Maybrook traffic stop leads to cocaine, stun gun arrest in Orange County

A stop sign violation in Maybrook turned into a drug-and-weapon arrest when village police said they found 16 glassine bags containing cocaine and a stun gun inside a vehicle stopped in the village. Steven Tieman, 64, of Montgomery, was arrested Friday, May 1, and later charged with felony drug possession, criminal possession of a weapon, failure to stop at a stop sign and aggravated unlicensed operation.

The case has become a clean example of how a small department can frame routine traffic enforcement as a public-safety matter. Maybrook Police Chief Dennis Barnett said his officers are fighting the drug-sale epidemic every day and will continue investigating and enforcing against people selling drugs in the community. Barnett, who was appointed deputy chief in April 2025 before later becoming chief, has also promoted the department’s “see something, say something” message on the village’s official police page.

Tieman’s release on an appearance ticket also puts New York’s bail rules back into view. Under state procedure, an appearance ticket must be returnable as soon as possible and, with limited exceptions, no later than 20 days from issuance. That means the arrest itself can be immediate and forceful, while the next step moves through court rather than jail. New York’s Penal Law also treats an electronic stun gun as a weapon for purposes of criminal possession charges.

The arrest lands in a village that sees itself as more than a small stop between larger Orange County communities. Maybrook, with a 2024 estimated population of 3,142, sits in central Orange County and has long been defined by transportation. Its history page notes the former Maybrook Yard, once an important railroad hub that made the village a regional crossroads long before today’s traffic corridor became a police focus.

The broader county backdrop is also hard to miss. Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler’s office says the county’s Drug Task Force was created in 2015 to handle narcotics and firearms investigations, a model that helps explain why even a local traffic stop can quickly be viewed as part of a larger drug-and-gun enforcement picture. In a village that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025, the stop on May 1 showed how quickly an ordinary road violation can turn into a case with wider public-safety consequences.