Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup that according to Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione, the now-former county coroner Paul Seney failed to disclose a previous criminal conviction when he applied for a pistol permit. That is why Seney was arrested on March 11, by the county Sheriff's Office and charged with first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. “Seney was charged with filing a false Instrument with respect to a pistol permit application that resulted in a permit being issued to him a few years ago...,” said Stanzione. A story in The Royal Gazette, a Bermuda newspaper, shows Seney is a convicted felon stemming from a case there more than 30 years ago. Seney, who was 22 at the time, “was sentenced in September 1991 to 71 years in prison for his part in the drug ring that brought nearly $1.5 million worth of cocaine to Bermuda,” according to the newspaper. But that sentence was reduced to five years in exchange for Seney’s testimony against a drug cartel. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to import more than 1,000 grams of cocaine from July to September of 1990, according to the paper. Seney, a Republican, was elected in 2019 and took office as a county coroner in January 2020. He resigned without explanation on February 17. A question on the state pistol permit application asks, “Have you ever been arrested, summoned, charged or indicted anywhere for any offense, including DWI (except traffic infractions)?” The applicant is advised that knowingly providing false information is sufficient cause to deny the application and constitutes a crime. Following his arrest, Seney was arraigned and released on his own recognizance. Seney is the president and owner of Richards Funeral Home in Cairo and Athens, and W.C. Brady’s Sons in Coxsackie. Read the full story at porcupine soup [dot] com.