Jerson Vargas turned himself in at the Colonie Police Department on Wednesday, Dec. 23, and is currently held at the Albany County jail pending his sentencing.
COLONIE — Police are looking for a 43-year-old Malta man who pleaded guilty to assaulting an officer but absconded rather than showing up for his sentencing.
In February, a CDTA bus driver called police to report an unruly passenger. Jerson Vargas had urinated and spit on the driver and refused to get off the bus while it was stopped on Central Avenue near Wolf Road.
Officer Brian Curran, a 14-year veteran of the force, boarded the bus and Vargas “without warning or provocation … attacked Investigator Curran by punching him in the face and wrestling him to the ground,” said Lt. Robert Winn in a previous statement.
Vargas slammed Curran’s head into the wall and floor of the bus several times and would not stop before a back-up police officer and a passing civilian intervened.
In August, Vargas pleaded guilty to the assaulting the officer, a felony, and has been out of jail pending his official sentencing. That initially was slated for Nov. 2 and “several subsequent dates” leading to a warrant signed by a judge out of Albany County Court on Wednesday, Dec. 23, Winn said.
The last known address for Vargas is in Malta, but his current whereabouts are unknown, Winn said. He stands about 5-foot, 10 inches tall, weighs about 220 pounds and has brown hair, blue eyes with tattoos on his neck and arms.
He should be considered dangerous, Winn said, and should not be approached. If anyone sees him they should call 911 or contact Colonie police at 518-783-2744.
