Grand jury passes up more than a dozen felony indictments

NORWICH – The Chenango County Grand Jury met Wednesday and handed up several criminal indictments. At the proceedings, the District Attorney’s Office presents evidence against those they wish to prosecute and the jury decides if there is enough reasonable cause to charge a person.

The grand jury indicted 14 individuals:

• Micheal A. Bush Jr., was indicted for driving while intoxicated (Class E felony) after he was pulled over at 1:02 a.m. Dec. 31 in the Village of Oxford. The indictment reported that Bush had prior alcohol related conviction including a prior DWI conviction in Chenango County April 14, 2006 and a prior driving while ability impaired conviction in Otsego County on Nov. 29, 2004.

• Calahan P. Thompsen and Kenneth D. Peer were indicted for fourth degree grand larceny (Class E felony) and fourth criminal possession of stolen property (Class E felony) for allegedly stealing a Chevy Blazer from Sheldon Street in the City of Norwich Dec. 30. The car was valued at $1,515 and was allegedly ditched by defendants in an off-road area in an attempt to impede its recovery. They were also indicted for petit larceny over the theft, a misdemeanor.

• Daniel R. Stein was indicted for aggravated DWI (Class E felony) after he was pulled over at 4:27 p.m. on Dec. 27 in the Town of Preston. The indictment stated Stein had a blood alcohol level of .20 percent, more than double New York State’s legal .08 limit. Stein was convicted of DWI Sept. 26 in the Town of Guilford and convicted of DWAI Feb. 9, 2006 in the Town of Norwich.

• Joseph P. Schimitz was indicted for first degree sexual abuse (Class D felony) for allegedly molesting a girl under the age of 11 in the summer of 2002 in the Town of Plymouth. He was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

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In a separate incident, Schimitz was also indicted for first degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle (Class E felony), DWI (Class D felony) and seventh degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor. Allegedly, Schimitz was operating a vehicle with a license previous suspended for an alcohol conviction while under the influence of a drug and had on his person crushed prescription pills of Darvocet in a plastic bag. He was previously convicted of DWI Oct. 21, 2004 in Broome County and convicted of DWI March 3, 2003 in the Village of Sidney, in Delware County.

• Terri E. Furgeson was indicted for first degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle (Class E felony) and DWI (Class E felony). She was arrested on her birthday Dec. 13 with a blood alcohol level of .11 percent and had her license suspended for a previous alcohol-related conviction. She was convicted of DWI March 17, 2005 in Chemung County.