Court rejects Ulster man’s appeal on perjury conviction

ALBANY, N.Y. » A state appellate court has rejected an appeal filed by a town of Ulster man who was convicted in 2015 of perjuring himself during a pistol permit reinstatement hearing in Ulster County Court.

A ruling handed down Thursday by the state Appellate Division, Third Department,

rejected the appeal by Eric P. Talmadge, age unavailable. Talmadge was sentenced in 2017 by then-County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to six months in the Ulster County Jail.

In September 2013, Talmadge was charged with one count of perjury based upon an allegation that he had provided false testimony that was material to a pistol permit reinstatement proceeding.

Talmadge’s pistol permit was suspended in March 2012 following an incident during which he was issued an appearance ticket charging him with discharging a weapon within 500 feet of a dwelling. After that charge was dismissed for failure to prosecute, he applied for reinstatement of his pistol permit.

At the ensuing reinstatement hearing, Talmadge testified that he had not consumed alcohol on the date of the 2012 incident, according to the court’s decision. Following his testimony, however, one of the police officers who responded on the evening of the incident submitted an affidavit containing information “diametrically opposite about material facts that [defendant] … testified to,” the appeals court ruling states.

On appeal, Talmadge argued that the evidence was legally insufficient to support the verdict and that the court had failed to establish that he had been administered an oath prior to testifying at the permit reinstatement hearing.

The appeals court disagreed with both of these assertions.

Talmadge was represented by Amy Bellantoni. Jason Kovacs handled the appeal for the Ulster County District Attorney’s office as a special prosecutor.