Police Chief says, aware of assault on South Street; ‘investigating’ but scant progress

By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer

Reached for comment Tuesday about the Sept. 24 South Street assault, Glens Falls Police Chief Jared Smith said, “We’re fully investigating it.” He said one suspect, a juvenile, has been identified.

The Chronicle told Chief Smith that victim Jody Brown expressed frustration that no one from the police reached out to him after he spoke to police at the crime scene and then visited the station later that day.

The Chief said, “He is very well aware that he needs to come to the police station to give us a statement. So we are waiting on him.”

“The officer has indicated they were supposed to come in and give a statement Saturday [Sept. 30], and the victims haven’t come in yet,” he said.

“The victims at the time declined — they didn’t want anything done at the time,” Chief Smith said “At this point it’s in the victim’s hands.

Is the identified assailant off the street?

“It’s a juvenile…Until we get a statement from the victim, there’s no paperwork going to be filed in Family Court,” he said.

“We can’t beg people to come down and give us a statement. A lot of times, they don’t want to get involved,” the Chief said.

•Mr. Brown told The Chronicle Tuesday that he visited the Glens Falls Police Department twice seeking information.

First, later on the day of the assault, Sunday, Sept. 24.

Then again this past Saturday, Sept. 30, at around 10 a.m., with his brother, visiting from Vermont. Mr. Brown said his brother intended to provide a statement.

“That’s absolutely a lie that we didn’t show up Saturday,” he said.

Mr. Brown said he already gave, and signed, what he believed was a statement at the crime scene. He said if he knew he needed to do something more, “I would have done it.” He said he never declined to make a statement.

Mr. Brown said the police told him Saturday, “the guy in charge works midnight. And that he would call me at like 11:15 p.m. or 6 a.m. They said it to me real sarcastic, like, ‘would you like that call at that time?’ I was like, that’s great. I work nights. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Of course, nobody ever called,” he said.

Mr. Brown said he has been to the police station twice, his brother once.

At the police station he says, “You talk in that phone, and then they make you sit there for like a half hour be fore they come out. Both times they did that,” he said.

“They make it so frustrating. You’re like, I survived. Screw it,” Mr. Brown said.

•Mr. Brown provided various details to The Chronicle from his first visit to the police station, including that police told him one assailant had been identified.

When presented with these details, Chief Smith acknowledged that Mr. Brown may have visited the police station.

The chief said, “Okay. Probably what happened is the way that our procedures is, you either end up having to talk to the sergeant that was on duty or you end up having to talk to the officer that handled the case, because we don’t get other officers involved in taking statements and that kind of stuff for continuity. So it’s possible that the officer that initially was there wasn’t working that day. So he was probably told to reach out to him.”

“It’s also very possible, because I’m just reading this case, the officer may have more information,” Chief Smith said. “Not everything gets documented right away in the case. So that’s all I’m going off right now.”

The Chronicle asked to speak to that officer. “The problem is…he works 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.,” the Chief said.

“And that’s part of the issue is when you get a case at one o’clock in the morning, and you only work till seven — the follow-ups,” the Chief said. “So that has to be coordinated.”

So, asked The Chronicle, is it possible Mr. Brown already came to the station?

“If he has that information, he probably did,” Chief Smith acknowledged.

If a victim comes to the police station and the officer on the case is not in, does the victim need to come back again?

“That’s how it works, yes,” said the Chief. “He needs to leave a message with whoever he speaks to indicating that the officer can give him a call and schedule a time to come in to give a statement.”

Chief Smith said, “I’m going to follow up with the officer to see if he has any more information. Just to try to move forward with. It sounds like the victim wants to cooperate, and it’s just a matter of coordinating.”

•
Mr. Brown said that when he went to the station for the second time, Saturday, eventually an officer told him the police “don’t know anything, and they’re [the alleged offenders are] kids, and not much they [police] can do about it.”

 

He said of the statement he gave at the crime scene, “I asked for the copy on Saturday. And the guy said, ‘I have no idea where it is.’”
There is a discrepancy in the victim’s account and the file the Chief referenced. Mr. Brown told The Chronicle he and his brother were two victims attacked by three assailants.

Chief Smith said “persons listed” for the case are “one victim and one unknown suspect and one juvenile suspect” — one victim attacked by two assailants.

When asked, the Chief said the other victim, Mr. Brown’s brother, is mentioned elsewhere in the report.

Chief Smith said he could not provide The Chronicle a copy of the report because “it’s a current open investigation.”

“It indicates that they were walking home on South Street, and they were passed by juveniles on bicycles. The juveniles stopped, turned around and started assaulting both of them,” the chief said.

Last week Glens Falls Police issued a press release in which Chief Smith said there had been juvenile and adult arrests in recent incidents attributed to minors involving bikes and an Aug. 22 assault.

The Sept. 24 South Street assault is a new case, “not included in” last week’s press release, Chief Smith says.

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