http://www.buffalonews.com Latest stories from The Buffalo News en-us Thu, 23 May 2013 04:10:30 -0400 Thu, 23 May 2013 04:10:30 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529745/1024
On Wednesday morning, police seized 14 grams of heroin at 615 Ninth St. and charged Javier Osorio of that address with third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminally use of drug paraphernalia and tampering with physical evidence. Osorio had been under investigation for heroin sales in the city for the past four months, according to Narcotics Detective Capt. David LeGault.

LeGault said the increasing problem with heroin use is directly related to the abuse of prescription narcotics.

“They are both opiates. It is a similar type of high and it’s a cheaper, easier way. If they can’t get the prescription pills, this is the direction they are going in, unfortunately,” LeGault said.

LeGault said narcotics detectives and the city’s Emergency Response Team broke down a heavily fortified door with a large dog inside to serve a warrant at 4 a.m. Wednesday.

“When the Emergency Response Team hit the door, the target actually took a sock, containing a pretty good amount of heroin, and he punched a hole in a screen of an open window and threw the sock containing the heroin to the ground,” LeGault said. However the sock was thrown from an upper floor window into the hands of waiting detectives who saw him throw it and recovered the drug-filled sock. Police also seized $3,945 in cash and scales and other materials for packaging the drug.

LeGault said of the 14 grams that was recovered, “It’s a pretty substantial amount. It’s more than just personal use. It’s an amount you would see for somebody involved in sales.”



email: nfischer@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 22:25:18 -0400 Nancy Fischer
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He said state police are investigating the incident. He said his staff found the damage on the morning of May 3. He said police confirmed the damage was from a shotgun and that employees of the Tim Hortons Restaurant nearby said they heard gunshots at about 2:30 a.m.

White said he hopes that they find out who did the damage and that it was just a random incident. ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 17:28:14 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529784/1024
The clerk told police at 9:20 p.m. a six foot tall, 300 pound man entered the store at 8015 Niagara Falls Boulevard and took two 24 ounce cans of Natural Ice beer from the cooler. The suspect then placed the beer on the counter and told the clerk, “I have a knife. I am taking the beers and give me $20. If you don’t, I will stick you.”

The clerk said during that time the suspect did not display the knife, but kept his hand in his left pocket. The clerk said he told the suspect, “That’s not going to happen” and the suspect then grabbed the beers and quickly left the store, apparently without taking any cash, according to police. ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 16:35:37 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529785/1024
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti said Jerald Kicinski, 48, of East Bethany received the child porn on his computer via the Internet between December, 2010 and December, 2011.

Grisanti said Kicinski was previously convicted of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree in 2002 and Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree in 1990. Both convictions involved minors.

Kicinski’s plea was the result of an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations. ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 16:30:18 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529786/1024
Kenneth Morris, 35, of Franklin Street, pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance; two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, the office said.

His convictions stem from three incidents.

Police officers from the towns of Hamburg and Orchard Park and the city of Lackawanna seized a loaded, unlicensed semi-automatic pistol and crack cocaine packaged for sale during an Orchard Park raid on Sept. 20. Morris admitted the gun and drugs belonged to him, prosecutors said.

Morris posted bail after his arrest.

Morris sold 17 bags of crack cocaine on Feb. 14 in Lackawanna, and a warrant for his arrest was issued, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

When arrested on Feb. 27, Morris was found with crack cocaine, also packaged for sale.

Morris faces a maximum prison sentence of 15 years when sentenced Aug. 5 by Erie County Judge Michael L. D’Amico. ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 16:23:57 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529788/1024
After three hours of deliberations, the jury found Amber Considine, 33, of North Marion Street, guilty of second-degree burglary and attempted petit larceny. She faces up to 15 years in prison when she is sentenced July 31 by County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III, who presided over the three-day trial.

Assistant District Attorney Theresa L. Prezioso said the man was awakened about 3:45 a.m. last May 27 and identified Considine as the woman he saw next to his bed. However, Considine was not arrested until July 16.

Assistant Public Defender Alan J. Roscetti was the defense attorney in the trial. ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 16:09:19 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529790/1024
The order followed a stunning claim Tuesday that Williams, who was accused in the mid-1990s of infecting 13 young women with HIV, does not have the virus that causes AIDS.

“It’s time we start slowly setting the record straight,” attorney John R. Nuchereno said after Wednesday’s court proceedings in front of Justice John L. Michalski. “He never had it for a moment. It’s not my contention. It’s the result of a University of Massachusetts Medical School examination of his blood.”

The State Attorney General’s Office wants to keep Williams confined under the state’s mental hygiene law, arguing that he’s a sexual predator likely to infect others with HIV.

Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree (statutory) rape and one count of reckless endangerment in 1999, after authorities said he infected at least 13 young Chautauqua County women, including a 13-year-old girl, with the virus that leads to AIDS.

He served a 12-year sentence that ended in 2010, but he continues to be held in Wende State Correctional Facility under a state law that permits civil confinement of sex offenders.

Williams, 36, now goes by the name Shyteek Johnson.

Jury selection in the civil trial is scheduled to begin in a few weeks in Chautauqua County.

A request by Assistant Attorney General Wendy R. Whiting to do further blood tests on Williams was denied. But Michalski ordered Nuchereno to turn over to the attorney general any documentation he provided to Gregory Hendricks, the cell biologist at the UMass Medical School who examined Williams’ blood under an electron microscope and found no evidence of HIV.

Nuchereno called the results of the test “quite shocking.” He said Williams, 36, was confused when he first learned of the results in April.

“He has been vilified for a decade and a half across this country,” Nuchereno said.

Williams believed he was HIV positive for years because that’s what he was told, Nuchereno added.

“Back then there were many false positives,” he said. “The testing was in its infancy back then.”

Following the civil trial, Nuchereno said, he will use the electron microscope findings as new evidence in an effort to overturn Williams’ 1999 conviction.

If freed, Williams plans to move to Virginia, where his wife and mother live.



email: jtokasz@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 15:13:08 -0400 Jay Tokasz
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Denise Hine, Baylee’s mother, asked a judge Wednesday to impose the maximum prison sentence upon Danielle N. Kellogg, who admitted causing the November crash that killed Baylee.

“This is a selfish person who needs to pay for her crime,” Hine told the judge.

Erie County Judge Michael D’Amico agreed with the request, sentencing Kellogg to 15 years in state prison.

Kellogg, 24, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in March.

“I wish every day I could take everything back and start over,” Kellogg tearfully said to Baylee’s family in the packed courtroom. “I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. I’m sorry.”

“I know I did wrong,” Kellogg said. “I’m ready to do what I have to do. I’m sorry.”

D’Amico listened to Kellogg’s tearful apology, as well as Hine’s heart-wrenching accounts of the crash and the aftermath.

Baylee’s family reacted to the maximum sentence with hugs and gasps of relief.

“Amazing,” Hine said afterward outside the courtroom. “Maybe we can all start to heal.”

Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III praised D’Amico’s sentence, which he hopes sends a strong message that drunken driving will not be tolerated.

But Sedita said he is skeptical about how much this case will resonate, because those who choose to drive drunk make the decision when their judgment is impaired.

“No matter how aggressive we are and how much attention is paid to it, it keeps happening again and again,” Sedita said.

Kellogg’s blood-alcohol content was at least 0.13 percent – well above the legal limit – at the time of the Nov. 27 crash on Southwestern Boulevard in the Town of Brant, said Assistant District Attorney Bethany A. Solek.

Kellogg was behind the wheel of a 2003 Ford Explorer registered to a Fredonia man at about 9:05 a.m., when she crossed over the center line on the Seneca Cattaraugus Reservation. She struck a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Hine of Hamburg. Baylee was in a car seat in the back.

Kellogg admitted to authorities that she drank several beers, smoked marijuana and had been falling asleep prior to the crash, Solek said. She also had cocaine in her system at the time, putting everyone on the road in danger, Solek said.

“Baylee was caught in the cross hairs and paid with her life,” Solek said.

After the crash, Hine and Baylee were taken to separate hospitals. On Wednesday, Hine said she could not be with Baylee to hold her hand during her last breath.

She also talked about how afraid she is now to drive anywhere.

She recounted how her family released balloons into the sky on Baylee’s birthday in April so her daughter could enjoy them in heaven.

Hine described how Baylee’s death has affected her two other children, a 4-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son.

Her daughter talks about Baylee every day, she said. Hine told the judge how the girl sometimes says to her, “Aren’t you glad I didn’t go to heaven today?”

“I think Danielle can sit in jail for 15 years and think about what she did,” Hine said during Wednesday’s hearing. “I will never heal fully and neither will my family.”

Kellogg also has a 2009 conviction for driving impaired in Chautauqua County, Solek noted. “She’s been down this road before. She was granted a reprieve the first time,” Solek said. “Yet here we are.”

Thomas Casey, Kellogg’s attorney, asked the judge for “balance” in the sentence. He pointed to Kellogg’s grief in a letter she wrote to Baylee’s family, which he read aloud in court.

“If I could,” Kellogg wrote in the letter, “I would give up my life in a heartbeat to have your beautiful daughter back with you.”

Kellogg has attended 21 counseling sessions since the crash, where she has wrestled with her “depression, guilt and self-loathing,” Casey said.

Baylee’s family was not moved by Kellogg’s remorse. “It’s been a nightmare,” Scott Dion, Baylee’s father, said outside court. “Every single day you wake up – flashbacks. You think it happened the night before.”

The courtroom was packed with friends and family members of both Baylee and Kellogg.

“There’s not much I can say to add to what’s been said here by everyone,” D’Amico said. “The devastation is everywhere. Look around. There’s not a dry eye in the courtroom.”



email: jrey@buffnews.com and plakamp@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 13:43:19 -0400 Jay Rey
Patrick Lakamp
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Fire Investigation Capt. David Kudela said the 20-ounce pop bottle was found shortly after 9 a.m. in the road, taped up with duct tape.

He said the hazmat team from the Niagara Falls Air Base was called in.

“We had them swab it through one of their meters and got no explosive or flammable residues off of it, so we put it in a container and are in the process of bringing it out to the Niagara County Sheriff Forensics Lab to see what it may be,” Kudela said.

“One of the firefighters on the scene who rides a motorcycle said he will sometimes package gasoline like that if he is going on a long ride so he will have a spare. So it could be that. A lot of people cut grass in the area, so it could have fallen off a lawn tractor,” Kudela said.

Kudela said it’s unlikely the bottle contains methamphetamine, which is often processed in pop bottles.

“We were worried, but it doesn’t appear to be that,” Kudela said. “That stuff turns to a brownish sludge after a few days of deterioration.”



email: nfischer@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 11:37:28 -0400 Nancy Fischer
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Michael A. Dlugokinski was being held Tuesday night in the Erie County Holding Center on two counts of third-degree grand larceny, two counts of criminal possession of stolen property, three counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and resisting arrest, unlawful fleeing a police officer and various traffic violations.

Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard, who had his Air One helicopter, piloted by Capt. Kevin Caffery, track the suspect in his cross-island escape attempt, noted that Dlugokinski also faces pending stolen-car charges in Buffalo.

Deputy Sheriff Tom Was spotted someone driving a previously stolen car at Grand Island Boulevard and Staley Road at about 10 a.m., and he gave chase, only to have Dlugokinski abandon that vehicle on Stony Point Road and flee into woods, where a perimeter was set up and Was and State Police K9 Trooper Pierce entered in search with Air One hovering overhead.

However, Dlugokinski quickly stole a second car on Whitehaven Road. When the owner of that vehicle reported the theft, Air One located it on East River Road, leading to Dlugokinski’s being arrested on Grand Island Boulevard after nearly having struck three joggers as he sped along Bedell Road, the sheriff said. ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 08:11:53 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529825/1024
Now, the people who live around the plant are hoping to get a large portion of that fine used on local projects that will help safeguard their air, land and water.

U.S. District Chief Judge William M. Skretny is scheduled to sentence the company July 15, and community members are mobilizing in hopes that they will have input into how the fine will be spent.

“Basically, everybody who lives in this area has one kind of illness or another. The people have earned to right to make the decisions,” said Cheryl McNett, whose home faces a park and, farther in the distance, the three smokestacks that tower over the Tonawanda Coke plant, periodically sending up plumes of smoke that spew toxic chemicals into the air.

There isn’t much precedent for an environmental case of this kind, because Tonawanda Coke is only the second company to be indicted under Title V of the Clean Air Act since the 1970 law was amended in 1990.

The company faces up to $200 million in fines. Federal law requires that 75 percent of the money be returned to the U.S. Treasury. But that could still leave up to $50 million to address air toxins and land contamination, depending on what Skretny decides.

The final say in how the money will be spent rests with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice through the United States Attorney’s Office.

Residents from the Tonawandas, Grand Island and Riverside will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Boys and Girls Club in the Town of Tonawanda, near the General Motors plant, to discuss how the fine money could be used to reduce toxins and protect neighborhood health.

McNett is a member of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, which for the past five years has spearheaded the community effort for corporate accountability and adherence to state and federal environmental laws. The group’s efforts were a factor in the EPA’s raid of Tonawanda Coke in December 2009, which led to the March 28 verdict that also saw a company official face up to 75 years in prison.

“We’ve seen that when communities come together, real change can happen. Communities know their neighborhoods and their problems better than someone who doesn’t live there, and the communities need to decide for themselves what are the best solutions,” said Rebecca Newberry, community organizer for the Clean Air Coalition.

Newberry will lead the community meeting, and a leadership team is expected to emerge to flesh out project ideas and create budgets. A communitywide vote will be held the third week of June at satellite voting locations in Grand Island and Tonawanda, followed by a vote at a June 20 public meeting, also at the Boys and Girls Club, when the results will be revealed.

The community-based process comes from the concept of participatory budgeting developed in Brazil in 1989 and now used in some municipal districts, including parts of New York City and Chicago.

There’s already a growing list of ideas on what to do with any money that is dedicated for local use.

Ron Malec, of the City of Tonawanda, who worked in the chemical industry as a laboratory technician, wants to see a public health study and more monitors to add to the two that the state Department of Environmental Conservation maintains.

“The community should get more power over monitoring their environment. I would like to see grants for new testing equipment, and doing more local testing with the University at Buffalo’s environmental department,” Malec said.

Malec is part of the Clean Air Coalition’s technical team, which includes a nurse, a statistician, a chemical engineer and a University at Buffalo professor.

“I was personally responsible for a lot of garbage going into the air in South Buffalo. It was part of my job. The effects of chemical plants on the environment is the 800-pound gorilla I can’t ignore,” he said.

Durward Carter, who has lived in the Sheridan Parkside area for nearly a half-century, wants to see the anticipated funds used to set up a foundation that doles out grants and can gather interest.

Carlos Diaz said he wasn’t sure yet what should be done, but he said the community should decide.

“We should have something to say. We have put up with this for a long time,” Diaz said.

The group has a powerful ally in Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who has written letters to the Department of Justice and the EPA, urging them to use results from the community-determined project priorities as a guide when deciding which projects Tonawanda Coke’s fine should go toward.

“I feel very strongly that the community should have input. It was the community that suffered, and they should have some say in determining restitution,” Schumer said. “The people in the community, certainly advised by experts, know best. They live there, and they’ve suffered with this.”

Tonawanda Coke, located at 3875 River Road, produces high-quality foundry coke for use in melting metal and removing impurities in steel manufacturing on a 188-acre site along the Niagara River.

The company and its owner, J.D. Crane, have for years refused to speak to The Buffalo News, and it declined to do so again Tuesday.

The company’s complex chemical process to make coke results in dangerous vapors, including benzene, as well as unpleasant odors and soot that coats homes, cars and a nearby playground.

Tuesday, Madison and Travis, 4-year-old cousins, were at the playground playing on the slide, swings and two small rocking horses.

“In this area, this is about the only spot Madison has to go to play,” said her father, Joseph Waschensky Jr., who has lived across the street for about 10 years. “It’s not the best thing in the world, because you have Tonawanda Coke over there, the power lines above, and it’s kind of industrial, but it’s somewhere down the street to go to.”

Waschensky blames the company and its owner for refusing to speak to the community and failing for years to install required pollution-control devices. He’s hoping the fine the company winds up paying will help those who have been victimized by addressing the environmental harm the company benefited from.

“I think keeping the money in the town is the number one importance. For the environment and the area, it would be great,” Washchesky said.



email: msommer@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 00:01:01 -0400 Mark Sommer
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But Williams, 36, appeared in State Supreme Court in Erie County on Tuesday to argue that he never had the virus.

His attorney, John R. Nuchereno, dropped the bombshell revelation Tuesday morning in a hearing before Justice John L. Michalski.

“He doesn’t have HIV,” Nuchereno said. “Now, it doesn’t just go away, and it leads me to believe the victim in this case is right here. His liberty has been denied for 16 years.”

Nuchereno had a sample of Williams’ blood sent to the Core Electron Microscopy Facility at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where an analysis showed no HIV, according to a report by Gregory Hendricks, a cell biologist and the facility manager.

In February 1999, Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree (statutory) rape and one count of reckless endangerment for his Chautauqua County crimes. Authorities have said he infected at least 13 young Chautauqua County women, including one 13-year-old, with the virus that leads to AIDS.

After his plea, Williams, in an interview with a New York City television station, said he had slept with 200 to 300 young women before he was put behind bars.

Williams’ 12-year prison term ended in April 2010, but he continues to be held in Wende State Correctional Facility under a state law that permits civil confinement of sex offenders. A trial had been scheduled for this summer in Chautauqua County to decide whether the state can prolong his confinement.

When his story broke in 1996, Nushawn Williams made headlines around the world. He was widely portrayed as a pariah, and Chautauqua County was thrust into the spotlight as an unlikely hotbed of sordid sexual activity and drug use among teens.

Tuesday’s hearing brought the furor back to the forefront.

Chautauqua County Sheriff Joseph A. Gerace had trouble making sense of Williams’ new claim in court.

“I think it’s a desperate effort to try to get him released from custody,” said Gerace, who has been sheriff since 1995. “I don’t recall any claim that he wasn’t HIV-positive. In fact, it was shown in court that he was HIV-positive and continued to have unprotected sex with girls as young as 13. That’s what made it so heinous.”

But Nuchereno said Williams wasn’t made aware of the HIV test results until shortly before he was arrested and after the public was warned about him.

“He wasn’t told. That’s always been a major contention. It was never litigated,” Nuchereno said.

Williams now goes by the name Shyteek Johnson, largely to shield himself from notoriety in prison, Nuchereno said.

“His name’s been slandered across the country. He has been a target in the Department of Corrections. He’s notorious,” Nuchereno said after Tuesday’s hearing.

Handcuffed and wearing green prison garments, Williams listened intently to the court deliberations.

Lawyers for the State Attorney General’s Office questioned whether the blood sample was properly handled and whether the electron microscopy is a scientifically valid method for detecting HIV.

“It’s sort of a Pandora’s box at this point, this test,” said Joseph Muia Jr., an assistant attorney general. “The information we have is that the electron microscope testing is not the gold standard, so to speak, of testing in this area.”

Muia also suggested that with proper treatment, HIV-infected people can have their “viral loads” reduced to the point that the virus becomes undetectable.

“That may be what we have here,” said Muia, who asked the judge to allow the state to draw Williams’ blood and do more testing.

Assistant Attorney General Wendy R. Whiting reminded the judge that Williams admitted to his crimes, and medical experts are able to link people infected with HIV to a source of the infection.

“Links can be made that, at a minimum, many parties came up HIV-positive,” Whiting said.

Nuchereno tried to cast doubt on those links.

“My concern with the victims is I don’t know if they were even properly tested,” he said. Back in 1996, HIV testing was still relatively new and potentially riddled with error, Nuchereno said. “It was the equivalent of taking a home pregnancy test,” he said.

Williams’ HIV-positive status stuck, even though the test wasn’t confirmed, Nuchereno said.

“Everybody’s just assumed it all along – and, most importantly, he even assumed it,” he said. “He accepted those results. He stated, ‘They must be true because the government told me that.’ ”

Muia said Williams was tested four times a year for HIV in prison, but when pressed by Michalski, the state’s lawyers said they did not have documentation of such testing.

That’s because it did not happen, Nuchereno said.

“They kept telling him, ‘We’re treating you, but we don’t find any evidence of the virus,’ ” he said.

Williams stopped taking HIV medication in preparation for the electron microscopy, Nuchereno said. He has remained off of HIV drugs since discovering the results of the test in April.



email: jtokasz@buffnews.com and gwarner@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 01:50:32 -0400 Gene Warner
Jay Tokasz
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He’s now in his 30s, and federal investigators believe they finally have the man who molested him.

They also believe there may be more victims.

“We’re trying to get the word out,” Jason R. Jarnagin, supervisory special agent for the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children Squad in Buffalo, said Tuesday. “We think there are additional victims out there.”

The FBI is going so far as to release a photo of David Allen Vickers, the Ontario County man now accused of abusing the young boy from Buffalo and a second underage victim from Batavia.

Vickers appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder and was charged with transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life.

Now 49, Vickers is accused of sexually abusing the boy from Buffalo over a 10-year period starting in 1989 and the Batavia boy over a four-year period starting in 2000.

“It goes to show the FBI will pursue any crime against children, regardless of the age of the crime,” Jarnagin said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango said Vickers, an over-the-road truck driver, took the Batavia victim on trips to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Canada and engaged in sexual activity with the minor.

Like Jarnagin, Mango is convinced other boys may have been targeted by Vickers. “The government has obtained information that the defendant had contact with other victims,” he said. “We’re looking for anyone who has had contact with him as a minor.”

Vickers’ arrest Friday – he remains in federal custody – came just two weeks after his brother, Sean Vickers, was arrested by Batavia police in another sexual abuse case.

Batavia Detective Kevin Czora said the felony charges against Sean Vickers – sodomy and course of sexual conduct against a child – grew out of an investigation into allegations from several other underage boys.

“From there, we started doing more research into Sean Vickers’ history, and it just escalated from here,” Czora said Tuesday.

Sean Vickers is not charged in the federal complaint against his brother, but he is mentioned in it.

FBI agents said it was Sean Vickers who introduced his brother to the boy from Batavia.

David Vickers’ lawyer, Federal Public Defender Tracy Hayes, said he could not comment on the allegations against his client.



email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 00:42:47 -0400 Phil Fairbanks
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Tramell McGee, 30; Kevin Battles, 46; Jerome Brown, 40; Terrell Moore, 33; and Nikita Burt, 29, all of Buffalo, pleaded guilty of cocaine trafficking, stemming from their arrest on Jan. 11, Hochul said.

The five are members of the “Camp Street Boys,” and McGee was one of the leaders, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. McCabe. McGee is accused of obtaining “kilogram quantities” of cocaine, then redistributing the drug to other gang members who sold it as crack in the city’s Jefferson Avenue-Genesee Street neighborhood, according to McCabe.

The five took a plea just prior the jury trial scheduled Tuesday before Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, Hochul said.

McGee and Burt face a maximum of 40 years in prison, while Battles, Brown and Moore face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

A sentencing date will be scheduled by Skretny. ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 19:15:38 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529850/1024
At 11:27 p.m. Monday a search-and-rescue controller at the Buffalo station received a report of a 20-foot recreational vessel with two persons onboard taking water near the Erie Basin Marina. A rescue boatcrew on a 25-foot Response Boat was sent to assist, dewatered the vessel and side-towed it to the Erie Basin Marina. The owner of the vessel removed the boat from the water and secured it to his trailer.

At 11:28 a.m. Tuesday a rescue boat crew on a 25-foot Response Boat was sent to assist four persons whose 24-foot recreational vessel became disabled after apparently striking bottom in a low water point near the Bird Island Reef and was drifting near the Peace Bridge. The four persons were rescued and the disabled vessel was towed to Harry’s Harbour.

The names of the six rescued are not being released by the Coast Guard. The Guard warned boaters that water temperatures in Lake Erie are still cold enough to cause hypothermia and that boaters must become familiar with the area in which they are boating by having up-to-date navigational tools such as paper charts, U.S. Chart No. I and lights that can help boaters be aware of potentially hazardous areas. ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 18:27:54 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529852/1024
Town of Tonawanda police have been working with the school district and the Erie County District Attorney’s Office to investigate allegations of “criminal acts” committed by a Ken-Ton teacher, according to a press release.

Police did not provide any further details on Tuesday because of concerns that it would be detrimental to any prosecution.

“Not much more I can say,” Lt. Nicholas A. Bado said late Tuesday. “The main message is we’re taking appropriate steps to investigate the allegations made against a school teacher to see if there’s any credibility to them that would lead to charges.

“The school district basically just wants everyone – parents in particular – to be confident that the safety of the students was looked after by immediately placing this teacher on administrative leave,” Bado said. ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 18:16:28 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529855/1024
And not just a few.

Over a seven-month period, the Dunkirk man filed 122 federal income tax returns on behalf of dead people.

He also received $92,462 in fraudulent refunds.

Berry, 42, will have to repay that money as part of a plea deal today that could send him to prison for up to 46 months.

“This case should serve as a warning that our office, working with our law enforcement partners, will not tolerate attempts to either steal the identities of individuals, or the money of the taxpayers of this country,” U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. said in a statement.

Berry admitted his crime – he pleaded guilty to making a false claim against the government – during an appearance before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango said Berry filed the fake returns in 2008 and 2009 after obtaining personal identifying information for the 122 recently deceased individuals.

He also made up fraudulent income and withholding information for the deceased before electronically filing the returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

“He has to take steps to make amends and that means restitution," said Tracy Hayes, the Federal Public Defender representing Berry.

Berry’s plea is the result of an investigation by the Criminal Investigations unit of the IRS.

He will be sentenced in August.



email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 17:15:34 -0400 Phil Fairbanks
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529876/1024
Firefighters responding to an 11:36 p.m. report of a structure fire at 6918 Hutchinson St., Pavilion, found the back half of the home on fire, before they helped bring Celia E. Milroy to safety.

The home was extensively damaged, and fire officials blamed misuse of electrical equipment for sparking the blaze.

Among the emergency crews assisting at the scene were firefighters from LeRoy, Stafford, York, City of Batavia, Bethany, Wyoming and Perry. ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 10:06:21 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529883/1024
Vivek Shah, 25, of West Hollywood, pleaded guilty in a West Virginia federal court earlier this month as part of a deal that could land him in prison for up to 87 months.

The details of Shah’s plea deal are still unknown – the agreement has been sealed and the parties are under a court-mandated gag order – but the Associated Press has reported that he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring threatening communications through interstate commerce and seven counts of mailing or sending threatening communications through the mail.

Shah, who was set to go on trial this month, was accused in August of sending letters that threatened to kill the relatives of his targets if he did not receive millions of dollars.

Federal prosecutors say he also targeted film producer Harvey Weinstein and West Virginia coal magnate Christopher Cline as part of “a multimillion-dollar extortion attempt.”

Shah was arrested in August while visiting his family in a Chicago suburb and then held in custody in West Virginia.

“He’s a good kid; he’s an actor,” Patrick E. Boyle, his lawyer, said at the time of his arrest. “He’s had small roles in movies and done television commercials.”

In the indictment against Shah, he was accused of sending a letter threatening to kill one of Cline’s relatives unless $13 million was wired to an offshore bank account.

Prosecutors said similar letters were sent to Pegula, Weinstein and others.

“In June and July 2012,” the indictment said, “law enforcement learned of four other extortion demand letters substantially the same as the one received by Mr. Cline.”

Prosecutors also say Shah had sought out handgun training shortly before he was arrested.

Pegula and the Sabres could not be reached to comment Monday.



email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 08:32:06 -0400 Phil Fairbanks
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/CITYANDREGION/130529919/1024
The High Angle team rappelled into the gorge near Thompson’s Point and located the hikers who had left the marked trail. Neither was injured, and they were reunited with family members.

The police service stressed that hikers in the gorge should stay on marked trails, wear suitable clothing and footwear, have a cell phone with them, carry water and energy bars, avoid hiking in the dark, never hike alone and always tell someone where they are going. ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 20:57:12 -0400