Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

A man is accused of stealing a John Deere utility vehicle and then leaving it in a ditch. State police say they believe 22-year-old Patrick Gallagher of Wellsville stole the 2008 John Deere Gator from Otis Eastern Service early Thursday morning and then traveled into Steuben County before abandoning it in a ditch in the Town of Howard. Gallagher is charged with grand larceny and is in Allegany County Jail in lieu of bail. Pictured, a John Deere similar to the one that was stolen. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

Rep. Tom Reed, county police, sheriff, fire and emergency services departments gathered at Cornell University Thursday for an Emergency Responders Advisory Board meeting. The group focused primarily on funding opportunities including grants made available to emergency and first responders. “With the relationships we’re building with local emergency and first responders, we have a better understanding of what they are looking toward Congress to help them with,” Reed said. “Fire departments, EMS organizations, police departments – they all have specific equipment and personnel needs and the better we understand those needs, the better equipped Washington will be to address them and address them fairly.” “As the Chief of Police at a large Ivy League University that works closely with other first responders in our community, this type of forum is essential to communicating what our needs are to do the best job in responding to and preventing emergencies,” said Chief Kathy Zoner o...

A Steuben County, New York, woman arrested Friday in Pennsylvania is accused of assaulting a corrections officer, escaping from a hospital, kidnapping a woman and her baby, and holding the baby at knifepoint. 35-year-old Billie Jo Ribble was wanted for breaking into a home in October and stealing $12,000 worth of property, including more than a dozen guns. She was picked up Friday at a Wal-Mart in Mansfield, PA. While she was awaiting extradition to New York she complained of pain due to her pregnancy, so she was taken to a hospital in Wellsboro, where she allegedly assaulted the corrections officer, jumped from a third-story window, to a second-story rooftop, and then used a catwalk to get to the ground. Sheriff’s deputies say she then broke into a house near the hospital, and took a 19-year-old woman and her six-month-old baby hostage. She demanded that the woman drive her to New York, and held the baby at knifepoint during the trip. Before getting out of the car, Ribble took the...

The Addison, New York, man who tried to kill two state troopers in September of 2011 has been sentenced to 40 years to life in state prison. 38-year-old Richard VanGorden was convicted in November of attempted murder and other charges related to a high-speed chase in Hornellsville. VanGorden held police at bay during a three-hour stand-off at a trailer park in Wellsville that ended when police used tear gas to force him out. VanGorden still insists he did not try to kill the troopers. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

A Hornell man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for having more than 600 images and videos of child pornography on his computer. 26-year-old Taber Wells downloaded the images between September fo 2009 and June of 2010. The US Attorney’s office say some of the images depicted children younger than 12. Taber will be on parole for 35 years after he’s released from prison. The FBI handled the investigation. Read the news release here . The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

New York State Police have released more information about the helicopter crash that injured a state trooper near Bath, New York. At around 10:30 Thursday morning 41-year-old Trooper Thomas Shultz had to make a “controlled, powerless descent” after the helicopter experienced mechanical problems, and that resulted in what they are calling a “hard landing.” Shultz, who is a highly trained and experienced US Army combat pilot, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for treatment. Shultz is assigned to the State Police Aviation Unit in Batavia. He was part of the team looking for 28-year-old Melissa Sherry of Hammondsport, who had been missing since Saturday. She was found dead in the Town of Campbell. NY State Police photo The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

The parole hearing for convicted child killer Eric Smith has been postponed. Smith, who is now 32 years old, was just 13 in 1994 when he killed 4-year-old Derrick Robie in Steuben County. He was sentenced to nine years to life in prison. Today was supposed to be his sixth parole hearing, but officials say they are waiting for more records before going on with the hearing. Smith lured Derrick into woods, hit him with a rock, stuffed paper in his mouth and crushed his skull with a 26-pound rock. He is in the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947