling party here, support Gall’s appointment. Reflecting Herkimer’s ingrained backwoods racism, Herkimer County Clerk and Republican Chair Sylvia Rowan was quoted by the Times as saying
Ms. Gall’s behavior at the party was something people “will probably frown at.” But… “to question her ability in her job and what she did in that situation is different.” “I’m a firm believer in second chances,” she added.
I feel sorry for any Black kid falling under Gall’s authority.
It’s not too late for the Herkimer County Legislature to redeem itself by firing Gall. Given the underhandedness of her appointment, most of its members have plausible deniability.
New York Times journalist Shayla Colon covers New York City, with a focus on boroughs outside Manhattan. While with Hearst, she covered Upstate New York. Her email address is shayla.colon@nytimes.com. Anonymous tips can be sent her via the Times tip address: https://www.nytimes.com/tips
Kimberly Bormann Vargas. Sadly, not a caricature.) Son Jordan Bormann in backgrfound
Junkin Producer Evan Garland suggested the Curtis episode after coming across our blog post about Herkimer Police Officer Jason Crippen refusing, as duty officer, to register a complaint about Cool’s obvious menacing and criminal harassment. You’ll be seeing extracts from the same clips Crippen saw. See if you agree with him.
Evan and his team are brilliant at separating the wheat from the chaff in the original clips and sharing the resulting gripping footage with A&E’s worldwide audience.
Here’s the blog post that sparked Evan’s interest:
“The Crippen-Carpenter Effect: an unwitting dark synergy of nonfeasance and malfeasance…
2023 saw Herkimer’s long-entrenched drug and child trafficking gangs fade away. Gang-central Pleasant Avenue has rejoined civilization. It’s a delight after ten years of menacing, assaults and hundreds of poison gas attacks to bask in the silence along Pleasant Avenue and to chat with decent new neighbors.
Still with us, though, and clouding Herkimer’s future, are two complementary pillars of enduring rot that continue to make us all unsafe: District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter and Herkimer Police Officer Jason Crippen.
Carpenter’s unblushing sweetheart plea bargains and Crippen’s sneering suppression of citizen complaints and false incident reporting form the Crippen-Carpenter Effect: an unwitting dark synergy of nonfeasance and malfeasance, creating a dangerous community in which the law is flouted, criminals go free and people aren’t safe. If Crippen can’t put the shutup on your complaint, Carpenter can arrange a cheap plea deal. Between the two of them, Herkimer’s gangs were for years assured a steady supply of jail-free workers while the rest of us took our chances.
8.3.23 Brooding Herkimer gangbanger moves out of long-time drug and child trafficking central at 328 Pleasant Avenue. It and two adjacent properties long sheltered active drug and child traffickers. It was Herkimer’s Historic Child Trafficking Hub.
Gangs need poverty to flourish. The Rust Belt’s long hardscrabble existence is ending as a rising tide of prosperity sweeps the region. It’s eliminated the Section 8 housing that used to barrack Herkimer’s drug and child trafficking gangs. As property values continue to rise, owners are rehabbing houses and either selling them or renting them to newcomers, many of them driven by climate change, flock to climate-safe Central and Upstate New York. Google Guide Linda Kaidan’s photos of the Herkimer area have drawn 15 million views via Google Maps.
Climate Migration Banishes Gangs
Stepped-up regional and federal law enforcement has helped convince traffickers to move on; a flotilla of federal surveillance drones often fills our night sky. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being invested in chip fabrication facilities spanning the Mohawk Valley on into Syracuse. Rust Belt gangs won’t be allowed to threaten what’s becoming the heart of America’s and the Rust Belt’s economic rebirth.
And yet…
Officer Jason Crippen – The Sorry Saga Continues
It’s disappointing to see Jason Crippen still on the Herkimer Police, patrolling with impunity despite the many recently revealed and substantiated complaints against him. Crippen’s continued wearing of a badge reflects a decision by Herkimer Police Chief Michael Jory to prioritize the protection of his officers over that of the community. Unfortunately, it’s a very common decision.
Herkimer Police Chief Michael Jory in 2017. Don’t be fooled by his “Aw, shucks, I’m just a simple country boy” shtick. He’s sharp and perceptive.
Says police oversight specialist, Professor Daniel Bodah of John Jay College of Criminal Justice: “It’s important for the police and the general public that (discipline) records are open. Departments opposed to making police disciplinary records public are possibly looking to shield officers and themselves from potential embarrassment. It’s a desire to not hurt the person, not a desire to have honest policing.”
Crippen tased a suspected shoplifter he knew to be pregnant. Left his service pistol lying about in a public area. Allegedly filed a false police report to revenge himself on a citizen who chastised him for driving recklessly. Why does a public embarrassment like Crippen enjoy continued protection as he imperils the community? Does he know where the bodies are buried? The money laundered?
Complaints Against Officer Jason Crippen
6.16.22 Herkimer Police Officer Jason Crippen trying to intimidate Herkimer Post’s Stephen Ames Berry under the color of law.
Here are the publicly known complaints filed against Crippen, most only recently released after a three-year Freedom of Information lawsuit by Gannett/USA Today against the Herkimer Police and its brazen flouting of New York law:
There’s a suspiciously long gap in reported incidents between 2019 and 2022. Perhaps Crippen did nothing worthy of a complaint in those three years? The Herkimer PD didn’t release my complaints, filed before the suit was settled. Perhaps other incidents are being kept hidden?
The Crippen-Carpenter Effect: A Case Study
Here’s an example of the Crippen-Carpenter effect: On 9/30/22, I was attacked by neighboring drug thug Jordan Bormann and left unconscious on the sidewalk with a life-altering traumatic brain injury. Crippen, despite his history with me, was appointed the incident’s investigating officer. (With its annual budget of $1.45 million, the Herkimer Police Department supports a chief, a captain, an investigator and a squad of sergeants, led by a first sergeant.)
Kim Vargas’ son Jordan Bormann assaulted me in front of 328 Pleasant Avenue, causing traumatic brain injury. I blogged about their alleged drug trafficking. Officer Jason Crippen’s investigation stated I was responsible for my own assault. Reinvestigation based on my surveillance cam footage saw Bormann charged with Class D Violent Felony and Crippen’s report given the lie.
Crippen has a history of using allegedly false reporting to revenge himself on complaining citizens. This was another instance. In his incident report, Crippen stated that Bormann was defending his mother from me. He reported the incident as harassment on my part. In the week it took for me to write up a complaint and prepare the video device, Crippen avoided asking for video evidence of the incident from our security cameras, which he knew covered the scene of the attack and which outed his investigation as yet another falsity.
I presented the undeniable video evidence of Bormann’s guilt to the Herkimer PD, which arrested him and correctly charged him with violent felony assault on an elder, which carries mandatory jail time.
District Attorney Carpenter Parrots Crippen’s False Incident Report
No one from the District Attorney’s well-staffed, well-paid office appeared at Bormann’s arraignment. Instead, DA Carpenter later offered Bormann a plea deal of $100 fine for misdemeanor assault and two years probation. Bormann unsurprisingly accepted. The plea bargaining process is murky. Money could easily change hands and no one would know.
Herkimer District Attorney Jeffrey S. Carpenter. His Sweetheart Plea Bargains Help Keep Violent Criminals On The Streets
No Time for Trials: $554,425 – 2023 Herkimer DA Jeffrey Carpenter and Four Assistant DAs’ Salaries
The young thug never spent a moment in jail. I’m still recovering from my traumatic brain injury. (My walking’s advanced to an enhanced Parkinson’s shuffle.)
“If Carpenter forgot about the evidence he had, he was nonfeasant. If he knowingly didn’t cite the evidence, he’s malfeasant–no wiggle room.
Insult to injury, DA Carpenter, ignoring the video evidence on which he based Bormann’s felony assault charge, parroted Crippen’s bogus and disproven investigation report to the NY Attorney General’s Victims Services unit. I was denied full compensation for medical copays as “the instigator.” I’ve appealed. If Carpenter forgot about the evidence he had, he was nonfeasant. If he knowingly didn’t cite the evidence, he’s malfeasant–no wiggle room.
It’s been almost a year and my appeal for reimbursement is still pending at Victims Services. Expectant mom-tasing Crippen still patrols Herkimer. Carpenter, who earns $200k a year and has four assistant DAs, will probably be running for reelection in 2024, based on his 16 years of protecting and serving Herkimer.
12.6.23 A relaxed and confident Officer Jason Crippen as a jolly elf, co-receiving a charitable Christmas donation. Note his expectant-mom taser (yellow), ready for fast cross draw, and the Glock pistol he left lying around in public. (See his discipline record.)
“As long as their chief protects his rogue officers from scrutiny, rather than protecting the public by firing them, the community is not safe.
Herkimer Police Chief Mike Jory has done a lot of good things. Most recently he’s promoted some of his best line officers to positions of authority and brought mental health professionals on board to help decriminalize mental illness. He’s turned the Herkimer PD’s Facebook page into a Happy Hour of good news.
Herkimer Cops Aren’t the Baddies
This is our tenth year in Herkimer, using social media to out criminals who wanted us gone. We’ve worked with a lot of the Herkimer cops–the great majority of them are dedicated professionals, good people in a bad system. It must be very frustrating to see so many of your solid busts subverted by sweetheart plea bargaining that puts bad actors back on the street. That won’t change as long as Herkimer’s chief law enforcement officer is the criminal-coddling king of low-ball plea bargains.
Why no Herkimer County DA attorneys are available to represent victims at arraignments. (Even when you reach the secret plea deal number, expect a delay.)
Carpenter’s old boss, former Herkimer County DA and retired New York Supreme Court Judge Bill Daley, ran against Carpenter for DA in 2016. He says of Carpenter’s criminal coddling:
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, that tells me 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.
Carpenter’s Instrument of Betrayal: Charge of Violent Felony on an Elder, with Mandatory Prison Time, Becomes a $100 Misdemeanor
Case Study: People v. Jordan Bormann. How DA Carpenter Betrays the Public Trust
Eager to see how DA Carpenter magically transformed a violent felony into a misdemeanor, I researched my own case. It’s not for the faint of heart. Carpenter’s contempt for the community he’s charged to protect is on full display:
Was Your Complaint to the Herkimer Police Not Made Public? Tell USA Today’s Police Discipline Records Team
New York law makes all police complaints, not just the unsubstantiated ones, open to public access. If you’ve filed a written complaint about a police officer, you’re entitled upon request to that information, no matter the disposition of that complaint. If you filed a complaint about a Herkimer police officer and it wasn’t released in response to the USA Today suit, tell USA Today’s Police Discipline Records Team. Here’s the link: https://shorturl.at/ty459
Public access to police discipline records in New York is now down to a department-by-department trench fight. Time, resources and the law are on the side of the public. Don’t be deterred.
“The window is fast closing on our chance to put our own house in order before heavy hammers fall. And it won’t be pretty.
Making Herkimer Safe Again
The only way for Herkimer to ever be truly safe again is to replace District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter with a chief law enforcement officer of proven worth and integrity. Someone who’ll enforce the statutes passed to protect us, not cut backroom deals and put violent criminals back on the streets. Someone who doesn’t flout the law but ensures its observance. Someone who’ll prosecute bad cops, not parrot them.
Jason Crippen so needs to go, before he does even more and greater harm to the people of Herkimer. If Chief Jory won’t or can’t get rid of him and run a clean shop, then Jory needs to retire. Climate migration is sending a lot of people and new industries our way. They won’t tolerate the cozy corruption of old boy-run Rust Belt towns like Herkimer. This region is vital to the future of America.
A lot of eyes are on us–look up, count the surveillance drones. Too much is at stake here in an increasingly perilous world. The window is fast closing on our chance to put our own house in order before the heavy hammers fall. And it won’t be pretty.
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 any of his four assistant DAs, from their office, 7 miles away. LIke Macri, they could have appeared on-line.
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.
Herkimer’s Kim Vargas. Hulking son Jordan Bormann to the rear.
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
Crippen’s discipline record, recently made public after a three-year lawsuit against the Herkimer Police by USA Today, is chilling: tasing an expectant mom who told him she was pregnant; alleged false police report filed against a civilian who called him out for acting illegally; leaving his loaded service weapon lying about in a public area; alleged intimidation under the color of law in support of a much respected Herkimer drug dealer.
As for District Attorney Carpenter’s mindless parroting of Crippen’s disproven report, its just another 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
“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 publicly 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.
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.
“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. I’ve annotated it a bit:
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-Herkimer criminal trespasser and suspected hate crime perpetrator. 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.
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