LEGISLATURE STUFFBETTER THAN HEARSAY - A Befuddling Gap

CATSKILL - Intricate details of the driving while intoxicated charges filed against Greene County Human Services executive director Stephanie Schleuderer - or anybody for that matter - wouldn’t ordinarily be the busybody business of journalists.

Schleuderer’s tribulations would draw attention due to her position with the county, but would probably otherwise be a one-and-done headline and follow up on the eventual legal dispensation.

The events surrounding the situation, however, demand deeper delving, unfolding in the late afternoon of Friday, July 26, at the county office building parking lot on Water Street in Catskill, after Schleuderer

reportedly did not show up for work that morning.

And the scenario has been described by a county official as creating a “circus-like atmosphere” inside the building, leaving many questions unanswered as to what happened that recent summer day.

The questions are mostly focused on the timing of multiple charges brought against Schleuderer, who was reportedly discovered in the parking lot by building security around 4 p.m., that Friday.

County officials reportedly did not know her whereabouts until then. A county sheriff’s deputy approached her car, reportedly spotted by county personnel from within the building.

The story was broken by Andrea Macko, co-owner of the online newspaper Porcupine Soup, noting that county officials are being particularly and unusually tight-lipped about how the circumstances played out.

Macko reported that, “Upon searching the parking lot, deputies allegedly found Schleuderer at 4:18 p.m. drinking in her Nissan.”

Macko further reported that police records state Schleuderer told a deputy she had two alcoholic beverages, a White Claw and Michelob Ultra.

From the outset, arriving at factual conclusions has been baffling at best and impossible at worst, based on the existence of scattered timelines.

Police reports obtained by Macko through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the Catskill town court spell out those timelines.

Schleuderer was reportedly scheduled to appear in Catskill court on August 8 and August 15 on the allegations. 

Schleuderer was charged as an “unlicensed operator” at 4:18 p.m., police records show, linked to an alleged expired license.

While reportedly still in the parking lot, she was also charged, at 4:18 p.m., with “consumption/alcohol in motor vehicle,” according to police.

A little over half-an-hour later, at 4:54 p.m., Schleuderer was charged with misdemeanor “driving while intoxicated,” police records show.

She was, at the same hour and minute, charged with “aggravated DWI-blood alcohol content .18 or higher,” police records show.

Precisely what went on during the 36 minutes between the first two charges and the latter two charges has become the stuff of cobwebbed mystery.

Numerous and sundry accounts have been shared with Porcupine Soup and The Mountain Eagle, which is often and commonly the case.

It appears, trying to tie all the loose threads together, that after Schleuderer was discovered in her car, she was escorted to the county building by an officer, purportedly to make a phone call to a family member.

Which is where this thing veers off the rails. At some subsequent point, she reportedly left the county building, alone, and was observed on building security monitors returning to her car.

Schleuderer reportedly got in her car and drove off. A deputy from inside the county building reportedly quickly pursued her, pulling her over on Water Street, headed toward traffic-heavy Bridge Street.

A series of field sobriety tests were reportedly conducted. Schleuderer failed four of the tests including “walk and turn,” “one leg stand” and “horizontal gaze nystagmus,” police records show.

Police records show a breath test was administered at the county sheriff’s office in Coxsackie at 5:56 p.m., registering 0.23 percent, close to three times over the legal limit, almost two hours after Schleuderer was first discovered in the parking lot.

Numerous and sundry theories are being offered about what transpired between the discovery of Schleuderer and her ultimately getting transported to the county sheriff’s office.

More than one reliable source has said phone calls were made by officers to county officials, alerting them Schleuderer had been found, allaying concerns about her safety in light of her not calling into work.

Officers were reportedly advised to “do their job,” somehow resulting in the 36-minute gap and the police pursuit on Water Street.

While it was initially reported Schleuderer had been suspended - with pay pending investigation by the county - her job status could be in legal flux.

It is expected more details will surface within the coming days as the employee policy and privacy processes are sorted out.

Schleuderer was hired by the county as head of Human Services, which encompasses the bureaus of Youth and Aging, in August of 2022.