By Julie Abbass
Watertown Daily Times
LOWVILLE, NY — An inmate at the Lewis County Jail, Shaun M. Liscum, 40, of Lyons Falls, was charged with 28,851 criminal counts related to an exorbitant number of phone calls he made in violation of a protection order.
Mr. Liscum has been charged with 9,617 counts each of aggravated family offense and first-degree criminal contempt, both a class E felonies, and second-degree aggravated harassment, a class A misdemeanor.
Allegedly, Mr. Liscum made the 9,617 calls while incarcerated from March to September of this year to a person covered by an order of protection.
According to Lewis County Sheriff Michael P. Carpinelli and Undersheriff Jason A. McIntosh, there is a pay phone available to inmates on the block. Mr. Liscum was calling, waiting until there was an answer, usually voicemail, then hanging up. They estimated he was averaging four calls every 15 minutes.
The use of these phones is not limited, so it wasn’t clear what was occurring until the person under protection of the order contacted the sheriff’s office to report the situation.
Mr. Liscum is being held without bail for a Nov. 2 county court date relating to a first-degree attempted burglary incident in March.
He also faces two counts of first-degree unlawful imprisonment and third-degree assault as well as one count each of second-degree strangulation, aggravated criminal contempt, first-degree reckless endangerment, criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, third- and fourth-degree criminal mischief and endangering the welfare of a child. The charges stem from a January incident when police allege Mr. Liscum applied pressure to his then live-in girlfriend’s throat and threatened her during a domestic dispute.
Mr. Liscum was on probation for a 2016 first-degree sexual abuse case after having served six months in jail, so he allegedly violated his parole with the alleged incidents in January and March.