KINGSTON – An inmate in the Ulster County Jail, who was remanded without bail on charges of attempted murder of a police officer and related crimes, has lost his State Supreme Court appeal for reasonable bail.
The Ulster County Sheriff’s Office had received calls from acquaintances on February 9, 2021 to check on the welfare of 52-year-old Clayton Shafer of Esopus. He had been in his RV at his business a short distance from Robert Graves School in Esopus.
When a responding deputy sheriff turned into the driveway, Shafer confronted him with a loaded AR-15, pointed it at the officer and attempted to shoot.
At the time he was indicted, District Attorney David Clegg credited the “extraordinary courage, skill, and evasive training of the responding deputy” saving lives of passing motorists.
Shafer subsequently filed an action in State Supreme Court in Albany; however, in a decision handed down on February 14, 2022, the court rejected his attempt at bail noting his indictment on charges of attempted murder of a police officer, attempted aggravated assault upon a police officer, attempted assault, menacing a police officer and criminal possession of a weapon.
The court noted the potential maximum sentence, if convicted of attempted murder of a police officer, is life imprisonment without parole.
The justices also wrote that Ulster County Court Judge Bryan Rounds remanded Shafer without bail after engaging in “a thorough and thoughtful assessment of the bail application.”
The court also said that Judge Rounds took note of Shafer’s “actual threats” against the President of the United States, including those made on social media.
