Troopers: Ex-convict, former town justice threatened to burn down Fowler polling site, return with gun after being denied vote

Nov. 5—GOUVERNEUR — A convicted felon denied the ability to vote Tuesday in the town of Fowler allegedly threatened to return to the polling station with a gun and burn down the building, according to state police.

Paul M. Lamson, 69, of Gouverneur, who served more than 10 years as Fowler town justice before being convicted of receiving sexual favors from a defendant with a criminal case pending before him, is charged with making a terroristic threat.

Troopers said they were called to the town of Fowler offices on Little York Road at about 6:37 a.m. for a report of a man who had been rejected at the polling site making threatening remarks.

They said Lamson is a convicted felon whose voting status showed he had not re-registered to vote after being released from prison.

Lamson became irate after not being allowed to vote, according to troopers, and made threats about returning to the site with a firearm and burning the building down.

He left the scene, but troopers said he was later located and taken into custody without incident. He was taken to the state police station in Gouverneur for further interviewing.

After being charged, he was arraigned in Gouverneur Town Court and remanded to the St. Lawrence County jail, Canton, on $25,000 bail.

Lamson was sentenced in June 2017 in St. Lawrence County Court to two to six years in state prison after pleading guilty to felony third-degree bribe-receiving and misdemeanor official misconduct as part of a plea deal with the state attorney general's office, which prosecuted the matter.

In or about May 2016 in the town of Fowler while acting as the town justice, Lamson arranged to receive sexual favors from an individual known to the attorney general's office who had a pending criminal case before Lamson.

Between July 2015 and November 2016 while acting as town justice, Lamson contacted the individual with the pending case to solicit sexual favors, and continued to contact that individual and engage in sexual relations with them during that time.

Lamson issued favorable rulings and made decisions that appeared to benefit the individual which included "to keep them at liberty as opposed to a period of incarceration," Assistant Attorney General Christopher Baynes, of the Public Integrity Bureau, said at the time of Lamson's plea.

Lamson served about 20 months in prison before being released under parole supervision in February 2019, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website. He was released from parole supervision in February 2020.