Five people were arrested in Tupper Lake on Saturday after multiple local law enforcement agencies searched a local residence and found around $12,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine there. Tupper Lake Police Chief Eric Proulx said the arrests were the result of an approximately year-long investigation.

Along with the methamphetamine, Tupper Lake police said they found a small quantity of crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia and an illegally harvested deer while searching the residence at 14 Dorothy St. on Saturday. The search resulted in the arrest of Justin R. Drasye, Noah J. Tyo, Shawn C. Vaillancourt, Alisha L. Duckett and Chad D. St. Louis, who all received felony and misdemeanor charges. All of the suspects were arrested in the residence, arraigned in Tupper Lake town and village courts, and remanded to Franklin County Jail on the same day of the search.

The Tupper Lake Village Police Department was assisted in the arrest by the Saranac Lake Police Department, the Franklin County Sherriff’s Department, the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office, state Environmental Conservation Police and New York State Police.

–

Staffing and discovery laws

–

Proulx said that his department has been “overburdened with crime” in the past two years with an increase in the use and sale of narcotics in the village and a decrease in staff. Proulx said that dealing with repeat offenders and meeting discovery demands means the department has less time to spend on long-term investigations like this one.

“My K-9 sergeant was also my drug sergeant, who was also my only sergeant until recently,” Proulx said. “He spends about 41 and a half of his 42 hours a week doing discovery demands to send out to the district attorney’s office. So yeah, the new state discovery laws pretty much ruined any kind of narcotics investigations he could do while he’s working.”

Discovery is the process of providing evidence for a case to the district attorney, and New York state reformed its discovery law in 2020. Proulx said his department’s sergeant used to wait for the district attorney’s office to specify what kind of evidence they needed. He said a lot of cases — especially misdemeanors — would resolve themselves in local courts. But with the new reforms, Proulx said his sergeant has to keep track of all body cam footage and interviews and upload those videos to the district attorney’s office without being prompted. Before the reforms, Proulx said it was rare that the district attorney requested video footage. Now, he said, “every single thing that could be possibly involved in the case has to be gathered and, after arrest, has to be put together and uploaded to the district attorney’s office.”

Proulx said that the same case that would have taken an hour to process before the reform now takes the better part of a day to get through. On Monday afternoon, Proulx said his department had spent much of the day preparing for a preliminary hearing that night for one of the arrestees charged in this case.

“Pre-discovery laws, we wouldn’t have had to run around like we did today to get everything together,” he said.

Proulx said the new laws are behind the reason why he just promoted another sergeant — to get another supervisor on the street while the other supervisor is busy doing paperwork — and why he believes some officers have left his department. As a solution to the problem, Proulx believes New Yorkers should vote in state officials who are “pro-police and want to help law enforcement.”

“The reason that I’m in the situation I’m in is because of the things that Albany has done,” he said. “The officers that have left here have left because of the way things have gone with law enforcement, because of the rules made by Albany.”

–

The charges

–

Vaillancourt, 46, of Tupper Lake, received a total of 13 felony charges, including second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, three counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, second-degree conspiracy, two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, fourth-degree conspiracy and first-degree criminal nuisance. Police also charged Vaillancourt with fifth-degree conspiracy, two counts of second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia and second-degree criminal nuisance, which are all misdemeanors.

Police charged Alisha L. Dukett, 25, of Cortland with second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony, and second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

Police charged St. Louis, 34, of Cortland with second- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree conspiracy, all felonies, as well as seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors.

Police charged Tyo, 36, of Tupper Lake with second- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, both felonies, as well as two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors. Tyo was also charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance not in its original container, both violations, and an unsafe or failed signal, an infraction.

Police charged Drasye, 38, of Tupper Lake with second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, both felonies, and second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.