Week in review - 11/30

Please contact me at 581-2480, ext. 214, and edegrechie@saratogapublishing.com with comments and feedback.

Eric DeGrechie, Executive editor

Parents of missing boy offer $25,000 reward

The search for Jaliek Rainwalker, the Greenwich boy that went missing on Nov. 1, continued. Rainwalker’s adopted parents, Stephen Kerr and Jocelyn McDonald, are offering a $25,000 reward for the boy’s return.

Police are continuing to receive tips on the boy’s whereabouts, but none have panned out. The authorities are not ruling out that Rainwalker, 12, is still alive, but with the recent weather, they find it hard to believe he would be without help or getting

out of the Capital District.

Rainwalker is still being treated as a missing person case under investigation by the police.

Police divers and forest rangers have been searching the Hudson River where it meets the Batten Kill, and in the nearby wooded areas where Washington County meets Saratoga County.

The light-skinned biracial youth is described as 5-feet-6 inches tall and 105 pounds.

Anyone with information on Rainwalker’s whereabouts are asked to call the Cambridge-Greenwich Police at 692-9332.

Wesley Foundation receives anonymous $100,000 donation

The Wesley Foundation received a $100,000 donation this past week, which will go towards the Outpatient Therapies’ Pediatric Endowment Fund.

The fund is designed to help pediatric clients with financial concerns recover from their injuries or sickness.

The pledge, which came from an anonymous donor it the community, will be partially funded with a $50,000 donation this year and then fulfilled with another $50,000 donation in 2008.

The donor is a resident of the Wesley Community and wanted to make a donation that would help children receive the quality care they need.

The Wesley Foundation was established in 1999 to serves as the fundraising arm for Wesley Health Care Center, Wesley Outpatient Therapies, Embury Apartments, Woodlawn Commons Senior Living and Wesley Evergreen Adult Day Services. For more information go to www.wesleyhealth.com.

Teacher pleads guilty to sexually abusing students

Christopher Culver, once a popular and respected elementary school teacher in the Shenendehowa Central School District, plead guilty on Monday, Nov. 26 to all 49 counts of a grand jury indictment. The indictment issued in May, charged Culver with 29 felony counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a child under the age of 11, 12 felony counts of sexual conduct against a child and eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III said this is the same as if a jury had convicted him of every single count in the indictment.

“A defendant is not entitled to a plea bargain. In this case the crime of sexually abusing children is so egregious that we insisted on a plea of guilty to all the crimes for every child,” Murphy said.

Culver, 33, of Chestertown, Warren County, was arrested in February and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment that same month. On Monday, with jury selection about to commence, he asked Saratoga County Judge Jerry Scarano, through his lawyer Terence L. Kindlon, to change his plea.

Information gathered on Friday, Nov. 23, by the New York State Police led the D.A.’s office to believe Culver was going to flee the jurisdiction for Colombia, a country with no extradition treaty with the United States. To make sure that didn’t happen, prosecutors applied to a Supreme Court Judge that day for an order requiring Culver to surrender his passport, license, birth certificate, and social security card, and also notified immigration, customs, Interpol, other law enforcement agencies including the FBI, as well as airports, border patrols and bus lines of the possibility that he might try to flee.

Scarano revoked Culver’s bail and remanded him to Saratoga County jail. Orders of protection were granted to keep Culver away from the eight victims permanently.

Culver will be sentenced by Scarano on Jan. 21 at 10:30 a.m. It is expected he will serve a prison term of 12 years, plus three years of post release supervision.

“Most importantly, the children will not have to testify,” Murphy said. “Six-year-old boys will not have to get on the stand and tell in public what this monster did to them. He will be in prison which is the only appropriate place for him.”

Upon Culver’s release from prison, he must register as a sex offender and comply with related laws. Though it’s likely Culver will now be terminated from his present job, it remains uncertain whether or not he will have to surrender his teaching license.

Round Lake man netted in gambling ring

After a year-long investigation into an area gambling operation, raids on Tuesday, Nov. 27 led to the arrest of four men.

Cory C. Reynolds, 38, of 50 English Road, Round Lake, was arrested and charged with enterprise corruption and eight counts of promoting gambling. Reynolds was considered to be the head of the operation.

Also arrested were Mark R. Bruso, 28, of 18 Phillips Road, Rensselaer, Brian J. Welch, 46, of 15 Sunset Boulevard, Colonie, and Timothy J. Finnigan, 43, of 4 Pinehurst Road, Colonie.

Bruso was charged with conspiracy, while Finnigan was charged with possession of gambling records and possession of a gambling device. Welch, a state corrections officer, was charged with conspiracy and possession of gambling records.

Once Saratoga County Judge Jerry Scarano granted investigators an eavesdropping warrant, Reynold's phones were tapped from January through April. During this time, investigators estimated Reynolds took about 6,500 bets, ranging from less than $20 all the way up to several thousand dollars, totaling $1.74 million.

Computers, four vehicles, roughly $50,000 in cash, approximately four ounces of marijuana, a quantity of hallucinogenic mushrooms and other drug related items were confiscated by investigators. Drugs were found at each of the four homes.

Bruso, Reynolds, and Welch were all arraigned in Malta, and appeared in Colonie Town Court on Nov. 28. Finnigan was issued an appearance ticket, and is scheduled to appear in Colonie Town Court at a later date.