A\u00a0Downsville\u00a0man has been criminally charged in the death of a firefighter.<\/p>\n
A Delaware County Grand Jury has handed down an eight count indictment against\u00a0Joseph Bellows Jr., 54, after he crashed his motor vehicle on\u00a0state Route 30\u00a0in the town of\u00a0Hancock\u00a0on\u00a0July 17, and\u00a0East Branch\u00a0Fire Department Assistant Chief\u00a0Jason T. McGlone, 51, was killed when responding to the scene.<\/p>\n
Delaware County\u00a0District Attorney\u00a0Shawn J. Smith\u00a0said during a news conference\u00a0Friday, Sept 5\u00a0at state police Troop C headquarters in\u00a0Unadilla, that among the eight counts, Bellows was charged with second-degree vehicular manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter, Class C felonies. The charges claimed Bellows\u2019 \u201creckless\u201d actions caused McGlone\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
At Friday\u2019s news conference, Troop C Commander\u00a0Lucas Shuta\u00a0offered a summary of what happened on the scene in July.<\/p>\n
According to a\u00a0July 18\u00a0state police news release, McGlone was responding to the scene where a vehicle had reportedly hit a utility pole on\u00a0state Route 30\u00a0in the town of\u00a0Hancock\u00a0in a rescue pumper. A preliminary investigation found that a low-hanging electrical wire was in contact with the top of the fire truck.<\/p>\n
When McGlone stepped out of the truck, making contact with the metal door and the ground, he was electrocuted. He was eventually pronounced dead.<\/p>\n
The news release stated that Bellows collided with a guardrail and utility pole after veering off the roadway. The impact resulted in power lines becoming dislodged and falling around the scene, Shuta said Friday. Bellows was taken to\u00a0Delaware Valley Hospital\u00a0to be evaluated and receive treatment.<\/p>\n
Bellows was later arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated.<\/p>\n
Smith said Bellows was picked up\u00a0Thursday, Sept. 4\u00a0on a sealed indictment arrest warrant and was arraigned Friday.<\/p>\n
Count one, Smith said, alleged that Bellows was driving fastere than the provided speed limit at the time of the crash, and count two accused him of using his cellphone when the incident took place.<\/p>\n
Count three alleged that Bellows was intoxicated while driving, an unclassified misdemeanor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s two DWI charges,\u201d Smith said. \u201cOne is what we call commonlaw DWI which is just somebody who\u2019s intoxicated and then there\u2019s another DWI violation \u2014 a vehicle and traffic law section 1192 which has to do with per se, where the defendant\u2019s blood alcohol content is alleged to be above .08, the legal limit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said Bellows refused the initial test the state police wanted him to do to determine his blood alcohol content levels. Police obtained a search warrant and later determined his blood alcohol content. Smith added that a toxicology report alleged it was more than the legal limit.<\/p>\n
Counts five and six both allege Bellows committed vehicular manslaughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why there\u2019s two counts is that statute says if you cause the death of another person while you\u2019re operating a vehicle in violation of any subdivision of 1192 then it\u2019s vehicular manslaughter in the second degree,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSince there were two separate theories of DWI, there\u2019s two separate theories of manslaughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Count seven alleged that Bellows committed second-degree manslaughter, and count eight accused himt of committing fourth-degree criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, \u201cby recklessly damaging the property of another in an amount exceeding $250,\u201d according to a Friday news release from the DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
If convicted, Bellows faces between five and 15 years in state prison, an indeterminate sentence, but the judge could also decide on a shorter sentence, such as a term in local jail.<\/p>\n
For vehicular manslaughter, Bellows is facing an indeterminate term of 2 1\/3 years minimum to a seven-year maximum, Smith added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really appreciate working with the state police on this case,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAny time there\u2019s a homicide, it\u2019s really difficult, no matter what they do, no matter what we do. We can never bring back the person that was lost, the family member. Working with this group of folks here, they\u2019ve been really great. Anything we\u2019ve ever needed, they are on it, and they help us every way they can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2025 The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.). Visit\u00a0www.thedailystar.com<\/a>. Distributed by\u00a0Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0Downsville\u00a0man has been criminally charged in the death of a firefighter. A Delaware County Grand Jury has handed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-207627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115163097013130696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}