Highlands Current Audio Stories

Davoren fights food insecurity, trains farmers

Agriculture is big business, but a local farm is punching above its weight.

Owned by Peter Davoren and Stacey Farley of Philipstown, Davoren Farm cultivates 6 acres on Route 9D that it leases from Boscobel House & Gardens. The couple also farms a tract owned by the Town of Philipstown on Route 403 in Garrison, where they host an annual sweet potato dig.

Farley, her husband and their children launched the farm 13 years ago, but even with farm stands and restaurant sales, it wasn't viable. Early in the pandemic, Farley happened upon Fred's Food Pantry in Peekskill and was taken aback by the lineup that stretched around the block.

"We decided we'd give away the food from that season, and now that's all we do," she said. "It changed our mission, and it's the best thing we ever did."

Davoren's secondary mission is "to grow farmers," she said.

Today, its principal farmers are Max Kristiansen, 34, and Lauren Thorpe, 40, who live in Cold Spring. After training at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Philipstown, they joined Davoren Farm in 2022.

Kristiansen had experience in landscaping in Washington state, at summer camp in Pennsylvania, with a local surveyor and at Stonecrop Gardens. After studying environmental policy at the University of New Hampshire, Thorpe worked for Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Tahoe National Forest and a Florida nonprofit focused on climate change. She also did a stint as a bartender.

Asked what most surprised him about farming, Kristiansen said: "There's a lot of smells, both good and bad. Every year that I do it, I feel I'm getting better at it." He adds: "I've never heard of another farm like this one."

Kale and collards are harvested in spring and sweet potatoes in the fall. In between, he says, "we grow asparagus; two kinds of summer squash; 10 peppers; five or six tomatoes; husk cherries; cucumbers; leeks; cantaloupe; watermelon; bok choy; broccoli rabe; turnips; rutabaga; sugar snap peas; shelling peas; red, gold and russet potatoes; black beans; red beans; white beans; soybeans; Asian eggplant; Italian eggplant; tomatillos; okra; corn; sunflowers; zinnias; and hops. That's most of it."

Kristiansen doesn't know why this year is different, but says everyone at the farm agrees the bumper crop is the best yet, even after a July storm that brought up to 8 inches of rain. "Some tomato varieties will split if there's too much water, but we haven't had much of that this year," he says.

Kristiansen cites tomatoes as needing the most work to harvest, "by far," while Thorpe names squash as the most physically demanding. Of farmwork, she says, "You feel some pain when harvesting, and there's a burden that comes with working in the sun eight hours. But seeing the tangible results of what you plant, what you harvest and where it's going has made this one of my favorite jobs."

During the winter, the team critiques the season. Thorpe has introduced spreadsheets to document yields and assess deliveries to food pantries.

Food insecurity has not diminished since the pandemic. Recently, when a pantry couldn't pick up its weekly allotment, Davoren and Farley made a delivery. "There was a mad frenzy when we arrived," she said. "It was like those pictures you see of Gaza. It's a much bigger problem; it's systemic."

Five years ago, the Philipstown Climate Smart Communities Task Force produced a map showing significant amounts of fallow agricultural land. "I would love to see more local land being farmed in a way that goes back to the community," Thorpe said. "And I think it's a similar situation across New York state."

Bar owners at 69 Main revive performances

Given the state of nightlife in Cold Spring, it's hard to believe that a thriving music scene arose around 2007 and flourished for several years.

Early in the life of Philipstown.Info, a news source founded in 2010 that became The Highlands Current, founder Gordon Stewart let musicians use the website's office at 69 Main St. for shows. He also welcomed anyone to "play or practice on the house piano."

In 2015, after the newspaper office moved to 161 Main St., Managing Editor Kevin Foley wrote that the open-door policy sometimes aggravated the staff, "especially around deadline day when they looked up to find musicians lugging speakers and guitars, sheepishly declaring that Gordon said they could set up for the show we knew nothing about."

Stewart also hosted The Listening Room, a monthly Wednesday gathering where singer-songwriters shared material and explored their muse. After the main event, folks crossed the street to McGuire's (now Doug's Pretty Good Pub) for an extra set by one of the artists.

The current proprietors at 69 Main, Rebecca Darman and Melanie Leonard, who bought the business from Barber & Brew earlier this year, removed the big chairs, left the rest of the intimate space intact and renamed the venue Bar-ber.

Debbie Darman, Rebecca's mom, has relaunched monthly Wednesday night shows. "We had so many listening rooms back then, it was magical," she says.

Before Philipstown.Info moved in, the space was a recording studio owned by Buddy Traina, one of the first to perform for the Bar-ber series. Last month, 30 people filled the wood-and-brick back room to hear singer-songwriter Kathleen Pemble.

People closed their eyes, nodded their heads and added harmonies on "la-la-la" parts. After the standing ovation, the audience stuck around at the bar and schmoozed on the sidewalk.

Pemble concluded her show with "The King of Cold Spring," an ode to Ken Veltz, who helped jumpstart and maintain the scene until he moved away after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, says lifelong village resident Nina Pidala.

She recalls folk music gatherings at the gazebo near The Depot, which featured bands. Music also blared from the Foundry Cafe (now Foundry Rose Cafe) and Whistling Willie's (now J. Murphy's, home of live music on weekends).

Cathryn's Tuscan Grill hosted jazz combos, and the Silver Spoon Cafe (now the Cold Spring Hotel and Cafe) held a country karaoke night. The Chamber of Commerce sponsored acts at the riverfront bandstand.

"There was music at the yellow house on the corner [now Angie's] and at a couple of places on Route 9 that are no more," says Garrison resident Chris Cunningham.

Darman's push for a revival is spreading. MaryRose Donaghy at Foundry Rose says she plans to bring back a DJ for an end-of-summer bash. In April, people partied until the music shut down around 10:30 p.m. (upstairs neighbors preclude late-night revels). On occasion, she hosts local musicians. Up the block at Cozy Corner Cafe, Ramiro Prolo experimented with tunes in the spring and says he may bring performers back in the winter.

For Wednesday (Aug. 26), Darman pulled a coup and booked Sean Scanlon, singer and keyboardist for the indie band Smallpools. In addition to monthly performances, Darman says she's "interested in starting a songwriters' workshop with mentors, like in Nashville, but I want this all to be as organic and word-of-mouth as possible."

Bar-ber is located at 69 Main St. in Cold Spring. The monthly music sessions, at 8 p.m. on the last Wednesday, are free. To hear Philipstown.Info sessions from 2010 and 2011, visit dub.sh/listening-room.

Concerns raised about toxic water from landfills

Leachate, Rebecca Martin admits, isn't a household word.

A better description is "garbage water," because leachate is the toxic waste that leaks out of landfills, said Martin, the head of New York River Watch, a new volunteer group that consists mostly of former employees of the environmental group Riverkeeper.

It was while working at Riverkeeper that Martin and other New York River Watch members examined the legal loopholes that allow leachate to flow untreated into sources of drinking water, such as the Hudson River. While the state Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed regulations, NYRW says they don't go far enough.

When rain and melting snow seep through a landfill, they pick up toxins from the trash, including heavy metals, pesticides, "forever chemicals" such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and substances long banned for their effects on human health.

NYRW created a map, online at bit.ly/leachate-map, that shows where leachate is being shipped and discharged in New York. In the Highlands, Beacon's municipal treatment plant processes over 800,000 gallons annually from at least six landfills.

Jen Epstein, an NYRW member who worked on a project to map the buried and hidden streams of Beacon, said federal regulations don't require chemical companies to conduct safety testing. "As a result, our consumer goods contain many substances whose potential hazards have not been fully explored," she said. "Sometimes we learn about toxicity only after people and animals and ecosystems have been exposed."

John Lipscomb, a retired Riverkeeper captain who is also part of NYRW, said Westchester County once discharged leachate from a former landfill at Croton Point (now a park) into the Hudson River. "There was a pipe right next to the swimming beach," he said. Eventually, he said, the county began collecting the leachate for treatment.

"I assumed treatment meant treatment," said Lipscomb. "But what happens is that 11 million gallons a year go through a pipe past the Riverkeeper office [in Ossining] to a Westchester-owned sewer plant and then into the Hudson."

Sewage treatment plants are equipped to handle human waste but not the toxins found in leachate, he said. Some of the leachate ends up in sludge, which is returned to landfills, or used as fertilizer on crops, but most is discharged into bodies of water.

According to NYRW, the "leachate loophole" occurs because while landfills must collect leachate, it can be discharged after it's processed by a sewage treatment plant that usually isn't equipped for the job. Drinking-water plants can't process many of the chemicals found in leachate, either.

The proposed state regulations would require the construction of leachate-processing plants. But NYRW says the proposal applies only to leachate from active landfills, even though 45 of the 75 that ship leachate statewide are inactive. The group also argues that the regulations cover only a handful of PFAS compounds, and that it isn't clear what is allowed for leachate after processing.

If the regulations go into effect, processing leachate could become a billion-dollar industry in New York, and NYRW members want to ensure plants aren't placed in poorer communities already burdened with pollution and other public health risks.

"We don't mind people making profits if they do it right," said Martin. "But we have to get on the right road. There are 2 million people whose drinking water is affected by this."

The DEC will host virtual public hearings on its proposed regulations at 1 and 6 p.m. on Sept. 2 (register at bit.ly/leachate-hearings) and is accepting comments through Sept. 9 at bit.ly/leachate-dec.

Cold Spring, Philipstown contest use for Fjord Trail

State parks and Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail asked a state judge in Carmel on Aug. 14 to dismiss claims by Cold Spring and Philipstown that an easement used to access Dockside Park through private property does not allow entry for a riverside boardwalk.

The claim is one of several to be decided by Judge Gina Capone in a lawsuit the municipalities filed in May challenging the state's environmental review of the 7.5-mile Fjord Trail, which would connect Cold Spring to Beacon and include an elevated boardwalk over the Hudson River between Dockside and Little Stony Point parks.

In addition to state parks and HHFT, Putnam County is named as a defendant. Laura Bergman, a Cold Spring resident, also is named because she owns the property subject to the easement.

A previous owner of Bergman's land agreed in 1988 to allow the use of the strip that pedestrians traverse to enter Dockside at North and West streets. That easement allows the state, which owns the 26-acre park, to enter and exit by foot or vehicle for vegetation maintenance and activities such as installing utility lines, grading and paving.

Cold Spring and Philipstown contend that the easement only allows access to Dockside, "not structures or properties adjacent to it," such as the proposed trail, which goes through Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve. According to the town and village, "there is no basis to interpret the Dockside easement so broadly as to permit access to an 8,800-acre park by the general public."

In asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, state parks and HHFT argue that neither Cold Spring nor Philipstown has an "ownership interest" in the easement and is not a party to the agreement. Therefore, they "lack standing to bring a claim concerning its scope." Cold Spring has an agreement with the state to manage and operate the park, but the agency said it can "revoke the license at will." Philipstown "is even further removed, as it does not even have a license agreement," according to court documents.

Even if the judge sides with state parks and HHFT on the scope of the easement, they face other challenges that Cold Spring and Philipstown have mounted to the state environmental review finalized in January. A second lawsuit has been filed in Albany County by Protect the Highlands, a nonprofit founded by residents critical of the project. The state has asked a judge to pause that case until Capone rules.

In a "findings statement" issued at the conclusion of the review, state parks stated that the trail "will achieve a balance between the protection of the environment and the need to accommodate social and economic considerations." But the municipalities and Protect the Highlands are concerned that, as envisioned, the trail will overrun the village and town with more tourists, harm the environment and increase the burden on fire, medical and police personnel.

Cold Spring and Philipstown argue that concerns regarding traffic and emergency services "were marginalized, if not completely ignored," in the review, and that several findings were "arbitrary and capricious, irrational and afflicted by errors of law." Protect the Highlands alleges that the findings statement was "arbitrary, capricious and irrational on several fronts" and should be annulled.

When the lawsuits were filed in May, HHFT called them "baseless and wasteful," and said it and state parks "approached the Fjord Trail project by the book, with a transparent, thorough and extensively executed environmental review process, in accordance with law, with years of public input."

Construction is underway on the Breakneck Connector and Bridge, which will carry the trail over the Metro-North tracks north of the Breakneck Tunnel. It includes renovations to the Breakneck train stop and parallel parking and sidewalks. That project underwent a separate environmental review, as did HHFT's proposal to turn Dutchess Manor into a headquarters and visitors ce...

Less potent kratom leaf still legal

The Dutchess County Legislature on Aug. 10 unanimously passed a ban on the sale and distribution of concentrated and synthetic versions of kratom, stopping short of a full ban proposed last month by County Executive Sue Serino.

Originally from Southeast Asia, kratom is a member of the coffee family whose leaves have traditionally been used as a pain reliever and stimulant. But in recent years, highly concentrated and synthetic derivatives of kratom have been used in products such as seltzers, gummies and pills that can be found in colorful, candy-like packaging in vape shops and convenience stores, earning them the nickname "gas station heroin."

Consumers, fooled by packaging that often touts the product as "natural," often don't realize that they're buying an opioid-like drug that causes symptoms such as seizures and respiratory issues. The drug, which has been shown to be addictive and can result in fatal overdoses, is not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Although Serino wanted a full ban, the law exempts kratom in its leaf form, which is far less potent. The ban will take effect when Serino signs the bill, expected by the end of the month.

Legislator Kristofer Munn, a Democrat who represents Red Hook and wrote the law, noted at the Aug. 10 meeting that whether something qualifies for the ban depends on its concentration.

"This is not about just slapping the word 'natural' on a package, and suddenly you're free to sell whatever you want at whatever concentrations you want," he said. "It also bans synthetics. It bans other variations, and it has a sort of catch-all for future analogs if the industry decides to try to capitalize on people's misery in a different way."

He noted that while Serino had urged the Legislature to pass a full ban, her version of the bill "didn't have any sponsors."

"Good policy is not about making or proposing the biggest ban," said Legislator Barrington Atkins, a Democrat who represents the City of Poughkeepsie. "It's about making sure that the actions we take are supported by research. I also want folks to understand that being more aggressive does not mean being more responsible."

Minority Leader Michael Polasek, a Republican who represents LaGrange, said that the legislation should be viewed as a first step.

"What else should we be looking at?" he said. "I think many of us don't go into gas stations anymore. I don't even know how many things are sitting on those shelves in colorful packaging that shouldn't be there. We should be working with law enforcement, the DA's office and the Department of Health, and asking, 'If it's not kratom, what else is there?' "

"Vape cartridges, vape cartridges, vape cartridges," replied Brendan Lawler, a Democrat who represents Hyde Park and the Town of Poughkeepsie. "Oh my goodness, vape cartridges as a starting point."

Post personnel files on 'dark web' after ransom demand

Hackers posted data this week on the "dark web" from City of Beacon computers, including the personnel files of hundreds of current and past employees.

A group known as RansomHouse announced on Aug. 6 that it had gained access to the network at least two weeks earlier. It posted thousands of documents online this week after saying its ransom demands were ignored. As of Tuesday (Aug. 18), a counter indicated 7,260 people had viewed the files, which include folders titled Assessor, Building, Clerk, Finance and HR.

"We are aware of reports regarding a cyber event and are actively investigating," City Administrator Ben Swanson said in a statement on Tuesday. "We have engaged our internal security team and third-party cybersecurity specialists to support the investigation and ensure our environment remains secure. As the review is ongoing, we are unable to provide more at this time."

The Current reviewed the hack and found that, while the files contain information already public, such as budget documents, they also include personal and financial information for hundreds of current, former and retired city employees, including police officers and firefighters, that could be used for fraud.

In addition, the documents appear to contain the contents of computers used by the city administrator, building inspector, finance director, tax assessor and human resources director, among other employees.

Under a state law enacted last year, municipalities must report breaches and payment demands within 72 hours to the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the Division of Consumer Protection, the attorney general and the state police. They must also notify anyone whose data was stolen within 30 days.

According to sites that track hackers, RansomHouse has targeted more than 200 companies and municipalities worldwide since 2021. Along with Beacon, its recent victims include the City of McMinnville, Oregon; Prince George's County, Maryland; and the Warren County Sheriff's Office in Kentucky.

Once they have breached a network through methods such as "phishing" for credentials through email links or installing rogue software (malware), hackers demand payment. Some encrypt data so it can't be accessed; others, like RansomHouse, download sensitive material and threaten to post it online.

Install security software, such as that offered by avg.com, to your computer. Its free version has basic functions and can be upgraded for a fee. Also enable "two-factor authentication" whenever it's offered (i.e., you will need to request a code by text or email to log in to an account).

Be cautious about any email that asks you to click on a link to update or verify information. By hovering your mouse over the link, you can see the address it will send you to. Better yet, go directly to the source. For instance, if an email appears to be from your bank, go to the bank's website to log in or call.

Be especially cautious about emails that claim to have invoices or important documents attached. Antivirus software will usually flag these messages as suspicious or prevent malware from being installed, but a better strategy is to go directly to the source if you have doubts.

Back up your computer regularly so that it can easily be restored if damaged or seized by hackers. You can also encrypt your hard drive using programs such as BitLocker or FileVault to protect it from unauthorized access.

In online posts, RansomHouse claims it provides a service, identifying security flaws, for which it deserves compensation. Like a burglar blaming a homeowner for leaving a window unlocked, it argues the villains are companies and municipalities that don't protect their data. In a message directed at City of Beacon officials, it wrote: "Dear management of City of Beacon, we were waiting for you for quite some time, but it seems that your IT department decided to conceal the incident that took place in your...

Convicted of killing wife's ex-husband in 2020

A former Beacon couple convicted in 2024 of killing the woman's ex-husband was sentenced last week to life in prison by a federal judge in White Plains.

Jamie Orsini, 38, was sentenced on Aug. 11 and Nicholas Orsini, 36, on Aug. 13. They each were convicted of one count of carjacking resulting in death and one count of participating in a conspiracy to commit carjacking in connection with the murder of Jamie Orsini's ex-husband, Steven Kraft.

According to prosecutors, on April 28, 2020, Kraft was killed after he dropped the two children he shared with Jamie Orsini at the Orsini apartment on West Church Street in Beacon. Nicholas Orsini then abandoned Kraft's car in Newburgh, and the couple began a cover-up to disguise the crime.

Prosecutors say that the couple burned and buried Kraft's body in Amsterdam, New York, where both had grown up, although it was never found. Kraft's disappearance came six weeks before a court hearing as he planned to seek sole custody of his daughters or greater visitation.

Nicholas and Jamie Orsini were each sentenced to life with the possibility of parole on the carjacking charge and up to five years on the conspiracy charge, to run concurrently. Each was ordered to pay $6,435 in restitution.

In a letter to the judge before the sentencing, Kraft's aunt, Lori Kaiser, said that her nephew was "a deeply loved member of our family who joined the Marines after high school. Above all else, he loved his two daughters. … He chose to live alone in New York, away from the support of his family in Illinois, solely to remain close to his daughters and fight for custody. We believe this threat to custody is what motivated Jamie and Nick to take his life.

"The defendants have left Steven's children to cope with the devastating reality that their mother and stepfather murdered, dismembered and burned their father. … Steven's murder has devastated our family. His father, my brother Dean, is barely holding on, and the lives of Steven's daughters have been permanently ruined."

In a letter to the judge on July 14, the attorneys for Nicholas Orsini said their client, following his conviction, had "voluntarily led law enforcement to the location in Amsterdam where he believed he had buried Mr. Kraft's remains. Although the search was unsuccessful, that effort — undertaken without any promise of benefit and at his own initiative — reflects a recognition of responsibility and a sincere, if belated, attempt to provide the Kraft family with some measure of closure."

They added that prosecutors had "acknowledged, at least informally, that Jamie Orsini was the driving force behind the offense and that Nicholas Orsini was not the primary instigator." They also cited as mitigating factors the fact that Nicholas Orsini's parents divorced when he was 10 and said he had been sexually abused by the friend of a sister.

According to this defense account, Nicholas Orsini met his wife in high school art class, and they reconnected years later on Facebook. Orsini's mother, aunt, four sisters, brother-in-law and a lifelong friend wrote the judge to ask for leniency. Their letters, the attorney said, establish "a consistent and detailed picture of a relationship defined by psychological control, financial exploitation, physical abuse and deliberate isolation."

The defense told the judge that Jamie Orsini had convinced her husband that "Kraft was sexually assaulting their nonverbal autistic daughter in the bathrooms of the fast-food restaurants where his supervised visitation took place." Orsini offered the Kraft family a "heartfelt statement of responsibility," they said.

Jamie Orsini's statement to the judge was redacted at her request because, her lawyers said, it contained medical records, allegations of abuse and information about her minor children. The court ordered her to provide an unredacted copy to her husband.

Following their arrests in 2023, both Orsinis claimed that prosecuto...

Can humans keep up?

A dozen years ago, Holly Ahern's daughter, Kaleigh, then a college student, asked to come home for the weekend. She wasn't feeling well.

Kaleigh woke up the next morning so sick she couldn't get out of bed. She felt practically paralyzed on one side of her body.

After seeing two dozen specialists, someone suggested a test for Lyme disease. Although Holly Ahern is a microbiologist, she says that Lyme, which is spread through tick bites, never occurred to her. Kayleigh recalled being bitten, but it had been months earlier.

"If there was one thing in my whole life I wish I could change, it would be to take me back to that first doctor's visit so that I could demand an antibiotic treatment for her until they called the cops to take me out of there," Holly Ahern says.

She notes that New York is highly endemic. "You can't go outside practically without getting ticks on you," she says. "People need to know the risks. They need to understand that certain pathogens that ticks transmit are associated with long-term chronic illnesses that are awful."

Kaleigh recovered, but it took three years. At the same time, Ahern decided to change the focus of her research at SUNY Adirondack to improving diagnostic tests for Lyme. She also founded the Lyme Action Network and this year joined the Dutchess County Tick Task Force.

The advisory panel was created by County Executive Sue Serino, who has given so many presentations on tick awareness in schools that she's been called The Tick Lady. "It is a title I am proud of," she says.

Also on the panel: Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, based in Millbrook, and Jill and Ira Auerbach of the Hudson Valley Lyme Disease Association, based in Poughkeepsie. (More members are being recruited, including from the general public; see dutchessny.gov/tick-application.)

Former county Legislator Donna Bolner, who leads the panel, sees it as an opportunity to take a broader approach than that of the Legislature's Deer Tick Control Task Force, on which she sat for 16 years. "We'll be able to have people who represent groups who are being highly impacted and hear what residents need more education on," she said.

"We've had a lot of people move to Dutchess County in the past 10 years, many from areas where they didn't have to think about this," says Bolner. "You're living with it now, so you need to have a good offense."

Like Ahern, Bolner has a personal history with Lyme. She got it a few years after moving to Dutchess and has battled several tick-borne illnesses since. Between March and May, she found six on her skin. "I actually just finished a round of doxycycline," she says, referring to the antibiotic typically prescribed. "The ticks are prolific this year."

Diagnosed for the first time in Sweden in 1909, Lyme disease is spread through ancient bacteria carried by the blacklegged, or deer, tick (Ixodes scapularis). The bacteria has been found in a 15-million-year-old tick fossilized in amber and in a 5,300-year-old mummy preserved in ice in the Italian Alps. The disease was named in 1976 by a field biologist working near Lyme, Connecticut.

Over the past 20 years, there has been an explosion of ticks and tick-borne illnesses in the Hudson Valley. The most prominent newcomer is the aggressive lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum), named for the white spot on the female's back. Research by the Cary Institute has found that ticks in the Hudson Valley are increasingly carrying multiple pathogens, including those that lead to Alpha-gal Syndrome (spread by the lone star tick, which causes an allergic reaction to red meat) and the Bourbon virus (recently discovered in a Long Island man, it was first diagnosed in 2014 in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in a patient who died). Earlier this year, a Dutchess County resident was infected with the Powassan virus, which is spread by blacklegged ticks.

Global warming due to climate change has allowed ticks to expand their range. At the sam...

Judge rejected fraud claims in June

A former Philipstown couple who claim they were victims of fraud is appealing a state judge's ruling upholding the foreclosure and sale of the Route 9 property where they lived and worked.

An attorney for Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur last month filed a notice of their intent to appeal a June ruling by state Judge Gina Capone. Her decision denied the couple's attempt to regain 3154 Route 9, where they operated Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners and sold Cambodian food. The couple also rented a storefront in the building to the owner of a nail salon.

Kim and Oeur, immigrants from Cambodia who also operated an art gallery at the property, were evicted on Dec. 9, 2025, ending a foreclosure process that began in August 2022 when Kim stopped making payments to MT&T Bank on a $570,000 mortgage. An MT&T subsidiary, Chesapeake Holding, paid $620,200 for the parcel at auction in May 2024.

Capone rejected Kim and Oeur's main contention — that they were victims of Derek Keith Williams, who met the couple when his girlfriend, Mauny Bun, owned the nail salon. Williams, who is facing fraud and grand larceny charges, convinced Kim that he paid off the mortgage, according to court documents. Then, for the next few years, he hid the foreclosure by demanding that Kim "turn over any mail or paperwork relating to the property," said her attorney, Jacob Chen.

In Capone's 31-page ruling, she said both Kim and Oeur were "wholly aware" of the foreclosure and the sale of the property well before they claimed to have learned of the eviction in November 2025. She cited appearances Kim made with Williams in Erie County Court when M&T filed a notice of default on the mortgage loan.

She also said a handwritten complaint Kim filed in January 2025 against M&T with the Federal Reserve used the case number for the foreclosure. In addition, said Capone, the contention that Williams withheld mail about the foreclosure "is undermined by the fact that, according to Ms. Kim, Mr. Williams was not living at the subject premises, and present there on a day-to-day basis, until September 2023," a year after the bank initiated the proceeding.

"Throughout these many proceedings, stretching across various jurisdictions and courts, one constant, according to the plaintiff, was that Ms. Kim and Mr. Williams acted in concert to prevent, hinder and interfere" with the bank's efforts to gain the property, said Capone.

Williams, a self-described "sovereign citizen" who had been serving a six-month sentence in the Putnam County jail for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license, was charged in February with six felonies: four for grand larceny and two for filing a false instrument with the intent to defraud.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held in the Putnam jail on $100,000 cash bail or $200,000 bond. His next appearance in Putnam County Court is scheduled for Wednesday (Aug. 19) before Judge Anthony Mole.

Accused of payroll irregularities

A police union president who alleges in a federal lawsuit that Putnam County has shortchanged Sheriff's Office deputies on overtime wages has been suspended without pay after being charged by the agency with payroll irregularities.

Daniel Hunsberger, an investigator with the Sheriff's Office and president of the Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents deputies, was suspended following an internal probe into his "time-and-attendance and payroll records," according to a statement issued Monday (Aug. 10) by Undersheriff James Menton. A 20-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office, Hunsberger faces disciplinary charges that could be referred to Putnam County prosecutors for a review into possible criminal charges, according to Menton.

"The public's trust in this office depends on knowing that the time and the resources paid for by the taxpayers are honored," he said. "No member of this department, whatever their rank, assignment or position, is entitled to be paid for time they did not work or to misuse public funds."

Hudson Valley Digger, a Substack published by former Journal News reporter David McKay Wilson, first reported on Hunsberger's removal from duty, which follows the suspension in February of Kevin Osika, a deputy and the union's vice president. Sheriff Brian Hess suspended Osika, who is married to Putnam Legislator Erin Crowley, after his Feb. 21 arrest by state troopers on misdemeanor assault and harassment charges following a domestic incident at his home.

Menton said that any decision to prosecute Hunsberger would be up to Robert Tendy, the district attorney. According to Wilson, Tendy recused himself from the Osika case because of his office's dealings with the deputy and Crowley. Osika's case in Southeast Town Court is being handled by Dutchess County prosecutors.

In May, Southeast Town Justice Louis Gasparini dismissed the harassment charge against Osika, according to Hudson Valley Digger. The deputy, who was on unpaid leave for 30 days and is now on paid leave, is still being prosecuted for third-degree assault.

"We are committed to identifying and rooting out any form of misconduct or corruption within this department, and to doing so fairly, impartially and with full respect for the rights of every member," said Menton. "That is how the public's trust is earned and kept."

The payroll-related charges against Hunsberger come six months after he joined with Osika and Sgt. Matthew Kraisky, the union treasurer, to sue Putnam in federal court over allegations that the county has for years miscalculated the overtime rate for more than 100 current and former other deputies.

The officers accuse Putnam of dividing their annual salaries by the wrong number of working days — 261 instead of the 249 specified in their contract — to calculate their hourly rate. In one example, Hunsberger says his overtime rate for 2024, when he made $122,819 and accrued 138 overtime hours, should have been $92.11 per hour, not the $87.89 paid by the county.

The officers accuse Putnam of dividing their annual salaries by the wrong number of working days — 261 instead of the 249 specified in their contract — to calculate their hourly rate. In one example, Hunsberger says his overtime rate for 2024, when he made $122,819 and accrued 138 overtime hours, should have been $92.11 per hour, not the $87.89 paid by the county.

According to the complaint, county officials told Hunsberger in November 2024 that the extra 12 days represented holidays or training days.

Hunsberger and the other deputies also allege that the county failed to pay them for 15-minute briefings at the beginning of shifts and has not compensated investigators for on-call duty, which requires them to report to headquarters or a dispatched location within 30 minutes.

In addition to seeking back pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the deputies are demanding punitive damages equal to the amount of unpaid overtime and the re...