Eleven inmates at the Ulster County Jail are facing additional charges after they were caught using the facility’s phone system to violate orders of protection by contacting protected parties. Dubbed “Operation Summer Rush,” the enforcement effort was a collaboration between the sheriff’s office’s Corrections Division and the District Attorney’s Office’s domestic violence task force.

The Intimate Partner Violence Initiative is an multi- agency task force with representatives from the DA’s Office, Kingston Police, Crime Victims Services and parole and probation officials and Family of Woodstock. The program, which began in 2017, uses “focused deterrence” to get abusers to change their behavior. The initiative incorporates a mix of offers of help, like anger management counseling or substance abuse treatment, with a clearly defined and communicated system of escalating consequences for continued abusive behavior.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Culmone-Mills said the task force began working with the corrections division in May to catch offenders under IPVI supervision violating orders of protection. The jail’s intelligence unit, which monitors and records inmate phone calls, would then review recordings for evidence of the violation and pass it along to the task force.

“Anytime we had reason to believe an IPVI offender was having contact with a protected party we would initiate an investigation with the sheriff’s office,” said Culmone-Mills.

All of the accused were recorded speaking with people who had an order of protection out against them. All were charged with criminal contempt in the second degree, a Class A misdemeanor, criminal contempt in the first degree, a class E felony for repeat offenders or those who communicate threats of violence to a protected party, or aggravated family offense, a Class E felony targeting people with prior domestic violence convictions.

The following inmates were arrested during the course of the operation:

Jesse Cruise – aggravated family offense
Betty Lou Kastanis – second-degree criminal contempt
Earl Morgan – criminal contempt first degree
Sean Peck – second-degree criminal contempt
Antoine Lacey – second-degree criminal contempt
Daizjon Conners – second-degree criminal contempt
Daniel Towne – aggravated family offense
Rebecca Wilson – second-degree criminal contempt
Mary Dellinger – second-degree criminal contempt
William Knape – second-degree criminal contempt
Christopher Yonetti – aggravated family offense