Schoenborn Joins CGHSSPCA Investigation Team

Town of Prattsville resident Donald Schoenborn (right) has joined the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals cruelty investigation team, welcomed by CGHS/SPCA President/CEO, Peace Officer/Cruelty Investigator Ron Perez.

PRATTSVILLE - It was all in a day’s work for now-retired Greene County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Donald Schoenborn, a dutifully quiet MO the town of Prattsville resident will continue at his new job.

Schoenborn has been hired by the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as a cruelty investigator, extending his expertise with humans to animals.

“The CGHS/SPCA is proud to welcome Investigator Donald Schoenborn to its Cruelty Investigation team,” Humane Society president/CEO Ron Perez said in a recent press release.

“Investigator Schoenborn had a distinguished career with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office,” covering 21 years, Perez said. 

“His experience and talent will undoubtedly help hundreds of animals who are victims of cruelty and neglect,” Perez said.

Each year, the CGHS/SPCA Cruelty Investigation team assists with over 200 complaints, including animal cruelty seizures, rehabilitation and the rehoming of rescued animals, the release states.

Schoenborn comes to the Humane Society with a lifelong devotion to defenseless creatures and a notable professional resume’.

He grew up working summers on a family thoroughbred horse farm in Greene County, graduating from Shenendehowa High School..

It was a large graduating class, close to 1,000 students, in suburban Clifton Park, a far cry from the class-size at rural Windham-Ashland-Jewett where he currently serves as a substitute teacher.

“I really enjoy being here,” Schoenborn says. “One day I was subbing in a class with ten kids, wondering if they know how good they have it.” 

Four years ago, Schoenborn was selected as a co-Person of the Year by the Mountain Eagle newspaper for his calm leadership under duress.

The literally life-and-death circumstances unfolded in late December, 2021, when Schoenborn received a call for police backup.

“It is difficult to comprehend what passes through the mind of a person who tries to kill a cop,” the news story reported, recounting a search for a man suspected of being tied to a string of mountaintop burglaries.

In the wintry after-midnight hours of December 29, the suspect was tracked to a vacant residence in the hills of the town of Ashland by young sheriff’s deputies Matt Seeley and Joe Caputo.

Two days earlier, on December 27, deputy Will Wyant, had pursued the suspect and his fiancee, capturing the fiancee after a thwarted break-in.

Seeley and Caputo, then in their mid-20’s, summoned Sergeant Ray Feml who contacted Schoenborn, meeting at the scene within minutes.

Which is where the story, “takes an untold turn amid rifle shots  allegedly fired by [the suspect] from a 30-30, whizzing past the officers close enough to be heard by them in the 2 a.m. darkness,” the news report stated.

The suspect, “the author of a tedious rap sheet, is on a first-name basis with law enforcement, prompting Investigator Schoenborn to phone the holed-up fugitive even as the officers took cover and drew weapons,” the news report stated.

While it was fully surreal, “hearing bullets pass by their heads,” as Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione described those moments in a subsequent report on the incident, it was not altogether unexpected.

“During the 48 hours he was on the run, [the fugitive] had been sending menacing texts and posting social media rantings,” indicating he was in possession of several rifles and ammunition, Stanzione said.

“These officers stood their ground until they, and other deputies, were eventually able to take [the fugitive] into custody without harm to anyone,” Stanzione said.

Schoenborn, stationing himself in harm’s way with his compatriots, had a vital role in negotiating the fugitive’s surrender, de-escalating a situation Sheriff Pete Kusminsky said, “could easily have been deadly.”

Schoenborn pulled in at 2:20 in the morning, ringing [the fugitive] on his cell phone as shots were ringing out, reportedly saying to him, “think about what you’re doing. Think about your kids.

“If you don’t turn yourself in, this will be what they remember,” Schoenborn said, with the would-be killer emerging from a side door, hands up.

“I’m very proud of the way these officers handled themselves,” Kusminsky said. ‘They are all very dedicated to the public, never letting any kind of action get in the way of that dedication.”

“We just did our jobs,” Schoenborn said at that time, sharing the Person of the Year Award with Wyant, Seeley, Caputo and Feml.