Potsdam ex-cop accused of strangulation to appear in court Wednesday

Sep. 24—POTSDAM — The attorney representing a former Potsdam police officer accused of strangling a suspect while still on duty is trying to get the charge thrown out, arguing that his service to the community should outweigh the allegation.

Matthew A. Seymour, 45, is facing one misdemeanor count of criminal obstruction of breathing. He is scheduled to appear in Norfolk Town Court at 7 p.m. Wednesday and is represented by Edward F. Narrow of Canton.

The defense attorney said he hopes Norfolk Town Justice George C. Grubee will make a ruling on Wednesday evening to dismiss the case.

The attorney's motion to drop the charge asks the judge to consider "all the circumstances surrounding the allegations and balancing those circumstances against the almost 20-year career of Officer Seymour with the Potsdam Police Department and all of the wonderful things he's done ... both as a member of the police department and just a regular citizen in Potsdam."

"In balancing all those factors out, we've asked the judge to dismiss the case in the interest of justice," Narrow said Friday afternoon.

"During the course of Matt's career in Potsdam, he was involved with delivering two babies while on duty. He has a lot of accreditations, additional training, working with victims of child sexual assault," Narrow said. "Matt has been working with victims of child sexual assault for years."

"It's balancing the things he's done as a police officer that are extraordinary, different from what the average police officer would have done in the community," Narrow said. "There may be 13 seconds or so that shouldn't reflect upon the honorable service of Matt's career."

The case is being tried by an outside prosecutor, Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Nicole L. Kyle.

Shortly after Seymour's arrest, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary M. Pasqua had requested a special prosecutor due to potential conflicts of interest. Pasqua's office had handled cases in which Seymour was involved as a police officer, and they'd previously prosecuted the alleged victim.

Seymour was arrested in May after an April 1 incident in which he "applied pressure to the throat of a male individual (in custody) which impeded his breathing," according to the St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office, which investigated and made the arrest. He was fired shortly after being arrested.

The sheriff's office said it started its investigation after receiving "a referral from the Potsdam Village Police Department through the St. Lawrence County District Attorney's Office in regards to an incident involving an on-duty patrolman."

In 2015, Seymour was placed on leave after shooting and killing a Clarkson University graduate student found stabbing a classmate in the grad student's apartment.

Seymour returned to the department on Nov. 3, 2015, after he was placed on paid administrative leave Sept. 10, the day that he fired four shots from his .45-caliber Glock 21 service pistol, killing 31-year-old Tian Ma.

Seymour and officer Clinton M. Perrigo arrived at 401 Swan St. in the Swan Landing Apartments in response to a report of a domestic assault, and found Ma on top of 25-year-old Yazhen Jiang, stabbing both her and himself. Mr. Perrigo did not fire his pistol.

At the time of the shooting, then-village police chief Kevin M. Bates said Ma refused to obey the officers' commands to drop the knife.

"They had their weapons drawn and asked the assailant several times to drop the knife and he did not comply," Mr. Bates said in 2015. "Officer Seymour shot four times, killing Ma on the spot."

Seymour afterward agreed to testify before a grand jury that reviewed the shooting to make sure it was either in self-defense or in protection of a third party.

Then-village administrator Everett E. Basford in November 2015 said he and Mr. Bates made the decision to have Seymour return to work following a discussion they had a week prior, without the grand jury having convened.

"There was no requirement that he be put off work. It is precautionary to remove someone involved in a fatality," Mr. Basford said in 2015. "At this point we have been assured that there were no pending issues to be aware of, so we thought it was time to bring him back."

"It would have been nice if the grand jury convened and confirmed that it was an unfortunate but justified action and that there were no circumstances that would have prohibited him from returning to work," Mr. Basford said at the time.