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ounty Sheriff candidate Bob Fernandez Tuesday, Aug. 14, released a police report
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$½ Million Bid Wins Rapper’s House On Lake COOPERSTOWN
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$500,000 bid by Nancy Herman of Cooperstown won rapper Prime Minister Pete Nice’s Peggs Point lakeside home. However, it now seems Peter Nash, whose 1992 “Pop Goes the Weasle” was the first hit by a white rapper, may challenge the sale yet again.
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showing that Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr.’s son Ros pulled a gun during what the father termed a “road rage” incident five years ago. The incident report, filed on Aug. 13, 2013, reported that Ros, off-duty and in
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
BIDDING ADIEU: Veteran “Where Nature Smiles” columnist Catherine Lake Ellsworth begins her farewell reminiscences/SEE A4
Devlin
Fernandez
RESIDENT’S VISIT,
MacGuire Benton, former chairman of the Otsego County Young Democrats, now a political operative, joins chants of “This is what Democracy looks like” during President Trump’s Monday, Aug. 13, visit to Utica.
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civilian clothes, confronted an individual, Richard Coleand pointed a gun at him in a threatening manner. “Public safety must be the priority for a sheriff,” said Fernandez. “It is what the people of Otsego County expect and what they must
have. The current sheriff forgot that years ago; his actions and denial have placed the public at risk.” Devlin responded, “It’s clear my opponent is going to resort to smear tactics and dirty politics to try to get Please See SHERIFF, A9
Killer Of MITY Girl, 11, Gets Life In Prison
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Second Suspect In Morris Slaying Set For Trial Next Year By LIBBY CUDMORE NORWICH
A Parker Fish/The Freeman’s Journal
Democrats, Republicans Chant ‘U-S-A’ In Unison
CLEAN UP RIVER: The Cooperstown Lions are joining the OCCA and Biological Field Station in a cleanup of the Susquehanna River between the Mill and Main street bridges, beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 18. To participate, email John Rowley at jd16rowley@aol.com. DOG DIES: A pet died in a house fire at 89 Ford Ave. in Oneonta Tuesday, Aug. 14. For details, go to
AllOTSEGO.com
In Confrontation, Sheriff’s Son Pulled Gun, Rival Says COOPERSTOWN
The Freeman’s Journal
For 210 Years
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, August 16, 2018
By PARKER FISH
Washington Post reporter Craig Timberg drew a SRO crowd to a lecture at Cooperstown Village Hall on his beat: Russian meddling in the 2016 election/SEE SUM-
E WIL
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
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Volume 210, No. 32
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VISIT THE EXPANDING
OUNDED 1808 BY
Otsego County’s Newspaper
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MiLy yMCa OnEOnTa Fa2 0010 607 43 taymca.org w w w .oneon
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►THINGS TO DO IN GREATER COOPERSTOWN/INSIDE
By PARKER FISH UTICA
Patrick Belanski, Little Falls, chants “U-S-A” with other Trump supporters on Utica’s Liberty Bell Park.
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hen Republican and Democratic demonstrators, including some from Oneonta and Cooperstown, faced off on either side of Utica’s Genesee Street, everyone
expected a volley of chants directed at their opposition. But that didn’t happen. Instead, both sides engaged in a rousing “U.S.A.” chant, showing that even amidst all of the ferocity of the current political climate, Americans can still come together to show patriotism. “We were actually the first ones to start the chant,” Please See TRUMP, A7
Mayor ‘Authenticates’ Keel of USS Cooperstown By LIBBY CUDMORE
IN MEMORIAM: Tom Selover, local entrepreneur COOPERSTOWN and former member of the Cooperstown Central school ooperstown Mayor board, has passed away/OBITEllen Tillapaugh UARY, A12 almost missed the chance to go lay the keel on the USS Cooperstown.
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“About two weeks ago, I got a call from the Navy asking if I was coming to the ceremony,” she said. “I had never received my invite!” Though it required some last-minute schedule changes, Tillapaugh flew out to Wisconsin Monday, Aug. Please See SHIP, A11
Mayor Tillapaugh (red shirt) watches welder burn her initials into keel of USS Cooperstown Tuesday, Aug. 14, at Wisconsin shipyard. Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin
t no point in his sentencing did the man convicted in
the rape and murder of 11-yearold Jacelyn O’Connor, Morris, show any remorse. “He didn’t even Jacelyn apologize O’Connor to the family,” said Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride said Monday, Aug. 13, after Tobias Rundstrom-WoodPlease See GIRL, A8
Samaritans, Bank Rescue Aged Horses By LIBBY CUDMORE FLY CREEK
T
he four horses left behind at the foreclosed B&B Ranch were spared a dismal fate. Kodey, Sidney, Dixie and Cricket were collateral when B&B Ranch owners Barb and Jim Giombetti took out a Bank of Cooperstown loan. When the Bank of Kinderhook, which held the Please See HORSES, A3
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD Brenton P. Dadey
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