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Police still mum about beating at Kinderhook July 4 party

Jul 16, 2020 6:33 am
Kenneth C. Crowe II reports in the Times Union that there is still very little the public knows about the beating of Harold Handy at a Kinderhook July 4 party at the home of Kelly Rosenstrach, a county sheriff's deputy. “It happened on the Fourth of July and we know nothing,” said Misty Brew-Kusewich of Matthew Signs on Route 9. What we do know:
• "Handy was so fiercely attacked that an ambulance at 1:27 a.m. July 5 drove him 50 minutes to Albany Medical Center Hospital from a party at the 3193 County Route 21, the residence of Alex Rosenstrach, the owner of ClubLife Health and Fitness in Kinderhook, and his wife Kelly Rosenstrach," Crowe writes.
• Deputy Kelly Rosenstrach was placed on administrative leave, but it is unknown if she is still being paid, and police won't say.
• A local law enforcement source told the paper that a search warrant was executed 36 hours after the incident at the Rosenstrach home.
• The police claim that, "no other deputy sheriffs were at this residence at the time of the incident.”
• Officials and law enforcement sources report that a federal agency member was at the party but "he was not a FBI agent," according to the paper.
• The Columbia County Sheriff's department is not just investigating one of its own officers, but are being assisted by the New York State Police Special Investigative Unit. “The Special Investigations Unit was assigned to assist with this case to eliminate any perception of a conflict of interest,” said Beau Duffy, a spokesperson for the Division of State Police in Albany.
• Brew-Kusewich printed 50 lawn signs that said #JUSTICEFORHAROLD, and many of them are missing.
“There’s a lot of work to be done by the investigators. They’re working on it,” said Lt. Louis Bray, Columbia County Sheriff spokesperson. But that is not satisfying many people in online posts. “We want to trust our local sheriff’s department. This is why people have doubts with this process that’s playing out. A lot of people doubt that there’s transparency in the investigation,” an anonymous resident told the newspaper. Read more about this story in the Times Union.