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The Highlands Current is a nonprofit weekly newspaper and daily website that covers Beacon, Cold Spring, Garrison, Nelsonville and Philipstown, New York, in the Hudson Highlands. This podcast includes select stories read aloud.

  1. 7H AGO

    Advocates Cheer Bridge Fencing

    Suicide barriers planned for Bear Mountain Lorraine Lein once again found herself standing on the Bear Mountain Bridge on June 30. On that day in 2023, she visited the bridge with her son, Jake Simmons. On the same day last year, she carried a picture of the teenager framed in cardboard and a bouquet of flowers that she wired to one of the bridge's rails. On the cardboard, she wrote two dates: May 1, 2006, the day of Jake's birth, and June 30, 2023, the day he jumped from the bridge. By the end of 2028, Lein should have something to celebrate at the bridge: the installation of mesh fencing that advocates believe would have prevented the deaths of Jake and other people who have used the Bear Mountain and Newburgh-Beacon bridges, and three other spans owned by the New York State Bridge Authority, to take their own lives. The fencing is part of a $93.8 million contract NYSBA approved last month for the redecking of the Bear Mountain Bridge. When Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the project on Feb. 25, her press release mentioned the fencing but not the lobbying by Lein and groups like the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide. Lein brought an urn with Jake's ashes to a NYSBA board meeting in 2024. She also described June 30, 2023: driving Jake, 17 years old and distraught over a girlfriend's infidelity, to Bear Mountain State Park for a mood-elevating hike; Jake fleeing after they arrived; police cars speeding to the Bear Mountain Bridge; begging an officer blocking her path to give her access to where Jake jumped. NYSBA said on Feb. 25 that the fencing "marks an important milestone" in its "longstanding commitment to public safety and mental health awareness." Lein said she is "ecstatic" about the barriers, but "sad that it took so much pressure and so long and so many people to die" before the authority agreed to install fencing. Now the goal, she said, is to get barriers installed at the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and NYSBA's three other Hudson River spans, the Kingston-Rhinecliff, Mid-Hudson and Rip Van Winkle bridges. "It will stop people from dying," said Lein. On the day Jake jumped, NYSBA's bridges were outfitted with emergency phones, security cameras that were monitored at an around-the-clock command center and security guards. The agency also required that bridge workers be trained in preventing suicides. Despite those measures, people continue to jump. Alongside Jake's image, Lein wrote "24 more deaths, 6/23-6/25" in reference to the number of suicides on NYSBA bridges since Jake's. Sean Gerow, who chairs the Hudson Valley/Westchester County chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and is associate executive director for the Mental Health Association in Orange County, said he has trained "probably 90 percent" of NYSBA's bridge workers in suicide prevention. Those workers have prevented people from jumping, but fencing "is probably the biggest thing that we can do to save lives as well," he said. Clare Redden's master's thesis at Teachers College, Columbia University, argued for barriers on NYSBA bridges, drawing inspiration from an actual incident. While rowing in the Hudson River in 2022, Redden encountered a 19-year-old man who had jumped from the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. As he clung to the tip of her rowboat, said Redden, he kept repeating: "I don't know what happened, I don't know what happened; I think I jumped." Redden, who is AFSP's advocacy chair, cites a study from the 1970s in which a researcher tracked people who had been prevented from jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; he found that only 10 percent went on to kill themselves, belying an argument that people will just find another way if prevented from jumping. "It's a big deal," she said of fencing. "Short of a gun, a bridge is the second-most-lethal means for suicide, and reducing access to the utilization of that means prevents that suicide from occurring." NYSBA operates on tolls collected at its bridges. In Ma...

    5 min

  2. 7H AGO

    A Glimpse into Beacon's Past

    City clerk rescues 19th-century records from dump You never know what you're going to find at the dump. Just ask Amanda Caputo. Last fall, the Beacon city clerk discovered the handwritten articles of incorporation for the Village of Matteawan buried under decades of dirt, dust and who knows what else at the city's Transfer Station. Dated May 28, 1886, and recorded by Fishkill Town Clerk G.W. Bradshaw, the articles are in remarkably good condition. They signify the formation of Matteawan, a manufacturing hub of about 4,400 residents centered around Fishkill Creek. Matteawan was 1½ miles east of Fishkill Landing, the neighboring village with which it would merge in 1913 to create Beacon. A follow-up meeting was held on June 29, 1886, at Fishkill Town Hall, where town officials voted to approve Matteawan's secession. Records show that village leaders expected to spend $2,500 (about $86,500 today) on "ordinary expenses" in the first year. The articles were the most significant find inside seven hardbound books discovered by Caputo. The books, which also contain records from Fishkill Landing, were recovered from Beacon's incinerator building, a brick structure with an adjacent smokestack that's next to the wastewater treatment plant on Dennings Avenue. Once the destination for the city's wastewater sludge and trash, it has been — aside from a first-floor office — largely vacant for years. "No one expected anything useful to be in there," said Caputo. "Why would you keep valuable records at the dump for 30 years?" The best guess is that the books — along with an assortment of urban renewal and community development documents, property assessments and financial and court records — were stashed at the three-story building in the mid-1990s, when the current City Hall was under construction. Some of the documents were transported in filing cabinets. Loose materials, including the seven books, were taken upstairs, where scores of pigeons would later enter through broken windows and take roost. In 2024, city workers replaced the windows, and a private company helped clean out 30 years of bird waste. "Then we were like, 'There's all those records — I wonder what's in there?' " said City Administrator Chris White, who served on the City Council in 1996 and 1997. White said he recalled the building being "in really bad shape" even then. While the structure had been cleaned out, it wasn't spotless when Caputo got to it. The top layer of boxes and loose paper "was just covered in grime," she said. "Once you started moving stuff, the dust started flying. Thankfully, these books were covered by records that were much less remarkable." Although the covers and spines of the books have deteriorated, the inside pages are nearly all intact, still white with numbers printed in blue in the upper corners. Flipping through them, one gets a glimpse into the world 140 years ago. The Aug. 18, 1886, meeting of the Matteawan Board of Trustees was held at 7:15 p.m. in the office of a hat factory, the Matteawan Manufacturing Co. (now The Roundhouse). Its superintendent was Willard H. Mase, the village president, who would later that year be elected to the first of five terms in the state Assembly. In 1887, Mase financed a volunteer fire company that was named for him. One of the first orders of business on Aug. 18 was approving the minutes of the previous meeting. Another was the appointment of Sherwood Phillips as the village clerk. His salary was left "open-carried." In a list of village ordinances, the first prohibited "amusement, such as playing ball, shinny, the discharge of firearms, fireworks," or any other act "by which person or property is endangered." The second notes that the peace and quiet of the village shall not be disturbed on Sunday, under threat of a $10 penalty. The records reflect attention to detail, Caputo noted. A letter from February 1903 advised Miss Van Rensselaer that the Matteawan Board of Trustees had noticed the "flag walk" i...

    6 min

  3. 6D AGO

    Lawler Announces Plan to Rebuild Indian Point

    Effort would cost $10+ billion and require governor's approval Rep. Mike Lawler believes he's found the answer to soaring energy bills. Standing in the cold and drizzle at the shuttered Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan on March 6, the Republican, whose House district includes Philipstown, announced an ambitious plan to rebuild and reopen the plant. "Hudson Valley families are being suffocated with rising energy costs because of Gov. [Kathy] Hochul's failed and disastrous energy policies," he said. "It is time to reverse course." He was flanked by Chris Wright, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Kris Singh, the CEO of Holtec International, the company that owns and is in the process of decommissioning the plant. The announcement came as the Trump administration is attempting to have 10 new nuclear reactors under construction by 2030, and three smaller, experimental reactors up and running by July 4 of this year. It also comes as New York grapples with its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming. To reach its ambitious benchmarks, the state may need to modify its 2019 climate law, which requires New York to get 70 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent zero-emissions by 2040. Nuclear energy is not renewable, but it is zero-emissions. Wright estimated that Indian Point could be reopened in five years for "a little more than" $10 billion. "The only reason this won't happen is if the politicians don't let it happen," he said. When Indian Point shut down in 2021, a legal agreement went into effect banning future nuclear energy production at the site without the unanimous consent of the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York State and the Hendrick Hudson School District. Although both the county and the state recently reaffirmed their commitment to keep the plant closed, Lawler thinks the governor can be convinced. "Kathy Hochul has said a lot of things over the years, including that she wouldn't approve NESE," he said, referring to the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline. "And look what happened, she did. She said she wouldn't do congestion pricing and look at what happened. So, I don't really care what Kathy Hochul has previously said. The question is: Is there the political will to actually do something to drive down energy costs?" Buchanan Mayor Theresa Knickerbocker supports reopening. "It was a mistake to close this," she said. "It was reliable base power. I'm not against renewables. But nuclear is part of the energy equation." Getting the other four stakeholders to agree will be an uphill battle. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said on March 6 that he hasn't changed his mind. "Let me be clear — because apparently I was not clear enough for Congressman Lawler and the Trump administration — restarting the Indian Point nuclear power plant is not welcome in Westchester County," he said in a statement. "New York State already has access to a range of low-cost, environmentally responsible energy alternatives, including solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower. We do not need — and we do not want — Indian Point back online. The health and safety of millions of residents in the Hudson Valley will always matter more than reopening a nuclear facility." Ken Lovett, a senior communications advisor on energy and the environment for Hochul, said on March 6 that the governor also isn't interested. "The governor has emphatically stated she will not support the reopening of Indian Point and is instead pushing her Ratepayer Protection Plan and a realistic energy strategy designed to keep the lights on and costs down," he said, referring to a suite of policies Hochul announced in January aimed at lowering energy bills, including tying executive pay for utility CEOs to affordability and energy assistance programs. "It's hypocritical that the same Michael Lawler who previously attacked Holtec over its decommissioni...

    13 min

  4. MAR 6

    Bank Opposes Return of Route 9 Property

    M&T disputes couple's claims of being conned M&T Bank is opposing an effort by the couple who lived and ran two businesses on Route 9 to regain the property amid claims they were scammed and bullied by an acquaintance now charged with grand larceny and fraud. In documents filed on Feb. 27, Valerie Breen, a senior vice president with M&T, and Seth Hibbert, an attorney for the bank, are challenging claims made by Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur in response to their eviction on Dec. 9 from 3154 Route 9. Kim and Oeur have petitioned Judge Gina Capone to vacate her approval in 2024 of M&T's foreclosure and sale of the property. From 1995 to early 2024, the property was owned by Kim through Mary Dawn Inc. and hosted her business, Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners; a residence she shared with Oeur; and a nail salon. The couple blames the loss of the property on Derek Keith Williams, whom they say convinced Kim that he had paid off a $570,000 loan secured by the property and transferred it to an entity he owned. The couple alleges that Williams hid the foreclosure by demanding that Kim "turn over any mail or paperwork relating to the property, Mary Dawn Inc., any court or any bank," and sign documents and submit filings without explaining what they were, said their attorney, Jacob Chen. Those claims are "entirely irrelevant" to M&T's right to collect on its debt, according to Breen, who said the bank became aware in 2019 that Kim was attempting to transfer the property to Williams. During the bank's "long and tortured history" with the property, it seemed "that Kim and Williams were working in concert to prevent and hinder the bank's recovery and collection efforts," she said. In his statement, Hibbert said "there did not appear to be any animosity between Kim and Williams" when they appeared in Philipstown Court in March 2025 to challenge the eviction. "My impression was the two were working in conjunction with each other, with each operating under their respective free wills," he said. Williams, a self-described "sovereign citizen," had been serving a six-month sentence in the county jail for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license when he was arraigned Feb. 25 on six felony counts: four for grand larceny and two for filing a false instrument with the intent to defraud. He pleaded not guilty before Judge Anthony Mole and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, $200,000 insured bond or $200,000 partially insured bond. He is scheduled to return to court on April 8. Kim said in court documents that by the time she met Williams in 2019 — through his girlfriend, Mauny Bun, who used to run the nail salon — the loan she used to rebuild the property after a fire in 2005 had been taken over by M&T Bank. Bun "reminded me a lot of my daughter … and I put a lot of trust and faith in her," said Kim. She stopped making payments after deciding to accept Williams' offer to buy the property for $1.2 million and transfer it to an entity called DKW Trust, none of which happened. Although Kim guaranteed the loan, said Breen, she did not have the authority to transfer the property to Williams because Mary Dawn is the owner of record. The bank eventually sued Kim and Mary Dawn for defaulting on the loan and in 2021 won a judgment in Erie County, where the bank is based. M&T filed to foreclose in 2022, and Capone approved the bank's request in February 2024. Four months later, a bank subsidiary, Chesapeake Holdings, paid $620,200 for the property at an auction. Chen alleges that the court "never acquired personal jurisdiction" over Kim during the foreclosure because the process server handed the original documents to a "co-worker." Chen also said that Oeur should have been included as a party to the foreclosure proceeding because he lived at the property and managed the Khmer Art Gallery. After the bank filed for foreclosure in 2022, said Breen, "it is entirely unreasonable" to believe that Williams confiscated mail sent to Mary Dawn and Kim before Septe...

    5 min

  5. MAR 6

    Recycling Restaurant Scraps

    New program will compost commercial food waste Commercial kitchens in Philipstown can now do what households have been doing for four years — recycle food waste rather than send it to landfills. Jeff Mikkelson, the advocacy chair of the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Philipstown Climate Smart Task Force, is spearheading a pilot initiative to fund food-scrap recycling for up to six businesses and organizations. Mikkelson said 17 of 50 local kitchens surveyed expressed interest in the pilot. The program, the first of its kind in Putnam County, is being funded by the Williams College Community Climate Fund in conjunction with the Center for EcoTechnology (CET), a nonprofit that works with Rethink Food Waste New York, overseen by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The first four participants are the Garrison Institute (which uses Fresh Company to cater its events), Haldane Central School District, Marble Meat Shop and Cold Spring Farmers' Market, Mikkelson said, with two more spots available for restaurants, caterers, nonprofits and other food services with commercial kitchens. The initial $6,000 grant will support the program for six months, he said. The program will provide collection bins and liners and pay for hauling the waste, which can include vegetables, meats, dairy, cheese, fish, seafood and commercial and biodegradable packaging. The scraps are collected by Sustainable Materials Management in Cortlandt Manor, which was founded by the family that owns CRP Sanitation. Michael Fiumara, the sales manager there, said 100 cubic yards of food waste typically will produce the same volume of compost. Most of the material is purchased in bulk by landscapers, garden centers and municipalities, but retail customers can buy 1-cubic-foot bags. Recycling Food Scraps at Home Philipstown's Climate Smart Task Force initiated Putnam County's first household food scrap recycling program in 2022, establishing a Saturday collection station at the town recycling center on Lane Gate Road. About 100 families joined during the first year, and enrollment has more than tripled since. What began as an eight-month pilot is now funded annually. The Village of Cold Spring joined the program in 2024 and installed a collection station on Kemble Avenue for Tuesday drop-offs. "We consistently fill two 64-gallon totes — about 17 cubic feet of food waste per week," said Village Trustee Laura Bozzi, who serves on the Climate Smart Task Force. She said the village may expand the program by adding more bins or a second drop-off day. Karen Ertl, a volunteer who helped establish the household food-scrap program, said 323 families are enrolled. She said that as many as 1,600 pounds of scraps are collected each week at the two stations and processed into compost at Sustainable Materials Management in Cortlandt Manor. To participate, residents can register at Philipstown Town Hall on weekdays or at the Cold Spring Farmers' Market on Saturdays. An optional $20 starter kit includes a countertop pail, storage/transport bin and compostable bags. Food scraps can be dropped at the Recycling Center on Lane Gate Road between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and at the Kemble Avenue site between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays. Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, dairy, bread, rice, pasta, raw and cooked food, bones and seafood shells can be recycled, as can cut flowers, napkins, paper towels, wax paper, pet food, tea bags, coffee grounds, Popsicle sticks and wine corks. In Beacon, residents can drop food waste in containers at the Beacon Recreation Center (23 W. Center St.), Memorial Park or the Churchill Street parking lot near Hudson Valley Brewery. The program does not accept "compostable plastics," such as bin liners, bags, utensils or containers, unless they are made of bamboo. For more information, see dub.sh/beacon-food-scraps. Community Compost Co. offers residential pickup in Beacon starting at $26 per month or $281 per year. The...

    6 min

  6. FEB 27

    Mixed Signals on Indian Point

    Despite legal barriers, persistent talk about restart When the Indian Point nuclear power plant south of Philipstown shut down in 2021, its legal obligations were clear: It could not restart, nor could any new nuclear power be generated there, without the unanimous consent of the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York State and the Hendrick Hudson School District. Despite that high bar, the insistence by county and state officials that they will never allow nuclear power to be generated at the site, and the fact that the plant is being dismantled, the possibility of Indian Point reopening continues to surface. The question came up again at the Feb. 19 meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB) after a video was posted online of a plant worker saying that the decommissioning of one part of the plant was on hold due to a possible restart. The video was shot by Andrew Walker, aka Radioactive Drew. On his YouTube channel, which has nearly 100,000 subscribers, Walker shares his documentaries about the world's most radioactive places. In a three-part video that premiered last month, Walker was given a tour of Indian Point by two longtime employees. When visiting the turbines at Reactor 3, Walker asks Brent Magurno, a radiation protection supervisor, "With the whole possible restart that's on the table of this place happening, no work has been done to take these out of service, right?" "Initially, yes," said Magurno. "But then we stopped once the question was asked about restarting, and so we're not proceeding until we get the final answer on that on this side of the plant." A few minutes later, decommissioning supervisor Brian Vangor noted that, because of an ongoing legal dispute over whether Holtec can discharge radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River, some equipment the plant could theoretically use if it were to reopen remains in place. "Many more things would be taken apart if the water in some of those pools I told you about was gone," he said. "New York State did us a little bit of a favor. Rare, but they did us a favor." Holtec International, the company responsible for decommissioning, has said it has no plans to reopen Indian Point. When DOB chair Tom Congdon asked Holtec's Matt Johnson at the Feb. 19 meeting if the video meant its plans had changed, he replied that Magurno's comment was "categorically false and incorrect." "We have not started work on the turbines based on our schedule and our resources," Johnson said. "My opinion is that it was somebody who was excited and showing our plant and maybe got a little ahead of himself and used a poor choice of words, so that is not what Holtec intends to put out there." Johnson said that he did not know when the turbines were scheduled for removal, but that it would not be in the next year. "We don't have any plans to restart at this time," he said. "If for some reason that came about, obviously there would be major changes to decommissioning, because we wouldn't be able to do that with funds from the decommissioning trust fund." Dana Levenberg, a state Assembly Member who sits on the board and whose district includes Philipstown, said that "this kind of stuff obviously makes the community trust you less." "You tell us one thing at the DOB meeting, and then we hear something else in a video, and people go crazy," she said. "We don't need that. We need reassurances and assurances and proof on paper, in writing, signed documents that says what your plan is, when you're going to do this, when you're going to do that, and you need to stick to it." In September, Kelly Trice, the president of Holtec International, said that Indian Point could be restarted in four years for $8 billion to $10 billion. At a DOB meeting a few weeks later, Holtec's Patrick O'Brien said that Trice was speaking theoretically because the federal Department of Energy had asked all shuttered nuclear plants for estimates of what it would take ...

    7 min

  7. FEB 27

    Beacon Schools Can Raise Levy by 4.47%

    Debt, new construction, inflation figure into calculation The Beacon City School District will be able to increase its property tax levy by as much as 4.47 percent, or $2.24 million, for the 2026-27 academic year under a state-mandated tax cap. District voters last year approved an $87.7 million budget with a $50.1 million levy, a 5.09 percent increase over the year before. There are three main factors that affect the levy, which is the amount the district can raise through property taxes. The first two — "allowable" and "tax-base" growth factors — are outside of the district's control. Since New York State established a tax cap in 2012, the allowable growth factor has permitted public school districts to raise their levies each year by 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. For 2026-27, it's 2 percent. A second factor measures the district's tax base, allowing schools to add revenue for new development. Beacon's tax-base growth factor has been the highest in Dutchess County in recent years and, while, at 1.7 percent, or $841,715, "it's still higher than the other school districts" in the county, "it is a little bit lower than it has been," said Deputy Superintendent Ann Marie Quartironi, who explained the formula to the school board on Feb. 19. The third factor that allows a district to increase its levy is debt on capital projects. This is under the district's control, and in 2026-27 state law will permit Beacon to collect an additional $1.83 million to absorb debt in its spending plan. The district last year applied debt for the first time on a $50 million capital project approved by voters in 2024. "That was the first step," Quartironi said. "The second step is trying to increase the debt every year in your budget," which allows the district to collect more taxes under the state formula to pay it down. The capital project will kick off this summer with the installation of secure entryways at five of six schools (one is already secure) and upgrades of the Beacon High School theater and athletic fields. The debt will be spread over the next three fiscal years, Quartironi said. Last year, the district did not include a proposition on the May ballot for school buses, but this year it will ask voters to approve the purchase (financed over five years) of one diesel bus and four vans, including two accessible for wheelchairs.School board members must approve the budget by the end of April. Administrators plan to share estimated tax bills with the board and community before voters make the final decision on May 19. The district anticipates receiving more than $500,000 in added funding from New York State in 2026-27 through Gov. Kathy Hochul's universal pre-K initiative. Beacon has offered a pre-K program at its four elementary schools since 2023, and this year contributed $450,000 that can now "go to other things in the general fund," Quartironi said. "The financial impact is huge for us." Ten percent of the state funding must be distributed to community partners. The announcement of the increased funding prompted Quartironi to issue a request for proposals last year for agencies within district boundaries to administer the program. The district, which serves about 120 pre-K students, partners with the Rose Hill Manor Day School, which is under Planning Board review to convert its preschool to a hotel, and New Covenant Learning Center. Mirbeau Inn & Spa, scheduled to open this spring, is not expected to receive its final certificate of occupancy from the city before Sunday (March 1), so it will likely remain on the tax rolls for 2025-26. Once up and running, Mirbeau will submit payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, which will be distributed to the school district, the city, the county and the Howland Public Library.

    4 min

  8. FEB 27

    Charges Filed in Route 9 Eviction

    Former tenant accused of grand larceny, fraud A Philipstown man accused of causing the popular owners of a dry cleaner and Cambodian restaurant on Route 9 to lose their property to foreclosure has been indicted in Putnam County on grand larceny and fraud charges. Derek Keith Williams, a self-described "sovereign citizen" who has been serving a six-month sentence in the county jail for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license, was arraigned Wednesday (Feb. 25) on six felony counts: four for grand larceny and two for filing a false instrument with the intent to defraud. Williams pleaded not guilty before Judge Anthony Mole and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, $200,000 insured bond and $200,000 partially insured bond. He is due back in court on April 8. Before the indictment, Williams had been accused of convincing Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur that he paid off the mortgage on 3154 Route 9, where the couple ran Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners and sold Cambodian food in a landscaped garden along Clove Creek. Kim and Oeur also lived in a residence at the property, rented space to a nail salon and showcased Oeur's artwork in a gallery. A meeting with Williams, whose girlfriend used to run the nail salon, upended that existence, leading to the couple's eviction on Dec. 9. In a lawsuit they filed to reclaim the property, Kim said a personal loan she used to rebuild the property after a fire in 2005 had been taken over by M&T Bank when she met Williams through the girlfriend, Mauny Bun, in 2019. Kim said that Bun, whose mother she had known for over 30 years, "reminded me a lot of my daughter … and I put a lot of trust and faith in her." She decided to accept Williams' offer to buy the property for $1.2 million and transfer it to an entity called DKW Trust, none of which happened. That decision triggered a 17-month foreclosure process that began in August 2022 after Kim stopped making payments on her $570,000 mortgage. Judge Gina Capone ordered the foreclosure in February 2024. Four months later, an M&T subsidiary, Chesapeake Holdings, paid $620,200 for the property at an auction. Williams hid the foreclosure by demanding that Kim "turn over any mail or paperwork" and "treated questions as disobedience … responding with rage, profanity and intimidation," according to court documents. Their loss of the property is a "deeply tragic — and profoundly avoidable — result" of the actions of "an unhinged and dangerous criminal who exercised coercive control over them," said Jacob Chen, their attorney. He is asking Capone to vacate the foreclosure and give Kim and Oeur a chance to regain the property. Williams has described himself as a sovereign citizen, a fringe movement whose members broadly believe they are exempt from laws and reject documents such as Social Security cards and driver's licenses, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that tracks extremists. One standard tactic is "paper terrorism" — bombarding clerks' offices and courts with phony and often indecipherable filings that can exceed 100 pages and are filled with grandiose language, references to treaties and patents and widespread use of capital letters and the copyright and trademark symbols. Williams spent more than $5,000 on nearly 30 filings with the Putnam County Clerk's Office. Many of them were fruitless attempts to prevent M&T Bank from evicting Kim and Oeur from 3154 Route 9, where Williams had taken over the art gallery as a living space.

    4 min
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About

The Highlands Current is a nonprofit weekly newspaper and daily website that covers Beacon, Cold Spring, Garrison, Nelsonville and Philipstown, New York, in the Hudson Highlands. This podcast includes select stories read aloud.

Information

  • Creator
    Highlands Current
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Clean