NORWICH – A judge rejected a couple’s claim Tuesday that New York State Police investigators removed their personal belongings while executing search warrants to obtain about $30,000 worth of stolen items the family’s son had hoarded at their home.

Curtis and Mary Ellen Snyder appeared with attorney Kenneth P. Whiting at the hearing and told Supreme Court Judge Kevin M. Dowd that police had accidentally seized some of the couple’s property in searches conducted on Jan. 22 and Feb. 21 in 2008.

In stark contradiction to their claim, District Attorney Joseph A. McBride told Dowd that this was just another attempt by the couple to claim stolen property they knew not to be theirs.

Curtis Snyder was arrested Jan. 22, 2008 over allegations that he aided his son, 23-year-old son Matthew M. Snyder, in the theft, possession and sale of nearly $30,000 worth of items taken from several burglarized homes in the Afton-Bainbridge area.

Following a bench trial, Dowd found Curtis Snyder not guilty of all the charges against him in April.

Matthew Snyder, however, pleaded guilty in January 2009 to two counts of burglary and Dowd later sentenced him to four years in state prison.

Matthew admitted in court that he burglarized at least 11 different homes, stealing tens of thousands worth of property, between 2005 and 2007.