Two Incidents Of Beacon Deaths Not Included In Beacon Police Blotter Submitted To Media

At least two incidents that happened in Beacon in December 2021 involving violent death and several witnesses were not included the Police Blotter submitted by the Beacon Police Department to the Highlands Current, a weekly newspaper that covers Philipstown (Cold Spring) and Beacon.

Those incidents were: the stabbing of local “Scout” Rene Vivo on Christmas Day 12/25/2021 who later died, and the traffic accident on Teller Avenue and Main Street where a Jeep was turning left onto Teller Avenue from Main Street and struck a spritely grandmother and local, Carla Giuffrida, who later died. The blotter for the month of December reportedly included 535 calls, a few of which newspapers like the Highlands Current reprint.

The City of Beacon’s Daily Police Blotter that has not been updated since 11/7/2021. Last checked: 1/10/2022.

The Beacon Free Press used to publish in print select items from Beacon’s Police Blotter, but has not recently. The Highlands Current does publish the blotter digitally on their website, which you can find by doing a search for “blotter” on their website. The City of Beacon claims to publish a Daily Police Blotter, but it has not been updated since November 7, 2021.

To introduce their second article on the killing in the paper’s member newsletter, Editor Chip Rowe mentioned new news about the incident: “This week we have news of a homicide on Main Street in Beacon on Christmas Day (and the difficulty we've had getting any information about it from the police).”

When A Little Beacon Blog inquired to Chip about the new news, which involved a report of a previously unofficial assault (yet highly rumored incident) on 12/15/2021 revealed in the December 2021 Police Blotter submitted to the newspaper, he said that he had opened the Police Blotter emailed to him by the Police Department shortly after the Friday 1/7/2022 issue went to press. The 12/15/2021 assault was not included in the print edition of the newspaper, but was added to the digital version.

The blotter item for 12/15/2021 read: “Rene Vivo, 65, of Beacon, was charged with second-degree assault after an incident on Main Street.”

The description did not include if the assault was in response to any action, such as an act of defense, or if Rene was being followed and acted in self defense after being attacked, or any details about who the assault was done to.

The Highlands Current article included a memorial piece for a victim, “Scout” Rene Vivo, which included a list of dates covering information that was released by the Beacon Police Department regarding that stabbing days after the incident occurred. The Beacon Police Department made a public announcement about Scout’s stabbing on 12/30/2021, one day after ALBB published an article about the incident on 12/29/2021.

After noting that two major events were missing from the blotter of 535 calls, the curated blotter article published by the Highlands Current was edited to read: “Editor’s note: The information here is provided to The Current by the Beacon Police Department. It may not be complete; although state law treats police blotter records as public records, with some narrow exceptions, the department removed information about at least two serious incidents from the December blotter at its discretion. It may have removed items from past blotters, as well.” The editor then noted that the omitted incidents they are aware of had been added to the list, using brackets to set them apart.

A Little Beacon Blog has emailed Beacon Police Chief Sands Frost, City Administrator Chris White and Lieutenant Tom Figlia seeking a response from any of them as to why an item would be omitted from the police blotter submitted to a media outlet. As of this publishing, no response was given.

Said Kristin O’Neill, Assistant Director of the New York State Committee on Open Government, when asked by ALBB about police blotter legislation: "The Freedom of Information Law governs access to all government records and does not specifically address the availability of specific types of records. There is no law of which I am aware that requires that police blotter information be proactively disclosed. You may need to submit FOIL requests on a regular basis in order to receive all reports."

The Highlands Current submitted a FOIL request for a police report on the stabbing, and reported: “On Wednesday (Jan. 5), the department denied a Freedom of Information Law request for the police report on the [12/25/2021 “Scout” Rene Vivo] incident from The Current 29 minutes after it was submitted.

It is unknown if these incidents resulted in an open investigation, then perhaps they would not be included in the blotter. However, Mayor Kyriacou confirmed the stabbing incident to Mid Hudson News days after the event. The newspaper later deleted the article and his confirmation. Witnesses were at the scene of the traffic accident on Main Street and Teller Avenue earlier in the month. The police report for that incident has taken at least one month to be made available, according to people familiar with the investigation.

It is unknown how many open investigations there are total, and if those incidents were included in any blotter submitted to the media.

As of 12/23/2021, when ALBB inquired about the traffic accident involving the 11 year girl who was hit by a car while on her bike coming home from school crossing Verplanck and Matteawan that happened on 12/20/2021 (and was included in the December 2021 blotter), ALBB received this response from Lieutenant Figlia: “Sorry for delay in getting back to you. Going forward, please make any requests for information through the City Administrator’s Office.” ALBB has not received a response from the City Administrator’s Office since forwarding the emailed questions to City Administrator Chris White. Months ago, the City Administrator has also directed Beacon’s Parks and Recreation Director to not answer questions from ALBB. The City Administrator has not answered dozens of questions from ALBB since he was hired.

The two items added to the published blotter at the Highlands Current are as follows:

• [A pedestrian was struck by a car at Main Street and Teller Avenue and later died.] This was the pedestrian, Carla Giuffrida, 75 who was struck by a Jeep turning left from Main Street onto Teller Avenue on Wednesday, December 1, 2021.

• [A Beacon man was stabbed during an assault and later died at the hospital. He was later identified as Rene Vivo, 65]. This was “Scout” Rene Vivo, 65, who was stabbed on Saturday, December 25, 2021 and later died.

For the traffic accident involving Carla Giuffrida, the police report remained open and was not released to the public at least by the end of December. The Highlands Current had submitted a FOIL for it by mid-December and was denied. Sources familiar with the investigation confirmed that the police report had not been made public by the fourth week of December.

A car vs pedestrian accident involving an 11 year old girl being hit by a car on her bike while crossing Verplanck at Matteawan on Monday, December 20, 2021 was in the original police blotter submitted to the newspaper. According to sources familiar with the investigation, that police report had not been made public by January 5, 2021.