BAINBRIDGE – A three-hour standoff between New York State Police and a Bainbridge man who was allegedly holding his wife against her will ended without shots being fired.
At approximately 11:40 a.m. Thursday, a man identified by neighbors as Michael D. Richardson, 33, surrendered to police outside his residence at 6 Johnson St. in the Village of Bainbridge.
“They came out willingly after a period of time,” reported New York State Police Captain James E. Barnes, who was one of more than 20 law enforcement officers on the scene.
Police were alerted to the potential hostage situation at 8:21 a.m. when a call was placed by a relative to the Chenango County 911 center reporting a domestic dispute, Barnes said.
Officers arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and established a perimeter, blocking off several side streets and a portion of State Route 7.
While residents in the houses immediately surrounding Richardson’s row house were escorted from their homes, Barnes said no larger-scale evacuation was undertaken. State Police did, however, request that the railroad cease operation along the portion of line running through the village during the incident.
According to Karl Brown, superintendent of the Bainbridge-Guilford Central School District, both the district’s high school/middle school campus and Greenlawn Elementary were placed on “lock out.” This decision was made by school administrators as a precautionary measure, he stated in a phone interview yesterday.
The State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Crisis Intervention Team were also on the scene. Barnes said they made contact with Richardson via the home’s telephone land line.
“In the course of talking with negotiators, the subject came out on his own volition,” he reported.
A woman who works in the vicinity reported that the couple had four small children. According to police, no children were in the residence at the time Richardson surrendered.
Although the 911 caller had indicated the subject was in a possession of one or more firearms, Barnes did not confirm that any such weapons were discovered at the time of the incident.
“We’re still conducting our investigation,” he said.
According to Barnes, Richarson was taken to the Troop C Barracks in Sidney for questioning. He was later arraigned before Town of Bainbridge Justice Steven W. Klugh on second degree assault charges and remanded to the Chenango County jail. Bail has been set at $50,000. If convicted on the charge, a class D felony, Richardson could face up to seven years of imprisonment.
According to Barnes, the alleged victim sustained “serious physical injury.”
Barnes stated specifically that the incident had not been a hostage situation nor had the subject barricaded himself in the home as had been reported by some media outlets, but that law enforcement had treated it as such because of the nature of the 911 call and their past association with Richardson.
“The police are familiar with this address,” he reported, explaining that the incident was not the first run-in the man has had with police in the last month (see sidebar).
According to the Village of Bainbridge Police Department, Richardson was arrested on Nov. 30, seven days after a warrant was issued for his arrest on kidnapping, burglary and criminal mischief charges. The Chenango County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that he was remanded to the Chenango County Correctional Facility following that arrest, but had been released on Dec. 3 after his bail, set at $2,000, was posted.

Staff Writer Tyler Murphy contributed to this story.