By HEATHER NELLIS

For the Express

BROADALBIN — State police Trooper Brian Beardsley walked out of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office last Tuesday afternoon in a suit and a pair of handcuffs, just about 10 miles away from the barracks in Mayfield where he was suspended without pay several hours before.

Beardsley, 32, of Amsterdam, was arrested by the sheriff’s office when autopsy results for Chad Finch revealed the 29-year-old Providence resident died from injuries sustained when Beardsley’s Nissan pickup truck allegedly ran him over in the early morning hours Sunday on County Highway 110 in the town of Broadalbin.

The off-duty trooper, an eight-year state police veteran, reportedly fled the scene, and had who is believed to be his girlfriend, who accompanied Beardsley in the vehicle, call 911 around 2:41 a.m. to report she had observed a body in the road. For that, Beardsley was charged with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident without reporting, a class D felony. Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey said that charge could mean up to seven years in state prison if Beardsley is convicted.

“He has no defense for the charge,” Lorey said. “He didn’t stay and that’s what the law mandates you to do.”

After turning himself in Tuesday, Beardsley was escorted by an unmarked sheriff’s patrol car from the Route 29 facility in Johnstown to Broadalbin town court on Union Mills Road around 4:30 p.m. He was arraigned before Judge Joseph Gilston Sr., who set bail at $1,000 cash or $10,000 property bond, which Beardsley posted. A court date has been scheduled for June 23 at 5:30 p.m.

Beardsley left the brief appearance without cuffs, but his demeanor remained — he walked tall and purposefully, his face averted from the media’s cameras and camcorders while he quickly climbed into the back seat of the black patrol car. He was accompanied by Attorney Ron Schur, who spoke for his client.

“Not guilty,” Schur said, reinforcing Beardsley’s plea. “He is sorry for the family, but we believe the victim was already deceased. We believe the district attorney’s office and police rushed a judgment here because he’s a police officer.”

Lorey said there was a question of whether Finch had been struck by another vehicle before he was run over by Beardsley, but neither the autopsy nor the evidence at the scene could support that theory. The sheriff said that question was enough to prevent the department from originally charging the trooper, who may face more criminal charges at the discretion of a Fulton County grand jury.

Lorey said Beardsley was driving home from Northville when the incident occurred. The sheriff believes Finch was inebriated when he was walking home around 1 a.m. from Kristel’s Lodge on County Highway 110, and Lorey said Finch presumes he was struck by Beardsley’s truck at approximately 2 a.m.

The call to the sheriff’s office wasn’t placed until nearly 40 minutes later than Lorey’s presumption, though he did not know Finch’s exact time of death. Lorey would not say whether Beardsley admitted to striking Finch with his vehicle, but the sheriff said based on the 911 call, the department did not know whether the body the female caller referred to was “human or a porcupine.”

On the scene, deputies found Finch, who was dead and face-down in the southbound lane of the heavily wooded road that is not illuminated by streetlights. Lorey said Finch suffered multiple traumas all over his body and believes he was killed instantly.

No one was at the scene when officials arrived, but deputies traced the phone number back to the cell phone used to make the 911 call. Beardsley’s girlfriend answered, reportedly admitting the phone belonged to her off-duty boyfriend.

Investigators located Beardsley approximately 90 minutes later, and his truck reportedly had Finch’s blood and tissue on its undercarriage. Lorey hopes the car’s information system, which is being assessed by a state police accident reconstruction team, will hold more evidence. He referred to it as the motor vehicle version of an airplane’s black box. He said the results of that analysis are expected in several days.

Lorey said when Beardsley was located, which could have been nearly two hours after the accident, he was subjected to alcohol prescreening tests but they were not indicative.

“[Beardsley] certainly had time to ingest something in the meantime, but scientifically it takes the body an hour and a half to burn off one alcoholic drink. If someone had six drinks, it would take more than seven hours for it to go through their system. It’s just science,” Lorey said.

When asked if Beardsley’s occupation as a local law enforcement official wavered typical procedure and prompted preferential treatment, Lorey said no.

“If anything, he needs to be held to a higher standard,” the sheriff said.

A state police spokesman confirmed early Tuesday afternoon that Beardsley had been suspended without pay pending the results of an internal investigation, but would not reveal what grounds he was suspended on.

Finch leaves behind two young children.