Holmes Pawling Neighborhood Watch

DUTCHESS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Poughkeepsie, New York

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Lt. John Watterson

845-486-3860

**UPDATE TO FATAL AUTO ACCIDENT**

The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of Michael S. Herman, age 17 of Pawling, as a result of the investigation into the one-car fatal auto accident in Pawling from 10/12/11.

Mr. Herman was arrested on 10/13/11 at approximately 6:00 pm after being released from St. Francis Hospital, where he had been treated for non-life threatening injuries that he suffered in the accident. Mr. Herman was the operator of the vehicle when he lost control and crashed into a tree, after which the passenger (Christian Rohor) died at the scene. Mr. Herman is accused of operating the vehicle while impaired by the combined use of drugs and alcohol.

Mr. Herman has been charged with Vehicular Manslaughter in the 2^nd Degree (Class D felony), Driving While Intoxicated (misdemeanor), Reckless Driving (misdemeanor), and Unsafe Speed (traffic infraction). Mr. Herman was arraigned at the Town of Pawling Court and remanded to the Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond. The investigation is continuing and more information may be released as it becomes available.

From PJ.com

PAWLING — A Pawling teen was killed in a one-car crash Wednesday night on West Main Street in the village, authorities said.

Christian Rohor, 19, died at the scene, police said.

The crash occurred about 11 p.m. near Sheridan Drive, the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office said in a written release.

A Sheriff’s Office deputy found the accident while on patrol, moments after it occurred. The deputy found a 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup truck with two occupants that had crashed into a tree.

Rohor was a passenger in the pickup truck, police said.

Unsafe speed and alcohol involvement are possible factors in the crash, a preliminary police investigation indicated, but the cause is still under investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Police have not released the name of the 17-year-old driver, but said he is a Pawling resident. He was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in the Town of Poughkeepsie with non-life threatening injuries.

The Sheriff’s Office said criminal charges are pending.

State police and the Pawling fire department assisted the Sheriff’s Office at the scene.

The Sheriff’s Office Crash Investigation Unit is continuing the investigation assistance from the county Medical Examiner’s Office and the county District Attorney’s Office.

Officials: Heroin use among young has risen sharply from PJ.com 08.14.11

When Pawling teenager Shane Smith was killed in a car-motorcycle accident in July 2009, police discovered the 21-year-old man who was driving the car was intoxicated at the time of the crash.

The substance Johnson had ingested wasn’t alcohol or cocaine. It was heroin.

And in the two years since then, police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and substance abuse counselors say, heroin use among young people in Dutchess County has increased substantially.

“Heroin has become a middle-class phenomenon here,” said Michael North, director of the county Department of Mental Hygiene’s Intensive Treatment Alternative Program. ITAP is a drug rehabilitation program for those accused or convicted of crimes.

North said about 28 percent of his clients had heroin addictions in 2009, but the number has risen to more than 50 percent this year.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s peaked yet, either,” North said.

Those who are arresting and prosecuting drug users and traffickers say they’ve been seeing heroin use grow for at least three years.

“In 2008, about 25 percent of our cases involved heroin. Now, it’s about 60 percent,” said Frank Tasciotti, a coordinator of the Dutchess County Drug Task Force.

Tasciotti and Brett Orlich, another member of the task force, attributed the rise in heroin use to the easy availability of opium-based prescription drugs such as Oxycontin and Vicodin.

“Young people are getting hooked on those drugs, then if they can’t get them, they turn to heroin,” Orlich said.

He said many of those who become addicted don’t know how dangerous the drug can be.

“With a lot of drugs, if you take too much, you pass out,” Orlich said. “With heroin, you OD and you’re dead. It’s a very unforgiving drug.”

Dutchess County Senior Assistant Public Defender David Martin said heroin had become the “drug of choice” for many of his clients.

“We’re seeing a brand-new bunch of people — young people from the suburbs — showing up in court with heroin addictions,” Martin said.

Aviv Segal, a prosecutor with the county district attorney’s Narcotics Bureau, said the price of heroin has dropped steadily as supplies have increased in the past three or four years, leading more young people to try it.

“And the thing about heroin is how quickly it’s addictive,” the prosector said. “There are very few recreational heroin users out there.”

“Crime Beat,” which explores law enforcement issues and cases worked by police in the Mid-Hudson Valley, appears each Monday. To suggest a topic, call 845-437-4834. Reach Larry Hertz at lhertz@poughkee.gannett.com at 845-437-4824.

Same problems in Westchester as in Dutchess. Sad…

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201106050230/NEWS01/106050372