SAUGERTIES – A Saugerties woman has been arrested on charges of menacing a police officer with a kitchen knife and other charges following a domestic incident in the Town of Saugerties.
On July 19 and August 11, the suspect was arrested on similar charges.
Police were responded to an address in the Town of Saugerties at 5:21 p.m. on Saturday, September 19 when a caller reported the woman was intoxicated and fighting with other family members.
When officers arrived on the scene, the person who had called reported the woman had broken several items in the house and had bitten one of the complainants on the arm.
She is then accused of grabbing a kitchen knife, holding it over her head in an act of aggression toward officers.
A Saugerties Police sergeant deployed a taser incapacitating her long enough for officers to disarm and take here into custody without further injury to her.
She was transported to Health Alliance Broadway Campus in Kingston for substance abuse treatment and a mental health evaluation.
Police, meanwhile, charged her with felony criminal contempt of a court order, and misdemeanors of criminal possession of a weapon, menacing a police officer, reckless endangerment of property and attempted assault.
In the July incident, the woman was charged with menacing and criminal possession of a weapon following a menacing incident with a family member that involved a knife and chainsaw.
At the time of that arrest, she pleaded with officers to kill her.
In the July incident, she was charge with menacing and assault following an incident where she was armed with a knife and threatened to kill a family member and then herself.
The incidents involving the woman “once again underscored the failure of our mental health system in New York State to properly evaluate and provide care to those suffering from mental illness and substance abuse,” said Police Chief Joseph Sinagra.
“Police throughout our nation are constantly being placed in confrontational situations with individuals suffering from mental health illness and substances abuse addiction. These individuals deserve and require long term treatment. Rather than funding and having a mental health law system in place that can properly address the needs of those suffering from mental health illness and substances abuse addiction, we have spent the past 25 years defunding and dismantling our Mental Health System,” the chief said. “As a result, today we are left with nothing else to do but to throw these individuals back onto the streets, increasing their frequency of contact with police. Then when the situation turns deadly, we the police are to blame. I thank God that our officers did not have to use deadly physical force (Saturday) evening.”
Sinagra said the use of deadly physical force in that encounter “would have been justified, but officer) first resorted to a less lethal tactic, which on this occasion worked. Had the taser not been effective, this outcome could have turned lethal. “
The woman was arrested before for violating an order of protection issued as a result of a domestic disturbance.
