http://www.buffalonews.com Latest stories from The Buffalo News en-us Sat, 25 May 2013 00:03:02 -0400 Sat, 25 May 2013 00:03:02 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529461/1024
Anthony J. Brough, 49, of Main Street, also will be on probation for five years and pay fines and fees totaling $1,555.

Kloch also revoked the registration on Brough’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle and ordered Brough to sell it. He also must install ignition interlock devices on two cars.

Kloch also revoked Brough’s hardship driver’s license for at least 18 months. Brough was arrested Aug. 9 on Lockport Road in Pendleton, where a Niagara County sheriff’s deputy measured his blood alcohol content at between 0.16 percent and 0.19 percent in three separate tests. Brough had six previous alcohol-related arrests. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:02:45 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529447/1024
Harris, 27, who lives on Niagara Avenue, was arrested on felony criminal possession of controlled substance charges, Capt. David LeGault, chief of the Narcotics Bureau, said detectives found quantities of crack cocaine, powder cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills and heroin in plain view on a dining room table as the raid began about 9:25 p.m. in an apartment at 459 19th St. As detectives entered Harris unsuccessfully tried to flush various illegal drugs down a toilet.



The raid followed a lengthy police investigation and complaints from neighborhood residents and community groups.

The thirteen other men and women in the apartment during the raid were all charged with misdemeanor drug counts or loitering for the use of drug charges, ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:00:09 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529448/1024
When detectives broke into his bedroom Weaver quickly dropped the 40-caliber handgun he had grabbed, telling officers he had expected to have to shoot whoever broke into his house. Capt. David LeGault, chief of the narcotics bureau, said Weaver was charged with weapons possession and, as a convicted felon, he is legally barred from owning weapons.

The search of Weaver’s house led to the seizure of 2.8 grams of alleged crack cocaine; Weaver was also charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance. The detectives also seized his automobile, LeGault said. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:00:06 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529449/1024
Jermaine G. Ellison was taken into custody and about a half-dozen different prescription drugs he was allegedly selling were confiscated, along with digital scales and drug packaging materials, according to Capt. David LeGault, chief of the narcotics bureau. Police also found $16,814 in cash, which LeGault said is believed to be “the proceeds of his illegal drug sales.” ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 21:59:59 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529455/1024
The dog found a 9 mm handgun hidden in the hollowed-out leg of a pool table.

A multi-agency task force of federal an local law enforcement officers descended on the home of Michael P. Mitchell, 32, at 1154 LaSalle Avenue about 6:30 a.m.

Capt. David LaGault, chief of the Niagara Falls Narcotics Bureau, said that a “trace” of suspected power cocaine was found in the house. Mitchell, who was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, remains under investigation, he said.

The raid was staged at the request of Rochester narcotics detectives and agents from the Buffalo office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Tank,” was brought along by Town of Tonawanda Police Officer Brent Costello. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:37:29 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529459/1024
Joshua J. Stoffer of Holbrook, Ariz., was charged with drunken driving, refusing to take a blood test, speeding and failure to keep right. He was treated at the Wyoming Community Hospital for minor head and shoulder injuries.

Stoffer narrowly missing striking a pedestrian at about 12:50 p.m. on West Main and sideswiped a car driven by Joshua Senick of Attica before driving into a ditch and flipping over. Senick suffered some injuries but was not taken to hospital for treatment. Both vehicles were extensively damaged, according to Attica police officials.

Stoffer refused to submit to a blood test at the hospital while he was being treated, police said.

He is being held in the county jail in lieu of $500 bail pending a June 24 court appearance in the case. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:24:26 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529462/1024
Evelyn George, 48, and Eddie George, 27, of Ninth Street, each pleaded not guilty to third- and fourth-degree sale and third- and fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance.

Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said Evelyn George allegedly sold cocaine and hydrocodone, while her son is accused of dealing in hydrocodone and oxymorphone.

Both are accused of sales to a police informant March 15, 2012. Evelyn also faces charges related to a June 12 deal, while Eddie’s other charges relate to an alleged March 23, 2012, sale. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:00:07 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529463/1024
Alex Oliveras was arrested at about 3 p.m. at Harrison and Institute streets. He faces charges of third-degree criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:00:05 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529464/1024
Westbrook, 30, of Whitney Avenue, admitted to a reduced charge of attempted fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and was scheduled for sentencing Aug. 29 by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas. She said she would consider sending Westbrook to the state prison system’s secure drug treatment facility, but Westbrook could end up in a regular cell for as long as four years. Prison time is mandatory for Westbrook, a repeat felon.

He was deemed eligible for the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment, but to get in, he would have had to plead guilty to a more serious charge. If he washed out of that program, he risked a prison term of up to 12 years. That was too big a gamble, he and Faso decided.

Westbrook admitted having 0.18 ounce of cocaine in the Falls on May 9, 2012. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:48:06 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529465/1024
The boy and girl, who are 3 and 4, went missing at about noon after they had been allowed to play in a back yard.

Both sets of parents began searching for them before they called 911 in a panic.

The children had gone into the woods searching for mice and then became lost, according to police spokesmen. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:45:08 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529466/1024
Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said Rose, 35, of Dudley Avenue, was arrested this week on a drug charge filed after police executed a warrant issued by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas because Rose skipped a sentencing date last week.

Rose also was shot in the right calf and left buttock May 11. He told police he was shot while sleeping in a car in the Unity Park area. Police found a car with a bloodstained seat and a baseball-sized chunk of alleged cocaine in a plastic bag between a seat and the door.

“There may be felony drug charges from the incident where he was shot,” Wydysh said.

Rose’s sentence Friday was for having cocaine when he and two other men were arrested after a traffic stop Dec. 3, 2011, at 22nd Street and Willow Avenue in the Falls. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:24 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529467/1024
Justin J. Snead, 22, of Lincoln Place, had pleaded guilty March 21 to second-degree assault.

Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said the victim, Edward Wright, was stabbed nine times, mostly in the back, and underwent multiple surgeries for intestinal damage and a collapsed lung. Hoffmann said that at one point, Wright was not expected to live.

Defense attorney James J. Faso Jr. said the knife came out when the men ran into each other in the parking lot of a Lincoln Avenue apartment complex several hours after they had been involved in an argument. “This was more about egos than anything else, a couple of guys jawing,” Faso said. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:17 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529472/1024
In custody pending arraignments are:

• Sharon D. Herman, 45, of Warner Gulf Road, Holland, charged with criminal sale and possession of a controlled substance. She allegedly sold narcotics to an undercover agent on two occasions in the Village of Perry.

• Mallory R. Pfaff, 24, of West Main Street, Attica, charged with criminal sale and possession of a controlled substance for allegedly selling cocaine twice to an undercover agent in the Village of Attica.

• Adam J. Pfenniger, 37, of Toolhouse Road, Warsaw, charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance for allegedly selling Suboxone on two occasions to an undercover agent in the Village of Warsaw.

• William C. Schlenker, 24, of West Main Street, Attica, charged with criminal sale and possession of cocaine for allegedly selling on several occasions to an undercover agent in Attica.

• Stephen W. Thompson, 36, of West Main Street, Attica, charged with criminal sale and possession of cocaine for sales of the substance “on multiple occasions” to an undercover agent in Attica.

Cory R. Fuller, 32, of Route 362, Bliss, was released after posting bail in Wyoming County Court. He is charged with criminal sale and possession of cocaine for a sale to an undercover agent in Bliss.

The drug task force was assisted in the investigation by members of the Genesee County Drug Task Force, the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Road Patrol and the Wyoming County District Attorney’s Office.



email: mgryta@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:27:28 -0400 Matt Gryta
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Bradley K. McNamara, 39, of Division Street, is charged with second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, two counts of second-degree criminal sexual act, and single counts of attempted second-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.

He remains free on $30,000 bail.

The course of sexual conduct charge includes alleged acts between the spring of 2011 and July 16, 2012, Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco said. The other sex acts allegedly occurred in September 2012 and this January.

When he was arrested in late January, McNamara was reported by police as the co-owner of Juicy Vapors, an electronic cigarette company. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:22:33 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529469/1024
Montague, 22, of Linwood Avenue, was placed on interim probation March 1, but within two weeks he had committed two other crimes, Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said. One was an assault, resulting in a misdemeanor plea Monday in Niagara Falls City Court; the other charge was aggravated unlicensed operation, Hoffmann said.

“Accidents do happen,” Montague told Farkas when asked about the assault.

Hoffmann said the victim became a County Jail inmate himself, and reported that Montague tried to make him recant his story when they were both behind bars.

Montague was sentenced Friday for attempted second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, resulting from an exchange of gunfire with another man June 22 at 18th and Niagara streets. No one was injured. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:22:30 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529470/1024
Marcus Caceres, 26, of Barrows Street, was the target of a court-approved raid.

Investigators seized 59 potted marijuana plants and pot-growing equipment along with a .50-caliber muzzle loader rifle.

Caceres, the alleged coordinator of the marijuana growing operation, remains a fugitive under two arrest warrants for unlawfully growing marijuana and criminal possession of a weapons.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the Jamestown Police Department at 483-7537. Anonymous tips cam be left on the Jamestown police tip line at 483-8477 (TIPS). All calls are kept confidential. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:11:07 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529479/1024
A note went home to parents Thursday alerting them to the situation.

“These postings are in violation of our district code of conduct,” the note from Superintendent Matthew P. McGarrity said. “Our administrative team immediately began an investigation and are working with the Orchard Park Police regarding the social media postings.”

Police Chief Mark Pacholec declined to give any details Friday but did confirm an investigation is ongoing into the messages, which he called “inappropriate.”

“Very inappropriate,” Pacholec said. No charges have been filed in connection with the messages.

A source told The Buffalo News the posts began appearing on Twitter in early May under the name “Op teachers lounge” and featured the face of a nameless man in a shirt and tie with glasses and a mustache.

The posts are about teachers at Orchard Park High School. They are crude, many of them sexual and some violent. One mentions killing a teacher’s wife.

“There’s slander, and they also took it to another level,” the source said.

“They have no idea who it is,” said the source, but many people at the school believe they were posted by a student or group of students. There’s some information in the posts that students wouldn’t be privy to, the source said. But some at the school believe that such information may have been shared by school staff with students.

Teachers at the school are deeply upset about the remarks in the posts and are looking into civil suits to stop them from appearing on social media, the source said.

School officials learned about the Twitter posts earlier this week. The source said there was a “heated faculty meeting” Friday where teachers complained to the school administration about the situation.



email: mbecker@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 18:14:00 -0400 Maki Becker
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Loubert, 39, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, petit larceny and falsifying business records, in Buffalo City Court.

The 12-year NFTA police veteran repaid the money and received a conditional discharge from Judge Craig D. Hannah.

Loubert’s thefts were discovered in April when other officers alerted superiors about irregularities in the time sheets, said authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer.

NFTA Police Chief George Gast launched an internal investigation and suspended Loubert without pay on April 18, Hartmayer said. The authority fired him a week later.

“He falsified his overtime sign-in sheet, whereby he was signing for overtime he didn’t work,” Hartmayer said.

Loubert was accused of adding overtime hours to his line on the time sheet, after a captain already had approved the sheet, Hartmayer said.

The department has since changed methods for reviewing time sheets, he said.

Loubert expressed remorse for his misconduct and offered an apology to the department and his family, said Thomas J. Keane, his lawyer.

“He is very apologetic and has paid full restitution and has taken full responsibility,” Keane said. “It’s unfortunate. Another cost of this was that he lost his job.”

The case is unrelated to a 2010 audit by the State Comptroller’s Office that found 11 transit police officers had cheated the NFTA out of $25,000 by working part-time jobs while on the authority’s payroll.

The audit found some of the officers worked security jobs at other public institutions, such as the Buffalo Board of Education and Erie Community College, when they should have been on transit patrol.

Four of the 11 officers were suspended without pay for 10 to 25 days. Two transit officers who worked security at ECC were fired by the college after the double-dipping was uncovered, and the NFTA imposed new audits for hours officers work at part-time jobs.



email: jtokasz@buffnews.com and lmichel@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 17:47:07 -0400 Jay Tokasz
Lou Michel
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Erie County probation officers found a 9 mm Glock pistol during a search of his Clinton Street home last September, according to the office.

Officers found the weapon and three magazines loaded with 27 rounds of ammunition, the office said.

Davis faces a prison term of up to 15 years when sentenced Aug. 23 by State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 14:34:36 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529541/1024
Brenda J. Puccia, 54, of Ontario Street, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud before Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk.

Puccia owns ADI Property Services, hired by the two property owners to manage rental properties they own in Buffalo.

Puccia admitted stealing the money between March and July 2012, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Puccia faces up to four years in prison when sentenced on Aug. 7. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 14:19:40 -0400