City resident charged in hospital threat
Police say Saeed Vahedi said targeted HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley in a phone call.
A city man has been arrested for allegedly making a terroristic threat against the HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley hospital system, police said Tuesday.
Saeed Vahedi, 65, of Brewster Street, was arrested by Kingston police at 10:20 a.m. Friday, Feb. 15, after placing a call to an agency in Albany in which he threatened “the whole hospital system,” Detective Lt. Thierry Croizer said. Vahedi was charged with the felony of making a terroristic threat, police said.
Croizer said he believed Vahedi thought he was calling the U.S. Department of Justice. The detective lieutenant said the threat was made a couple of days prior to Vahedi’s arrest, but he declined to state the specifics of the threat or discuss the matter further because the case remains under investigation.
Vahedi is a repeat offender who has served nine years in state prison for two separate felony convictions in Ulster County, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website.
In 2009, he was convicted in Ulster County Court of attempted sale of a controlled substance and sentenced to 3½ years in state prison. He also was sentenced in Ulster County Court to 5½ years in prison for robbery and was released on parole in 2008.
On Friday, Vahedi was arraigned in Kingston City Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail without bail.