Albany

City officials are revisiting plans to unshackle a stretch of Patroon Creek from the culvert that carries it through Tivoli Preserve, one of the largest but most overlooked urban nature preserves in the state.

The project entails freeing the creek — which flows just shy of seven miles along I-90 from Rensselaer Lake in the Pine Bush to the Hudson River — from the 6-foot clay pipe that's restrained more than a quarter-mile of it for about a century.

Planning Director Doug Melnick said the proposal, known as "daylighting," is aimed at controlling flooding caused by heavy storms that overwhelm the culvert's ability to contain the stream, potentially endangering nearby railroad tracks and a major county sewer line.

But Melnick said the plan also would create a more natural environment, a better wildlife habitat and eventually the potential for recreational trails alongside it.

At 80 acres, Tivoli was established in 1975 by former Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd and, according to the city, is the second-largest urban nature park in the state.

Yet because of its relatively isolated location, stretching north above West Hill along Livingston Avenue between Northern Boulevard and Ontario Street, it receives only a fraction of the visitors of other large city parks.

A similar 2009 plan to tap $1 million in federal stimulus money to daylight the creek and route it back into Tivoli Lake met with resistance from some neighborhood and environmental activists who feared upstream contamination would foul the lake and its surrounding wetlands.

The creek flows near at least two prominent sites of past toxic contamination and two decades ago was named one of the most polluted in the state — though it was later removed from that list.

Melnick said the current plan would allow the city to daylight the creek without committing to a third phase, which would involve redirecting some of flow back toward the lake in hopes of improving its health by boosting oxygen levels.

"That's frankly not on the table now until we've got more data," he said.

Melnick estimated the project would cost between $1 million and $1.5 million and said the city would likely seek funding from the state's Environmental Facilities Corporation.

Ken Watson, a volunteer with the W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center, a steward of the preserve, called the daylighting plan a "good idea" that would protect infrastructure and provide a more natural stream course.

But Watson, citing the run-off that resembles "a thin pudding" during heavy rain, maintains his opposition to steering the creek into the lake.

"It's (pollution from) parking lots and streets and driveways and sidewalks and roofs, and a lot of nasties of civilization that get flushed in," Watson said. "I'd just hate to see that resource contaminated."

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU

Stephentown

On race days, the Lebanon Valley Speedway is loud. There's no disputing that.

Virginia Powell has mostly made her peace with the noise. Yes, her home is just a few hundred yards from the speedway and its drag strip, but she doesn't complain. After all, the speedway was there when she bought the old farmhouse.

But a planned motocross track that would bring the crowds and noise even closer? That, she says, is another story.

"My house would be worthless," Powell said.

Debate over the planned motocross has raged in Stephentown and neighboring New Lebanon since speedway owner Howard Commander first proposed it for the residentially zoned site three years ago. And the contours of the fight are familiar to anyone who has seen similar conflicts elsewhere.

On one side you have Powell and other homeowners who say they are trying to protect their property values and quality of life from a development that threatens both. On the other side are people who dismiss the critics as NIMBYs and say the motocross is needed development that would bring jobs and tax revenue.

Commander, of course, is in the second group.

"We need economic growth, and we need to fight for it," he said. "They can put anything in my backyard."

Commander says the noise from motocross bikes would be minimal compared to the 1,800-horsepower blasts from his drag-race cars. And he says he needs the expansion to ensure that the speedway — a significant summertime employer in this rural area near the Massachusetts border — remains economically viable.

"To keep the revenue coming in, to keep the people hired, you need more income," Commander said. "It's as simple as that."

But neighbors say noise from the motocross would be different — more annoying — because it would be nearly constant, as opposed to short blasts during quick races. And they fear Commander would open the new track to all-terrain vehicles or snowmobiles, making noise a year-round problem.

"It's not what anybody in the area wants," said Lew Oliver, an environmental lawyer who is representing motocross opponents for free.

The difficulty with these types of disputes is that both sides are essentially right. It's true, I think, that the motocross might hurt the quality of life experienced by some homeowners, especially Powell, who would be able to hit the new track with a thrown rock. But yes, it would also be economic development, an attraction that might bring new customers to stores and restaurants along Route 20.

Aren't you glad you're not on the Stephentown Zoning Board of Appeals, which has to make this decision? The board, in fact, might vote on the proposal after a May 14 public hearing.

As tends to happen with these disputes, the motocross debate has become emotional and divisive, with heated public meetings packed with supporters and opponents.

It's important to remember, though, that zoning board members aren't deciding whether motocross would be good for the town. Issues like noise and economic development aren't supposed to be part of their decision. They're charged only with deciding whether Commander is legally entitled to a town zoning exemption.

See, Stephentown, by giving the site a residential zone, has already decided the property is best used for homes, which makes sense because the track is planned for a cornfield along Webster Hill Road, away from the Route 20 commercial strip. To overcome that determination, Commander must prove the zoning deprives him "of all economic use or benefit from the property" and that the financial hardship not be self-created.

That's state law, and it puts the speedway's variance request on shaky legal ground. After all, if the land isn't appropriate for home construction, that's only because it sits so near the speedway — clearly a self-created problem.

"He's created the noise that makes his property unmarketable as residential," said Oliver, who notes that Commander bought the land in 1995, when the residential zone was already set.

Still, too many town boards ignore state law and hand out zoning variances like Halloween candy — especially for powerful and influential landowners. Indeed, the Stephentown board granted Commander the motocross variance in 2010, only to have the decision vacated when opponents sued.

How will the board vote this time? Commander isn't guessing.

"I honestly don't know which way it's going to go," he said.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5700 • @chris_churchill

Cohoes

Jeff Rockefeller never got past the eighth grade growing up in Troy. He spent his 20s in the Capital District Psychiatric Center and has struggled with severe depression and suicidal thoughts.

"He's never had a day of peace in his life," his mother said.

Now 44 years old and released from state prison five months ago, Rockefeller spent nearly 20 months, half his 40-month incarceration, in solitary confinement. Even as a free man, he still struggles with sleeplessness, nightmares and crying fits. "I was locked up in a cage like an animal," he said. "It's torture."

"He's different since he got out," said his girlfriend, Mary, a 66-year-old retired state worker who asked to be identified only by her first name. "He can't sleep. He's jumpy. He's having a hard time easing back into his former life. Nobody should be treated the way he was."

She recalled his anguished letters from prison, writing that he couldn't take it anymore and wanted to end his life. In phone calls from prison, he broke down in sobs.

Rockefeller's psychiatric problems — which helped land him in "The Box" and worsened during his long months in 23-hour-a-day disciplinary isolation — symbolize a form of punitive incarceration that prisoner advocates call inhuman. Correction officials defend it as an effective method to control unruly inmates.

Prison watchdog groups said Rockefeller's prison experience is a sad but not uncommon saga. On any given day, about 4,500 inmates are in solitary confinement in New York's prisons, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Services. There are currently 8,197 mentally ill inmates out of a total prison population of 54,643. Three of the 14 prisoners who committed suicide in 2012 were in solitary confinement, according to DOCCS records.

Prison suicides between 2001 and 2010 rose 186 percent to the highest level in 28 years, according to the Correctional Association of New York State, a watchdog group.

Prisoners in solitary are confined to cells 6 feet by 8 feet, with almost no human contact. One hour per day, in newer prisons, a caged balcony is unlocked remotely so inmates can breathe fresh air. Lights and shower are controlled remotely. Meals are pushed through a slot in a reinforced cell door. Inmates experience intense sensory deprivation in these so-called Special Housing Units, or SHUs.

Dr. Stuart Grassian, a board-certified psychiatrist in the Boston area and former professor at Harvard Medical School, coined the term "SHU syndrome." In an authoritative study, Grassian found that prisoners confined for lengthy periods in solitary show a range of symptoms of mental illness: depression, increased paranoia, agitation, manic activity, delusions, florid psychotic illness and suicide.

"I walk along rows of The Box in the middle of the day and the guys have been so isolated they've lost their ability to interact socially," said Jack Beck, director of the prison visiting project with the Correctional Association.

Studies showed there are heightened incidents of prisoners in solitary injuring themselves, attempting or successfully completing suicide, Beck said. "It's a very common pattern," he said. "It's a terribly toxic environment for people with mental health issues and they end up deteriorating."

"It's disappointing that we haven't made more progress after we've pushed on this issue for so long," said Robert Corliss, a retired advocate for mentally ill prisoners who worked for more than a decade on the issue.

"More and more people in New York and across the country are realizing that solitary confinement remains a problem," said Jennifer Parish, director of the mental health project for the Urban Justice Center. The center is part of a coalition that helped get legislation passed in 2011 that provides additional psychiatric treatment and diverts the most seriously mentally ill patients from The Box.

Opposition to solitary confinement is rising across New York, led by a coalition of groups that calls itself the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement, or "Think Outside the Box."

In a February column, conservative newspaper columnist George Will issued a passionate call to end what he called a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment."

Will cited an independent review of solitary confinement in federal prisons that found half of all prison suicides are committed by prisoners held in isolation. There are an estimated 105,000 inmates held in solitary confinement currently in state and federal prisons.

"Americans should be roused against this by decency — and prudence," Will wrote, noting that it is more costly than regular confinement and ends up releasing back to local communities psychotic and mentally shattered individuals.

Beginning in adolescence, Rockefeller racked up a long rap sheet with dozens of misdemeanors, mostly low-level harassment. His mother said he was diagnosed with serious mental illness at age 10 after a childhood traumatized by an abusive father, her ex-husband, and a long series of treatments and hospitalizations made little improvement.

"Things never work out for me," he said in a low, flat monotone. He has deep-set, dark-rimmed eyes and a prominent brow. His receding brown hair is parted in the middle. He is a giant of a man, but by most accounts he is gentle and not prone to violence.

Rockefeller was convicted four years ago on a count of attempted terroristic threat, his first felony, after a 2006 incident involving harassing and threatening Gary Gordon, an investigator with the Rensselaer County district attorney's office. Rockefeller entered the state prison system in the summer of 2009. The 6-foot-6 inmate, nicknamed "Too Tall" by other prisoners, soon fell into a spiral of complaints filed against correction officers, denied appeals and recriminations.

Rockefeller filed seven grievances of abuse and misbehavior against guards, according to Tom Mailey, a state DOCCS spokesman. All were denied. DOCCS does not comment on individual prisoners and the records speak for themselves, Mailey said.

Each time he filed a grievance, mouthed off to guards or acted out in inappropriate ways, he was issued a ticket for additional time in solitary confinement. During a 16-month stretch in The Box, he knotted up sheets and tried to hang himself. He was discovered before he did serious harm.

Rockefeller continues to press his case through lawsuits alleging beatings by correction officers and one alleged violent assault by a half-dozen guards at Attica on Feb. 22, 2011, that Rockefeller said ended with him being sodomized with a nightstick.

He detailed the assault in a meeting in January with a State Police investigator in the town of Attica. Rockefeller also gave a typed account of the alleged assault to the Wyoming County District Attorney's Office. Neither agency acted on Rockefeller's allegations.

Rockefeller, who shares an apartment in Cohoes with his girlfriend of 13 years, works sporadically as a roofer and still struggles with mental health issues.

"Why would anyone treat a human being like that?" asked his mother, Diane Daigneault of Troy. "He was beaten and sodomized in prison. Putting him in solitary all that time destroyed him."

She visited her son several times in prison. She said he was emaciated and listless, as if in a stupor. Because he was in disciplinary isolation, Rockefeller was shackled with heavy chains at his wrists, waist and ankles during visits and confined to a small glass booth.

"He got so much worse in prison," she said.

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl

Ballston Spa

Saying they increasingly meet with violence from those who need medical help, members of a small ambulance squad will begin wearing bulletproof armor.

Community Emergency Corps, which serves about 24,000 residents in Milton and Ballston, recently purchased 16 armored vests that paramedics and responders will don.

Employees said Wednesday they are now responding to more calls involving violent crime, drugs and mental health issues. The ballistic vests, bought with a donation, are intended to protect members from gunfire, stabbings and other physical threats, Executive Director Ray Otten said. While no member of the force has been seriously injured, six to eight in recent years have had to defend themselves from volatile patients, he said.

"I've been doing this since 1984, and even 10 years ago you never thought about body armor," Otten said. "But with the change in the type of calls we've been getting and the propensity for violence, we had to think about this."

More firefighters and EMS workers across the country are wearing body armor, especially in larger cities, according to reports. While police officers and FBI, CIA and U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents wear tactical vests, paramedics are now considering them, too.

Last week's bombing of the Boston Marathon and recent attacks on firefighters in Georgia and Webster, Monroe County, reaffirmed the Ballston Spa corps' decision to upgrade their equipment, Otten said. The squad is the first in Saratoga County and among the first in the region to acquire the vests.

The Ballston Spa ambulance squad started searching for funding for the equipment in January. Its members responded to about 2,300 medical calls for assistance in 2012, according to Assistant Chief Timothy Thomas. Calls for psychiatric care increased 23 percent to 138 over 2011; calls for drug ingestion grew 24 percent to 50; calls for assaults with a weapon went up 19 percent to 32; and calls for stabbings/gunshot wounds increased to four from one, Thomas said.

"We're finding more incidents of depression, anger, lashing out," Thomas said. "People are just more willing to be violent, to show their aggression."

While more EMS members say they want armor, it's hard to find funding, Otten said. The Community Emergency Corps purchased its vests from Phalanx Defense Systems for about $450 each, Otten said. Joseph Laspisa of Clifton Park donated the money in memory of his late wife, Mary Laspisa, who was a charter member of the corps.

The black vests weigh about 15 pounds each. Some contain pouches with zippers on the front. Members of the ambulance squad worked with Phalanx to develop the design. The corps wanted a one-size-fits-all model that users could slip over their coats.

EMS squads are a new and growing market for the Florida-based company, Phalanx CEO James Coats said. He arrived in the region on Wednesday to attend an equipment dedication ceremony at 1 p.m. Thursday in the ambulance station on Thompson Street.

First responders will be required to wear the armored vests on certain calls.

"It's just changing times and changing attitudes toward responders," Otten said. "We've now become a target for the violent."

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko

Albany

Qamar Shojai is the 23-year-old mayor of Markazi, Afghanistan, the first woman mayor in the country.

She is celebrated as a symbol of women's rights in her war-ravaged homeland.

But in her rural district, she struggles to keep peace in an impoverished city of 100,000 people and to sort out land disputes in a long-simmering feud between local farmers and Pashtun nomads. The nomads move into the area each spring to graze their livestock on farmers' fields. Their seasonal presence spurs ethnic violence and a spike in crime, including destroyed crops, burned homes and murder.

"We still have a lot of fighting," said the petite, soft-spoken mayor who studied structural engineering in college before she was nominated as mayor by the governor of Wardak province and approved by members of Parliament last year. It was deemed too volatile to hold elections.

"Our biggest trouble is not the Taliban insurgency. It's land disputes."

Shojai spoke in Dari and Pashto, translated into English by a State Department interpreter. Shojai and two other Afghan elected officials met with state legislators and toured the Capitol Wednesday as part of a three-week visit to the U.S. organized and funded by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. They met with government officials in Colonie and Troy and were scheduled to have a breakfast meeting with University at Albany President Robert Jones on Thursday. They will also visit Tucson, Pensacola, Fla., New York City and Washington, D.C.

"We're showing them what our government does, the good, the bad and the ugly," said Diane Conroy-LaCivita, executive director of the International Center of the Capital Region, who organized the local itinerary for the Afghans. "We learn from them as much as they learn from us. We think of it as creating a global community, one hand shake at a time."

As the Pentagon prepares to withdraw 34,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year — more than half the U.S. troops currently stationed there — and the Obama administration seeks to make good on a promise to end America's military role in the 11-year-old conflict by 2014, there have been renewed attacks by Taliban insurgents and concerns that the drawdown is ushering in a period of more violence and instability.

"We appeal to the United States to continue its military presence and financial assistance. Please don't leave Afghanistan alone in this crucial transition period," said Lailoma Wali Hakami, a member of Parliament from the Nangarhar province, near the capital of Kabul.

She is one of 69 women among the 249 members of Parliament. She conceded that Afghanistan remains a fragile democracy in its infancy.

"We're still dealing with warlords roaming around the country," said Hakami, a former high school principal in Kabul and a mother of three, including two in college. Her husband is a civil engineer in Kabul. She was a reluctant politician, who ran only at the strong urging of family and friends. She topped 63 other candidates and received twice as many votes as the second-place finisher did.

"I'm an educator, not a politician. But I will bring the concerns of the people to Parliament," she said, adding that trying to sort out land disputes consumes most of her time. "Despite my personal support of the Karzai government, I will work to get rid of the government corruption and favoritism that undermines the stability of our country."

While their task is fraught with stress and political pressures, neither of the women must deal with the extreme security problems that Mohammad Omar Omar faces on a daily basis as mayor of Kandahar City, one of the most violent areas. He has four armed bodyguards stationed at his house around the clock and a security detail of 15 armed guards at work.

He was elected two years ago after his mayoral predecessor was assassinated by Taliban insurgents.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared," said Omar Omar, 35, who worked previously as a journalist. He has a bachelor's degree in Islamic law from Kabul University. He and his wife have four children, ages 6 to 11.

"They worry about me, of course," he said. "I tell my kids dad has to do his job. We can't count on American help forever. We have to step up and make sacrifices. If I don't do it, who else will?"

Omar Omar has avoided improvised explosive devices on his occasional walks and a would-be Taliban assailant got inside the walled compound where he lives, but his bodyguards captured the intruder before he got far. Omar Omar is paid about $400 a month as mayor. He proudly showed off an Apple iPhone 5, a perk of the office. He's been using it to take a lot of photos during his U.S. trip. He spoke while eating a cheeseburger and French fries Wednesday in Capitol Park. "Nice," he said of his lunch.

In two years, the mayor said his biggest accomplishments were paving 20 miles of roads, installing 10 miles of sidewalks, planting 300 trees and increasing the number of city employees from 35 to 140.

When Omar Omar was informed that Erastus Corning 2nd was elected mayor of Albany for 11 terms and died in office after 42 years, he rolled his eyes, let out a low sigh and muttered an expression in Pashto. The interpreter did not translate.

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl

Saratoga Springs

A Fort Edward man organized unlicensed fights in Saratoga Springs and Lake George, including bouts in which a 34-year-old knocked a teenager out within 15 seconds and a kickboxer was beaten unconscious, authorities said Thursday.

David Archambault, owner of Wild Child Productions and Iron Fists MMA, held unsanctioned and illegal boxing matches in the Saratoga Knights of Columbus and Lake George Forum two years ago, the state Attorney General's Office said.

Police arrested Archambault, a 39-year-old Fort Edward firefighter, on Monday. He was charged with two misdemeanors — holding an unlicensed boxing match and second-degree reckless endangerment — in both City Court and Lake George Town Court, law enforcement officials said.

Archambault also faces a charge in the city of endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly pitting a 34-year-old man against a 16-year-old boy in a boxing match in the Knights of Columbus on April 24, 2011, authorities said.

A video camera captured the teen getting punched and appearing dazed as he tried to stand, state prosecutors said. The teen's mother witnessed the incident, court papers said.

Knights of Columbus officials could not be reached for comment Thursday. They earlier said they were not aware of the alleged fighting in the facility and were not charged.

On Aug. 20, 2011, Archambault hosted a martial arts and boxing event in the Lake George Forum at which he solicited amateur fighters to engage in various types of fighting, according to state officials.

A kickboxer was knocked out cold during one fight, prompting someone at the fight to call an ambulance, court papers said. Archambault again failed to obtain approval from the state Athletic Commission for the event, law enforcement said.

Tickets for the two fight nights cost $25 to $40, court papers said. Both were captured on video, prosecutors said. State regulations do not allow 16-year-olds to compete in professional boxing matches, prosecutors said.

Archambault failed to provide ringside medical physicians and a licensed referee, prosecutors said.

To be exempt from state jurisdiction, boxing matches must be sponsored by a military organization, a university or college or the U.S. Amateur Boxing Federation. Archambault claimed his events were sponsored by the USA Muay Thai Association, officials said.

"Muay Thai is a combat sport from Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques," court papers said.

Archambault was released without bail.

A spokesperson for the state attorney general said the office received several complaints about Archambault prior to his arrest.

"He was basically hosting souped-up bar fights," the spokesperson said.

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko

Albany

For victims of violent crimes and their families, hardships come in many forms. Some are to be expected. Others are unforeseen.

Nicole Dunbar still can't shake the image of finding her mother, Millie, on Oct. 9, 2003, half-naked, stabbed to death in a pool of her own blood.

"I will always live with that," Dunbar said. "That vivid memory."

Mackenzie Dimitri was already hurt and afraid in the wake of her sexual assault when she said local blogs identified her and, for reasons that are still unknown to her, called Dimitri a liar and ridiculed her and her family. The Times Union does not usually name sexual assault victims, but Dimitri was speaking at a public event.

"I was called every name you can imagine at a time when I needed courage and strength more than ever," Dimitri said. "It was vicious."

Both women shared their stories Thursday afternoon as part of the city's annual Crime Victims' Memorial at Academy Park.

In sharp, gripping detail, Dunbar walked the crowd through the chilling moments leading up to and after the discovery of her mother's body.

Dimitri spoke to the influence of self-styled bloggers, how they remain largely unchecked and what steps the community should take to curb their clout. Each talked openly about their painful experiences in the hopes of preventing someone else from living through what they endured.

The day Millie Dunbar was killed, she and her daughter were supposed to go to a friend's wedding. Nicole Dunbar and her brother, Joe, went to their mother's home in Albany's South End about 4 p.m. after they could not get a hold of her. From the backyard, they saw their mother's makeup bag laid out on the kitchen table. Joe Dunbar noticed blood on the bathroom floor. They kicked the door down. There was a pile of men's clothing on the floor. Millie Dunbar's body was lying nearby. She had been stabbed in the neck and chest 36 times with a butcher knife. Nicole Dunbar reached down to take her mother's pulse. Her hand went into a deep wound.

"That's when reality hit me," Nicole Dunbar said. "It was an out-of-body experience."

Joe Dunbar tossed a grill across the yard. His sister was in hysterics. Police came.

Two things were missing: Millie Dunbar's car and her husband, Luis Velez.

Velez was soon found in the closet of a crack house, covered in his wife's blood. Millie Dunbar's jewelry and purse were nearby. Her car was outside. Velez killed his wife for crack money, prosecutors said. He ripped the jewelry off his wife's dead body and sat down to smoke a cigarette before he left.

That winter, Velez pleaded guilty to murder and robbery. He is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence.

"He left her like that for us to find her," Nicole Dunbar said. "Every day for the last 10 years I have envisioned the scene of finding her. I've talked to doctors, I've gone to support groups, confided in family and friends, but that's the one thing I will always live with."

After struggling for years, Nicole Dunbar said she was able to draw something positive from the tragedy to help her be a stronger person.

"That is what my mother would have wanted," she said.

Like Dunbar, Dimitri said she feels as though she has lived two lives: before and after her attack. She was raped in October 2010 in Colonie. Her case went to trial early last year.

Before her attacker, Joseph Sposito, was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison, Dimitri was skewered by local blogs, she said. One in particular revictimized her family, Dimitri said, by discrediting her story and insulting her and her family.

Before her trial was winding down, Dimitri said "The only account (of her case) came from an extremist blogger. ... It hurt to know that was all that was out there."

Dimitri urged newspapers and television stations to report on cases like hers earlier and said the community should not support any businesses or lawyers that advertise and support such blogs.

"When we let people attack crime victims and drag their names through the mud, we are failing the next victim as well," Dimitri said. "We need to act together. If we come forward we will not allow (victims) to be attacked twice."

bfitzgerald@timesunion.com • 518-454-5414 • @BFitzgeraldTU

More than 100 Capital Region women turned out wearing their finest red hats to attend a national Red Hat Society day gathering for lunch and conversation Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Clifton Park. The Spindle City Divas sponsored the event.

Malta

Jared Palermo kept his shirt on. His mother is glad.

Palermo, 26, is one of 10 male finalists for the 2013 Sexiest Vegan Next Door, a contest run by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Palermo, his male rivals and 10 female finalists were winnowed by online voting from hundreds of original contestants. Balloting runs through Friday, May 3. The winning man and woman will receive a trip to Hawaii.

In photos on the contest website (http://bit.ly/10dgLev) eight of the women display their fit physiques with lingerie, swimsuits or other revealing attire, and five of the men are shirtless, their finely hewn torsos as advertisements to the advantages of a plant-based diet.

Palermo, in contrast, sports a gleaming grin, knit cap and T-shirt reading "Animal liberation saves lives." The shirt is made by Motive Co., a local clothing firm with which Palermo is involved that is dedicated to veganism and the straight-edge lifestyle.

"I didn't want to do that whole cliche thing of taking my shirt off," says Palermo. "I wanted it to be about the message, not the look."

"Besides," he adds, "some of those guys are in really amazing shape. I'm in OK shape, but I can't compare to that."

As it happens, the most ripped of the male finalists, a man named Ed Bauer, who appears to have 10-pack abs, is also from the Capital Region. A vegan bodybuilder and fitness coach in Oregon, Bauer spent his childhood in Albany.

The presence in the contest of two men with local ties suggests that 20 percent of the sexiest male vegans in the nation are from the Capital Region.

And one of them is a janitor at Knolls Atomic Powers Lab in Niskayuna.

"It's really about the animals," says Palermo, who lives with a friend in a Malta apartment complex. "I think what makes a vegan sexy is that they're healthy-looking, they have energy. But it's more attractive to really care about the issues."

Palermo, who grew up in Charlton, became a vegan during his senior year at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Senior High School. At first done for health reasons and as an extension of his straight-edge beliefs, including eschewing drugs and alcohol, veganism led Palermo to related issues such as the environment and animal rights. He gave many presentations during college at SUNY Oneonta, where he studied communications, and has continued his activism by attending animal-rights conferences and selling Motive apparel at vegan events.

"I've always been able to talk; it's my strong suit. I can talk and talk and talk. I've met so many people, networked, and I've found that a lot of people who aren't vegan are trying to live a meat-free lifestyle, and I say, 'Hey, that's really great. Good for you,' " says Palermo.

He has used social media extensively to promote his campaign for the Sexiest Vegan Next Door title, though he'd rather be known for his passionate activism than as a hottie who doesn't eat meat or wear leather.

His mother agrees.

"I said, 'You're competing for what?' " says Sue Palermo. "He repeated it, Sexiest Vegan Next Door, and I was like, 'Well, OK, that's just Jared being Jared.' He's always been very strong in his convictions. And he's always liked to travel. When he told me the winner gets a trip to Hawaii, it all made sense."

She believes his promotional savvy, passion for veganism and engaging smile give him a good chance at winning the contest, though the title still makes her uncomfortable.

"He's my son, so I can't think about it that way," she says. "He's a good-looking boy, but I told him not to take his shirt off if he didn't have to."

sbarnes@timesunion.com • 518-454-5489 • @Tablehopping • http://facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCritic

Rensselaer

Athar Hossin and Sofia Leyko, an Arab and a Jew, converse in Hebrew, with a smattering of Arabic. They attend the same school, David Yellin College, a Jewish institution in Jerusalem. And both are planning to become teachers.

Leyko is a secular Jew who does not attend a temple and the only Jewish holidays she celebrates are Passover and Rosh Hashanah.

Hossin is a devout Muslim who prays five times each day, facing toward Mecca.

Despite religious and ethnic differences, the two young women have far more in common than the forces that divide them, they believe.

The friendship between the student-teachers has deepened during a three-week cultural exchange at Doane Stuart School. They are talking with students and teaching classes at the private, co-educational school that stresses interfaith programming. Both are staying with music teacher Joe Hetko and his wife, Paula.

"The students ask a lot of questions and want to know if we have a solution to the conflict," said Leyko, 23, who is majoring in special education. "We show them that we are just people and we can get along if we get to know each other. We can't wait for the government to come up with a solution. We have to find a way from the bottom up, people to people, to live together in peace."

"My family raised me to respect everybody and instilled in me the idea that peace is possible," said Hossin, 23, who lives in Beit Safafa, an integrated, middle-class Arab neighborhood in a Jewish area of southern Jerusalem. The village was split between Israeli and Jordanian rule until it was reunited with Israel in the 1967 War.

Hossin is a sophomore early childhood education major at David Yellin College, which has 4,500 students. It was founded in 1913 and was the first school to offer courses in Hebrew and to train teachers who could educate students in Hebrew. It now offers a number of courses in Arabic.

Still, Arab students like Hossin represent a small minority of students. Arab and Jewish students tend to stick to their separate groups at school, so full social integration has not yet been achieved. Surnames, accents, clothing and skin color highlight one's ethnic background.

Both described their college as a peaceful, accepting environment free of ethnic violence and overt harassment.

"It helps a lot that I've been studying Hebrew since I was young," said Hossin, the oldest of five siblings. Her parents are both government employees. "I get along well with Israelis. We live close to each other and know each other in my neighborhood."

Leyko has a younger brother and her mother works at a cosmetics store in Arad, a tourist town near the Dead Sea. Her father works in a textile mill. Both were professionals in Ukraine, but they struggled financially and relocated to Israel for economic opportunity.

Leyko and Hossin joined a contingent of five Arabs and five Jews from their college on a visit to colleges in Belfast in Northern Ireland last year. They learned how Catholics and Protestants came together to sign the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, bringing an end to sectarian violence known as "The Troubles." Doane Stuart hosted several cultural exchanges with students in Belfast in past years and that success led to this year's visit by Hossin and Leyko.

"We're an interfaith school and they offer a real-life example to our students of how people in Jerusalem are living together and getting along," said Lisa Brown, interim head of school. "It's a good learning experience in both directions."

"We learned about the Six-Day War in religion class, but they're teaching us a lot more about their culture and daily life," said William Murdock, a seventh-grader.

"I hope they can solve their problems and find peace, because war is not fun," said seventh-grader Alexis Vautrin.

Sami Mohamed Ali, a seventh-grader of Palestinian lineage, said his mother got him involved in writing letters to Palestinian children in refugee camps. "It's cool to see them both here," he said of the visitors. "I think the only solution is a compromise of some sort. They all have to live in one place and neither side can kick the other one out."

The exchange pleased teacher Seamus Hodgkinson. He's Catholic, grew up in Northern Ireland, married a Protestant woman and founded the school's cultural exchange program in 2003. "This is dropping a little pebble into the ocean, but that's how change happens," he said.

He pointed to a poster in the school with a quote from Helen Keller: "The highest result of education is tolerance."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl

Cohoes

For 12 years, Cohoes Music Hall, the historic, four-story brick venue on Remsen Street, has been leased and managed by C-R productions — the theatrical nonprofit that stages several musicals a year. That's longer than any other company since 1874.

Those shows will go on. But in a move announced Wednesday, the city of Cohoes has created a new position, executive consulting director, tasked with overseeing the space and fleshing out the hall's programming with year-round events beyond C-R's regular theatrical offerings. It hired an old neighbor to fill it: Sal Prizio, who owned and ran the Bread and Jam cafe, also on Remsen, from 2008-2010.

Prizio will remain in his position as programming manager at the Massry Center for the Arts at The College of Saint Rose.

The city approached him "a couple of weeks back. Essentially, they want somebody to come in and give (the hall) an artistic direction with kind of a wider scope, so that's what I'm doing," he said.

"We're just going to sit there and really bring the music hall alive," said Mayor George Primeau. "So it's going to be operational and open to the public a lot more than what it was."

Primeau praised the work of C-R Productions and said the aim is not to replace C-R but beef up the hall's artistic and cultural fare.

Tony Rivera, managing director of C-R Productions, said he understood the city "was hoping to do more" with its venerable space, "and our schedule is just too crazy, too hectic to manage all of that."

Asked whether this marks a difficult transition for him and C-R artistic director Jim Charles, his partner in life and work, Rivera replied: "No, not at all. I think it's a great venture." He added the new administrative arrangement was unrelated to C-R's 2012 financial straits and subsequent fundraising campaign, which raised more than $75,000.

Future programming could include "jazz artists and folk and bluegrass, things like that — possibly some dance," along with comedy gigs and lectures, Prizio said. "We'll just really kind of open it up to a lot of different artists."

But given the historic nature of the building and community sensibilities, he said, "There's not going to be things like techno parties and raves."

Prizio said details of the operating agreement between the city and Prizio's production company, Rumpus Lab Productions, are not finalized. Also not finalized: the events. He doesn't anticipate adding acts to the venue's summer line-up, as he needs to "kind of get my hands in there and really assess" the business and building needs. "I don't want to rush into it. I want to take my time so we can get all our ducks in a row."

C-R will proceed with its spring and summer productions (next up is "Nunsations! The Nunsense Vegas Revue," from May 9-19) and its new season, which begins Sept. 9 with "Les Miserables."

"I just want to make sure people realize: Our programming will continue. We're not going anywhere," Charles stressed. He added that he and Rivera are both content to turn over management and upkeep of the hall, which is visited by almost 30,000 people per year. "We don't have to manage it, and we don't have to clean it. It's a huge building that needs constant care and love, and it's a huge responsibility taken off our shoulders."

As Charles spoke, he was retrieving nun costumes out of storage for "Nunsations." C-R leases and maintains several other spaces in the city of Cohoes, including a performing arts school on Laura Drive.

"If somebody would like to take one of those campuses," Rivera said, "that's wonderful. That is one less thing for Tony to worry about."

Prizio foresees no programming conflicts between the music hall and Massry, a recital hall with an educational mission, and is happy to help revitalize Cohoes. "I'm a citizen of the city, too. I have a vested interest. I have children that go to school in the city, and I want to see the downtown revitalized just as much as all the other citizens do."

So does Rivera. "This is really a positive thing that the city is investing this energy into that building," he said. "Knowing that the mayor is committed to improving the outreach, and the publicity, and the opportunity for artists to come into the music hall — I just find that really exciting."

abiancolli@timesunion.com • 518-454-5439 • @AmyBiancolli

Albany

Dozens, and possibly hundreds, of University at Albany students are paying classmates to complete their homework assignments.

As many as 100 of the 650 students enrolled in Professor Peter Ross' Computer Applications in Business course may have cheated by paying other students to complete homework assignments, he said.

The allegations were first reported in a Wednesday story by the Albany Student Press, the school's student newspaper. Students in the course paid $10 for a routine homework assignment and $40 for longer assignments, according to the paper.

And while that is one egregious example of student cheating, the abuse may be more widespread. Student Facebook pages named by UAlbany class year are essentially an open-air market where classmates look to buy and sell assignments. In one recent post a student offered to pay someone to finish an internship. Another offered to sell chemistry labs with answers filled in. Still others offer money for help completing assignments.

UAlbany spokesman Karl Luntta acknowledged Wednesday that the school was conducting an investigation into allegations of cheating in one class. He said the school expressly prohibits academic dishonesty and fraud, which includes buying and selling assignments. Students found guilty of violating the code of conduct face a range of penalties, including expulsion. "We're taking, and always take, any violations of student conduct seriously," he said.

Luntta declined to specify how many students were involved in buying or selling the assignments.

The widespread cheating in one class, which the Albany Student Press alleges involves hundreds of students, is an example of how hard it is to police students who grew up in the Internet era. Ross said he has been trying to stop cheating for at least five years for assignments in his course, which covers Microsoft Excel and Access, spreadsheet and data bases. Students use a unique password to log in to a class website to complete their work. Some were copying the files of others so he found two separate publishers with programs that identify duplicated work.

Ross said that only partially works. He has caught 20 students cheating by copying work this semester. Still, he suspects far more students — he estimates 50 to 100 in just his class — have found a way around the copying detection by paying someone who previously took the course to log in to and complete their assignments. Ross said he is now in the process of finding out which students cheated and doesn't know how far it extends.

"My friends said 'Why do you waste your time, you can just buy the assignments,' " said a student enrolled in the course, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.

Schools have long relied on software programs that detect plagiarism and other forms of cheating. But as more as more assignments and courses move online, there is more temptation for students.

Brook Ballard, a junior Internet technology major and economics minor, is currently being investigated by the university for taking money to complete assignments for Ross' class after he was named in the ASP article. On Thursday, Ballard, who also works in the school's Web support office, vigorously denied any claim of cheating. He said he had tutored about 20 students, and accepted pay to sit next to them and offer tips as they completed assignments. He said a number of students who asked to work with him later canceled because they found someone else who would simply do their work for money. "When I work with them, I help them learn the stuff," he said. "It's not illegal to tutor."

Ballard, who claimed to have an A average, said he was disgusted that the student paper named him as a cheat and said he was exploring legal options. He expects to be cleared at a school hearing next week. swaldman@timesunion.com • 518-454-5080 • @518Schools

Clifton Park

A 35-year-old fugitive wanted in connection with the 2011 slaying of a former police officer from Northern Ireland and his girlfriend in the Philippines was taken into custody Wednesday in Saratoga County by State Police and the FBI.

Timothy Noah Kaufman of 8 Greenlea Drive, who a family member said is a Marine combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was arrested in the Saratoga area without a fight and is being held on an international arrest warrant ahead of an extradition hearing scheduled for next week, State Police said.

Kaufman is one of three suspects in the September 2011 murders of David Joseph Balmer and Elma A. De Guia, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Albany based on information in an arrest warrant forwarded by Philippines authorities.

All three have been charged with two counts of murder in the Philippines, court records say.

Balmer, a British citizen, and De Guia, a Philippines citizen, were a common-law husband and wife found shot to death Sept. 2, 2011, in the home they shared in Angeles City in the Philippine state of Pampanga, according to the complaint.

According to British newspaper accounts of the killings, Balmer was a retired officer with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a police force in Northern Ireland. He and De Guia were found dead by a housemate and fellow former officer, Richard Agnew, who is involved in the local nightclub business.

Kaufman became a suspect in the murders after watchmen in the gated residential neighborhood identified him as a passenger in a car seen "hastily" leaving the scene after the killings are believed to have happened.

Kaufman had rented the car about a month earlier from his part-time maid, the complaint alleges.

Kaufman allegedly called the maid and asked her to burn a garbage bag full of clothes he had left in his apartment, retrieve the car from a nearby hotel and later, back at the apartment, handed her two 9mm Beretta pistols wrapped in a bath towel to bury, according to Philippine authorities.

The maid saved some of the clothes and kept the guns, eventually handing them over to police, who later determined through ballistics evidence they matched the 9mm bullet casings — some 18 total — found at the scene, the complaint alleges.

After Balmer and De Guia's bodies were discovered, Kaufman never again stayed in his apartment, according to Philippine authorities. Instead, he's alleged to have traveled among three different hotels in the area before leaving the country on Oct. 6, 2011 — a little over a month after the killings.

One of his alleged co-defendants, Joseph S. Tramontano, also abruptly left the country a month after the bodies were found, the complaint alleges.

The FBI's Albany Division declined to comment on the circumstances of Kaufman's arrest or how long he is believed to have been in the Capital Region.

Kaufman's grandfather, Sidney Kaufman of Clifton Park, said his grandson reached the rank of sergeant while serving in the Marine Corps in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The elder Kaufman said he visited his grandson at the Rensselaer County Jail after Wednesday's arrest but declined to discuss the allegations against him.

"He's my grandson, he's a former sergeant in the U.S. Marines, he served his country and I love him," Sidney Kaufman said.

Timothy Kaufman is being held pending an extradition hearing scheduled for May 9 in U.S. District Court in Albany.

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU

Moreau

Visitors to Moreau Lake State Park may want to bring hiking boots along with sun screen.

The park will expand by 200 acres thanks to New York's purchase of the Palmertown Range in Saratoga County. Commissioner Rose Harvey of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation announced the $198,000 purchase on Friday.

New York bought the mountainous ridge between the Mt. McGregor prison and Moreau Lake from Real MacKenzie and Michael McKenzie, who are family members. The acquisition of hemlock-northern hardwood forest brings the park's total acreage to 4,463. It will expand hiking options and protect open space where the county meets the Adirondack foothills, Harvey said.

"As Saratoga County grows, it's critical that we balance economic development with natural resource protection," she said.

The purchase comes near the start of camping season. The state is completing a new pavilion for outdoor classes near the park's nature center, an upgraded campground station and heated restroom building near the main parking area. Those projects cost $550,000.

The park is visited by about 400,000 outdoor enthusiasts each year. Preserving Palmertown Range was named a priority in the New York State Open Space Plan, and will allow stakeholders to start planning a long-distance Palmertown Ridge Trail. The countywide trail will be used for recreation and transportation, said Maria Trabka, executive director of Saratoga P.L.A.N., a land preservation group. "The Palmertown Ridge Trail is a crucial link in what we call the 'alternative Northway,' which will eventually connect Moreau with Mechanicville and beyond," Trabka said.

Moreau Lake State Park received money from the New York Works fund last year to repair crumbling roads that take motorists around its campground sites. Improvements were also made to the facility's beachfront parking area. The new pavilion will enable school groups to hold outdoor programs. It will be available for the public to rent.

"Moreau Lake State Park is a tremendous asset for those who live in and around Saratoga County," said Erik Kulleseid, executive director of the Alliance for New York State Parks, a program of the Open Space Institute. "It is also an important part of the local tourism economy, particularly since it offers one of state park's most popular camping destinations."

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko

Clifton Park

Shenendehowa schools' $157 million budget for next school year maintains all programs, and invests in touch-screen computers and security improvements.

The Board of Education recently endorsed the spending plan, which goes to voters May 21. The budget would increase property taxes 2.3 percent, or about $100 a year for an owner of a property assessed at $250,000, the district said. The proposed levy increase falls within the cap set by the state for the district.

The 2013-14 budget asks for a 3.5 percent increase in spending to pay for increased personnel costs and enhancements to education. It includes 550 Chromebooks for middle school science classrooms and 250 iPads for elementary school classrooms. The district is installing Wi-Fi across its campus along Route 146.

"We're moving toward having more digital content in the classroom and away from textbooks," Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson said.

The budget calls for the installation of buzz-in door systems at the high school, three middle schools and district office, and surveillance cameras at school entrances, Robinson said. The district's eight elementary schools already have buzz-in doors. "It's a deterrent thing," he said.

The budget would reallocate three full-time elementary teaching positions to the middle schools, which would hire part-time instructors for foreign languages, math and more. The district is receiving an increase in state aid for the first time in four years. "We're focused on improving programs," Robinson said.

General state aid increased by $79,480 and the district is expecting to get back about $1.8 million of $6.8 million in state Gap Elimination Adjustment funds it lost three years ago. The district will receive about $39.3 million in state aid, including about $6.2 million in building aid.

Shenendehowa faces $6.7 million in increased employee retirement and salary costs, according to the budget. The district saved $2.1 million in next year's budget by negotiating health insurance changes, Robinson said.

In addition to the budget, voters will also consider a resolution to buy 19 buses for $1.8 million. That would increase property taxes by an additional 0.16 percent, according to the district.

Four candidates are running for three school board seats. Incumbents Gary DiLallo of Clifton Park and Richard Mincher of Rexford, and newcomers Todd Gilbert and Pamela Koniszewski, both of Clifton Park, are running for three-year terms.

DiLallo, a retired teacher and former board president, seeks a fifth term, while Mincher, the president of Five Barns Poetry, is running for a third term. Gilbert works at Time Warner Cable Business Class, while Koniszewski is a retirement counselor.

A budget hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 14 in Gowana Middle School.

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko

Colonie

St. Colman's Home is closing its day care program June 30, leaving stunned parents with questions they say the staff is not answering.

Parents have offered to help raise money to keep the program open and its teachers employed. It has a capacity for 141 children, according to state records.

"No explanations," parent Melissa France said.

France's daughter, Hayden, 4, attends the day care. France has organized parents who want to meet with the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Roman Catholic order.

"It is a wall of silence. For some unknown reason, they don't want to answer our letter," France said.

Parents were notified in a March 18 letter that St. Colman's Day Care would end June 30. The letter cited a decline in full-time enrollment and rising costs. It also said tuition increases and cutting hot lunches have not helped financially.

"Unfortunately, St. Colmans Day Care was unable to reduce the deficit enough to consider continuing programs," states the letter signed by Mother Mary Thomas, executive director, and Michael Dewey, director of finance.

St. Colman's is located just outside Watervliet. The order came to the Watervliet location in 1882 to run an orphanage. Its website says it operates the day care, group homes and residential programs for "autistic and emotionally challenging children."

Thomas and Dewey did not return calls about the situation.

Assemblyman John T. McDonald III, D-Cohoes, called St. Colman's for information on behalf of constituents. The assemblyman said he received no reply.

Jianhao Chen said the day care has been outstanding for his children, Yunhan, 4½, who is now enrolled, and Minyin, 9, who previously attended.

"You see the kids. They are safe. They are happy. They are learning," Chen said.

France, Chen and other parents agree they want to help but don't understand what has developed.

"It's a big mystery," Chen said. "Our goal is still to work with St. Colman's to see if we can keep the day care open."

kcrowe@timesunion.com • 518-454-5084 • @KennethCrowe

Scotia

Donald Andrews' nightmare came to an end Thursday when he walked out of a village courtroom.

Three weeks after being jailed on multiple felony drug offenses, a village judge granted a motion by a prosecutor to dismiss the criminal charges against the business owner who had been falsely accused by a paid confidential informant of selling cocaine twice from his store in late March. The case is causing authorities to scrutinize their use of such informants.

In early April, Andrews' Dabb City Smoke Shop on Mohawk Avenue was raided by police and he was slapped with two counts each of criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a controlled substance, all felonies. If convicted, the 24-year-old Andrews, who has no criminal record, could have faced 25 years behind bars.

The Schenectady man is instead back in business hawking bongs, hookahs, shisha tobacco and incense, among other items. He's still upset by how his life was nearly destroyed by a paid police informant who authorities have confirmed set him up.

The man, who was working for the Schenectady County Sheriff's Office, visited the shop March 25 and bought a $15 bowl pipe, recalled Andrews. He said the customer acted "weird" and even stuck his head in Andrews' employee office when he returned March 29 and bought the same type of pipe before leaving.

On April 6, several sheriff's deputies and Scotia police officers stormed his business, handcuffed Andrews and ushered him into a back area, repeatedly telling him was being arrested for selling cocaine and that he'd better fess up. The officers confiscated his cash register, cell phone, wallet, cash and the store's security cameras.

"I didn't know what to think at all," Andrews told the Times Union Friday with his attorney, Michael Horan, present. Amid the commotion, Andrews said his mind flashed to the man, who he went to school with and occasionally would see at local bars.

His legal problems forced Andrews to shutter the smoke shop from April 6 to 18. Since he's reopened, business hasn't been as brisk as before. Andrews contends it has something to do with the media coverage around his arrest.

He said a sheriff's deputy visited him at his home on April 17 and explained to him that after reviewing footage from the store security cameras authorities determined Andrews had not committed a crime. The lawman apologized.

That's not enough for Andrews and his attorney. They plan to file a lawsuit, and Horan said the time has come for police and prosecutors to re-consider the role of confidential informants.

"The system uses the criminals to fight crime but we may want to see if these same criminals now are not using the system to commit crimes and benefit themselves. Who's using whom?" Horan asked.

Speaking in general terms, District Attorney Robert Carney, said "there are controls that most departments have for dealing" with informants.

"There are issues we are studying at this juncture and it would be premature for me to fully address the issue but it is off great concern," said Carney.

Sheriff Dominic Dagostino said Friday that security system footage showed the informant removing a small quantity of cocaine from his rear end when Andrews walked away from the counter.

"In hindsight my officers got burned, and this will cause them to be even more cautious in their dealing with informants," said Dagostino. "Our office worked within the confines of our policy with respect to searching the informant."

The informant had been thoroughly searched, but the sheriff's office doesn't conduct cavity searches, a policy the sheriff argued is in line with the protocol of other law enforcement agencies.

Dagostino said that the informant, for whom authorities have issued a felony warrant, had "proven credible and reliable" in the past. Still, the retired Rotterdam detective, understands the inherent risk of using informants.

"There is no informant out there that wraps themselves in the flag and does these things for God and country," said Dagostino.

Nationwide, law enforcement agencies rely on informants, some with criminal backgrounds, to build their criminal cases. Besides the Sheriff's Office, the Schenectady Police Department also uses informants, said Carney. Some are paid, while others receive favorable treatment on their criminal cases in exchange for working with police.

The prosecutor said Friday that his office requested the criminal charges against Andrews be dropped after "further evidence had come to light" and the case was "unprosecutable." The circumstances under which Andrews was arrested are under investigation, added Carney.

Horan surmised that the informant may have been motivated by the money. Authorities would not disclose how much the informant was paid. Andrews, who opened his store on Jan. 21, estimates he has spent about $10,000 on attorney's fees and bail money.

pnelson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5347 • @apaulnelson

Albany

Six years after State Trooper David Brinkerhoff was killed in the line of duty, his family and friends gathered for a tribute to his life and legacy long in the making: At the sixth annual Brink 5K Run/Walk at University at Albany on Saturday, they awarded the very first David C. Brinkerhoff Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, they hope, will help other young men and women like "Brink" at his alma mater – bright, academically able and committed to public safety.

A Coxsackie resident, Brinkerhoff was killed on April 25, 2007, at 29, when he was caught in an exchange of gunfire while capturing fugitive Travis Trim in Delaware County. Trim was the prime suspect in the shooting of a trooper a day earlier, setting off a manhunt that led Brinkerhoff and other members of the state police Mobile Response Team to a Margaretville farmhouse. Brinkerhoff was killed by a bullet from another trooper's gun.

"You don't move on, you just go on," said Brinkerhoff's widow, Barbara Brinkerhoff-Anslow, who walked the 5K with her daughter, Isabelle, who was just seven-months old when Brinkerhoff died, and her new husband. "It's been a very long six years."

In the years after his death, his family has found that events like the 5K help them cope with the loss.

The run was started by members of UAlbany's volunteer EMS squad, Five Quad, of which Brinkerhoff was a member, the year he died. It follows the same route Brinkerhoff used often while running, first as a UAlbany student and then as a trooper-in-training at the State Police Academy.

"David always gave back and helped other people," said Karen Howard, his mother. "I guess that's how we can honor his legacy."

The first year the run was a "grassroots" effort cobbled together quickly, said Jordan Arnold, 38, a college friend of Brinkerhoff and fellow Five Quad volunteer who helped found the run along with other members of the student group. In the years since, it has raised $25,000 to endow the scholarship in Brinkerhoff's name and become a major part of Five Quad's annual programming.

Arnold and other former student EMS volunteers attended the race from around the state. There were 346 participants this year.

"It's sort of our tribute to him," said Arnold, who traveled to UAlbany on Saturday from Manhattan.

The first David C. Brinkerhoff Memorial Scholarship, $500 — presented on an oversized check at a ceremony after the race — went to Brenden John McCain, a 20-year-old sophomore criminal justice major and member of Five Quad.

Recently, McCain visited the State Police Academy for a tour (he's considering a career in international police work). At the academy, he encountered a photo of Brinkerhoff, displayed in honor of his self-sacrifice and service.

"His story really inspires me," said McCain. "He was able to give his life to serve the public. That's something I hold to heart."

kbrown@timesunion.com • 518-454-5035 • @kristenvbrown

Albany

A federal magistrate has ordered a settlement conference in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission massive fraud case against Timothy M. McGinn and David L. Smith, former Albany brokers who were convicted in February of fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

But with nearly all of the known assets of McGinn and Smith frozen or seized by the government, it appears unlikely from court filings that the hundreds of investors who were allegedly defrauded will receive more than pennies on the dollar for their millions in lost investments.

The convictions, according to a recent filing by the SEC, leave McGinn and Smith no way to factually challenge the federal civil complaint that accuses them of defrauding hundreds of investors of possibly up to $136 million. McGinn and Smith both could face up to 15 years in prison at their sentencings scheduled for June.

But the settlement conference comes as a San Diego businessman, Paul Zindell, said the SEC has ignored his pleas to broaden the fraud case to include the business dealings of McGinn and Smith dating to the 1990s. Zindell, who has provided thousands of pages of documents to the SEC, said the fraud case should include the firm's work with Integrated Alarm Services Group, an alarm-monitoring company that McGinn and Smith were involved with until it was acquired in 2007 by a Kansas-based competitor.

McGinn and Smith took IASG public in 2003 in what Zindell, a former acquaintance of McGinn's who invested with the firm, has said may have been nothing more than an attempt by the pair to raise money to keep their alleged scheme from unraveling.

"It was a way to raise money to keep the Ponzi scheme going and to keep these guys from being caught at that moment ... Only more money would allow them to pay back existing noteholders and investors," said M. Steven Andersen, a San Diego attorney who has represented Zindell in the case.

Andersen said Zindell has provided the SEC with documents and the names of witnesses, information that allegedly raised questions about whether the IASG public offering was used to fuel the failing brokerage. If the SEC were to pursue that investigation, he added, there is a possibility that brokers, accountants and lawyers who may have sanctioned the deal could be held financially responsible.

"You go after the people who have deep pockets and you say: 'you had a duty, the industry trusts people like you to make sure the stocks being offered are worth something, worth investing in," Andersen said. "The SEC under the Dodd-Frank Act now has a very important mandate that goes above and beyond shutting down the bad guys and that is to try and recoup money for defrauded investors. What we're going to find out with this case is whether the SEC will take the harder road and go after IASG or whether they're going to take the easy road."

Tuesday's settlement conference also is expected to involve how the SEC can recover a nearly $1 million sanction against David Smith's wife, Lynn, for concealing information to prevent the seizure of a $4 million family trust fund.

The SEC said the money could help repay the nearly 900 victims the federal government said were defrauded by the brokerage.

Federal regulators went after the trust fund when they discovered a private annuity agreement -- which they said had not been disclosed by the couple or their attorney and accountant -- that called for David and Lynn Smith to receive annual payments of $489,000 from the trust beginning in 2015. The SEC accused the group of fraud and misconduct and moved for sanctions, which a federal magistrate granted.

E. Stewart Jones, McGinn's attorney, said the assets of McGinn and Smith will be subject to forfeiture and restitution penalties at their upcoming sentencing. He said their financial exposure in the criminal case makes it "unrealistic for them to be able to participate" in a settlement in the civil case.

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @blyonswriter

As the influential chief judge of the state's top court, Sol Wachtler defined the law on solitary confinement, strip search, and random drug testing. He later became personally acquainted with those procedures as an inmate in federal prison.

His life is full of such ironies.

Once considered a Republican contender for governor, Wachtler, now 82, is living out his later years advocating for, as he described it, "a population that no one gives a damn about": mentally ill prisoners.

He knows this indifference from personal experience.

First elected to the Court of Appeals in 1972, Wachtler was smart, attractive and confident. He built a solid reputation as a brilliant jurist during his over two decades on the bench. Then came his shocking arrest in 1992.

In the lead-up to his downfall, Wachtler had been quietly unravelling, and was convinced his mental instability was the result of a brain tumor. Psychiatrists explained to a handcuffed Wachtler that the manic highs and depressing lows he'd been living with, and which influenced his criminal behavior, were manifestations of his severe bipolar disorder. He went on to spend 11 months in prison, where he said he was treated as a "nonperson."

Medication stabilized his mind, and as a free man, Wachtler wants to ensure that other mentally-ill inmates have it better than he.

It's a plight that's become a defining focus in his life.

Wachtler's spectacular collapse began after a four-year affair with heiress and Republican fundraiser Joy Silverman ended. In his desperation to get Silverman to seek comfort from him, Wachtler engaged in a 13-month campaign of obscene letters and hang-up calls under the guise of concocted identities. Exacerbated by a mix of amphetamines and tranquilizers, his psychosis intensified, along with his bizarre behavior. Wachtler is adamant that this does not excuse his actions. It does, however, at least help explain it.

Wachtler eventually threatened to kidnap Silverman's daughter, who was then 14 — the one charge to which he ultimately pleaded guilty.

He was sent to a federal prison in North Carolina, just hours from where he grew up. While there, he was stabbed by a fellow inmate, and then placed in solitary confinement for his own protection. He spent over a month completely alone in a cell the size of a bathroom, where the detrimental effects of isolation threatened his new-found mental clarity.

Sometimes, his thoughts drifted to a decision he'd made a decade earlier, when he expressed little sympathy for a man who spent five days isolated in a tiny cell.

"Merely confining an inmate in a segregated cell does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment," Wachtler wrote in Wilkinson v. Skinner.

His firsthand experience convinced him to ponder such questions more deeply. After his release, he spent years lobbying for a law in New York to keep the seriously mentally ill out of solitary confinement and provide them with treatment.

The law was passed, though there's debate over whether it's been fully implemented.

Wachtler also started the Law and Psychiatry Institute, which is part of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. The institute has held training for police, lawyers and judges about mental health disorders, and in recent years has been devoted to helping veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder who get caught up in the system.

While in prison, Wachtler had noticed the disproportionate number of veterans he was locked up with, and developed a friendship with one Vietnam veteran named Carl Terpak.

A three-time recipient of the Purple Heart, Terpak's desire to forget the horrors of combat spiraled him into a life of addiction and crime.

As a Korean War-era veteran and former military police officer, Wachtler understood the psychological consequences serving this country can bring.

Since prison, he's played a critical role in the establishment of the Veterans Court Program, which was created to ensure that veterans who commit nonviolent crimes as a result of combat-related afflictions are sent into treatment, not prison. He was also influential in the establishment of mental health courts in New York.

There are now 28 mental health courts and 17 veterans courts across New York, including two in Albany and two in Rensselaer counties. Yet Terpak wasn't fortunate enough to receive the compassion and support offered in a veteran's court. "I see no hope for Mr. Terpak without treatment," wrote one of his treating psychiatrists, care which he never received in prison. Terpak later committed suicide.

This death saddened Wachtler, as did a recent suicide of Bartholomew Ryan, a 32-year-old former Marine who hung himself at the Nassau County Jail just two days after he was arrested for DWI in 2012.

"In our haste to lock them up, we not only forgot our gratitude, we also seemed to forget that there is such a thing as the hidden wounds of war — ones that afflict the mind," wrote Wachtler in an op-ed about Ryan's death for Newsday.

Wachtler publishes op-eds in lots of newspapers, yet his relationship with the press is conflicted. Once glorified, he now fears the contextual condemnation that accompanies the mere mention of his name in the news.

"Every time a bad article comes out, my friends call me and say 'I still love you." Such assurances make him squirm. "I don't want people to feel like they have to say that. Even at a cocktail party, someone will say 'that guy belongs in prison' then say 'whoops, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.'"

Wachtler has maintained friendships with many prominent people in the legal community, including Brooklyn District Attorney Charles "Joe" Hynes, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, and former Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Bellacosa.

Wachtler was reinstated to the bar in 2007, and does mediation and arbitration work as well as consultation on law briefs. He also teaches First Amendment law at the Touro Law Center on Long Island, where there's a classroom named in his honor.

In his last lecture of the semester, Wachtler started class with a discussion of the prosecutorial decision not to read Boston Marathon bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights.

Commenting on the law might have been a bit intimidating for those students who realized that Wachtler had first advanced the public emergency exception to Miranda in New York state, a dissent later embraced by the U.S. Supreme Court, which holds that certain rights can be suspended if authorities are dealing with an imminent threat to the public.

Listening to Wachtler talk about the law is like taking a trip with him through history. In class, he energetically recites cases from memory, intermixed with personal stories about decisions he wrote or were authored by friends.

More than once, he name-drops Supreme Court justices and other legal celebrities — it's the kind of thing that's hard to keep to himself. "A modest person would. But I'm not a modest person," he said.

Wachtler's a legal superstar in his own right, which his students fully know. "He had a kind of tumultuous background, but that doesn't invalidate all the stuff he did," said Timothy Finnegan, a second-year law student in his class.

New York's Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said Wachtler's influence on the court lives on today. "A lot of his decisions we look to as our precedent, and many of his initiatives are things we still follow to this day," said Lippman. "He's led a full life, and one that contributes greatly to society."

It's the type of legacy Wachtler hopes he leaves behind, but he fears his accomplishments will never outshine his misdeeds. "Unfortunately, I know what the first paragraph of my obituary is going to say: disgraced former judge," Wachtler said.

He might be wrong. His impact continues to reverberate. He still gets hundreds of letters from people who read his prison memoir, "After the Madness," and relate to his struggles.

"I can't tell you how many people start their letter by saying 'I've always been strictly for law and order,' or 'I always believed that if you do the crime you do the time,' until my family member...' and then they go on to tell a story about crime and mental illness that breaks your heart," Wachtler said.

Some mental illnesses are so complicated, and difficult to see, it can take years before symptoms become self-destructive. Bipolar disorder is one. A patient alternates between a depressed state and mania, which is marked by energetic and often euphoric periods.

It's not uncommon for manic individuals to be highly productive and fun to be around. This eventually gives way to depression, where patients find concentration difficult, life uninteresting. Over time, the cycling can become more extreme and more apparent.

Treatment requires vigilance. "I take my medication religiously," said Wachtler, pulling out a small round container and giving it a little shake, the pills clanking on the sides. "This is the most important thing, because when you're in a manic state you feel great and when you're not in it you miss it," said Wachtler. "The last thing you think you need is your medication."

Wachtler said his family has a history of mental illness, though he didn't know that until his 60s. While in the hospital following his arrest, a doctor asked Wachtler how his maternal grandmother died. His whole life, he'd been told she died of a broken heart, which was the answer he gave to the doctor. Later family inquiries revealed that his grandmother had sliced her own throat with a kitchen knife, Wachtler said.

It's a fact he wishes he had known. "I was stupid enough to think I could cure myself of it. If someone had said, 'Your grandmother cut her own throat and you think you can stop this with sleeping pills?' I might have had second thoughts."

He's still married to his wife, Joan, and the two live in Manhasset, Long Island. He still maintains his home in East Greenbush. He has four children, eight grandchildren, and enjoys a much quieter life now. He will celebrate his 83rd birthday Monday.

But he can't forget his past. In one recurring dream, he's in the Court of Appeals, wearing his robes, feeling delighted to be there. "I have that dream all the time, when I'm not having nightmares," he said.

The images and sounds of solitary confinement still haunt him. Sometimes he thinks he sees the cockroaches that visited him in his cell while he's lying warm and comfortable in his home.

The spectrum of his dreams reflect the breadth of his experience with the criminal justice system, from the heights of authority and adoration to the depths of powerlessness and disregard.

"I'm constantly aware of the fact that I'm diminished," said Wachtler. He feels that he's never had more to contribute, yet his past keeps him sidelined. "It's eliminated my value as a resource. And that's hurtful."

Still, Wachtler speaks to whoever will listen about the improvements he feels are needed in our courts and prisons, and hopes people will understand where he is coming from.

"That's also part of the rehabilitation process," said Wachtler. "You want to be accepted by people again."

asanto@timesunion.com 518-454-5008 @alysiasanto