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ECC basketball player arrested for breaking opponent’s jaw

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An 18-year-old guard on the Erie County Community College’s womens basketball team was belatedly arrested on a second-degree assault charge for allegedly breaking the jaw of a woman on the Jamestown Community College squad during a March 2 game at the Flickinger Athletic Center, police announced Tuesday.

Torre Zhane Walker of North Division Street was arrested after the injured player had surgery March 4.

In taking Walker into custody on Friday, Police Officers Sherry A. Holtz and Sean Buth told her the alleged punch broke the victim’s jaw in three places.

ECC won the game 72-50.

The arrest report notes that Walker is from Muskogee, Okla.

Cattaraugus indian reservation street fight.

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State police and Erie County sheriff’s deputies broke up a street fight between two relatives on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation early Tuesday afternoon. When troopers arrived at 14167 State Route 439 they found Brandon J. Brooks, 18, in front of the family house apparently trying to fight with his father.

After the two were separated, Brooks tried to avoid arrest, troopers said. He was taken into custody and removed from the scene.

He was charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. After being arraigned in the Town of Collins Court he was remanded to the Erie County Holding Center pending further court proceedings. Officers of the Seneca Nation Marshal’s Office assisted with the incident.

State inspectors for years never cited Tonawanda Coke’s toxic valve

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State inspectors visited Tonawanda Coke at least once a year and, until recently, never cited the company for a small bleeder valve that spewed coke-oven gas with toxic benzene.

That same valve is at the center of a criminal prosecution charging the manufacturer with polluting the air around its Town of Tonawanda plant.

How did the state miss it for so long?

Lawyers for Tonawanda Coke are asking that question as part of a defense that suggests state and federal environmental officials changed the rules and stacked the deck against the company.

“How many times were DEC personnel at the Tonawanda Coke facility?” Gregory F. Linsin, a lawyer for the company, asked a state official who testified Wednesday during the trial in Buffalo federal court.

“At least once a year,” said Larry Sitzman, a regional air pollution control engineer at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“Would it surprise you to learn that, during the period from 1997 to 2009, it was 22 times?” Linsin asked.

“No,” Sitzman said.

Sitzman’s testimony is the latest development in the two-week-old trial that is almost certain to fuel debate over the health of residents living in and around Tonawanda’s industrial corridor.

State health officials recently released data showing elevated levels of certain cancers and birth defects among those residents, but the officials have stopped well short of identifying a cause.

An earlier study by the state found concentrations of benzene and formaldehyde to be much higher in the Tonawanda area than other industrial and urban areas.

Sitzman, who was not the state’s primary inspector at Tonawanda Coke, was nevertheless put in the position this week of trying to explain why the bleeder valve escaped regulatory scrutiny for so long.

While testifying, he found himself facing questions about why inspection after inspection found Tonawanda Coke in compliance with state and federal clean air regulations.

“Everything appeared to be OK,” a state inspector wrote in 2003. “All operations were in compliance,” another inspector wrote in 2008.

A few months later, all of that changed when a six-day inspection by state and federal officials resulted in allegations that the valve, a pressure-relief vent, was illegally releasing coke-oven gas with benzene into the air.

Prosecutors say the valve, which is the subject of six of the 19 felony charges against Tonawanda Coke, was emitting toxic gas in greater amounts and at a greater frequency than what the company claimed.

From the start of the trial before Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, Linsin has argued that if inspectors were not aware of the valve, they should have been.

He reminded Sitzman that long before the 2009 inspection, Tonawanda Coke gave the state a report identifying the valve as part of the plant’s coke-oven gas line.

“They provided information in 2003 that there was a pressure-relief valve on the coke-oven gas system, correct?” Linsin asked.

“Correct,” Sitzman said.

Sitzman was asked whether he offered advice on how to stop the valve’s emissions and whether the company ever followed through on that advice.

He said he did exactly that during the 2009 inspection.

“In the months that followed, you decided the PRV [pressure-relief valve] was no longer releasing gas, isn’t that right?” asked Rodney O. Personius, a lawyer for company executive Mark L. Kamholz, another defendant in the case.

“I believe that to be true,” Sitzman said.

Prosecutors countered by trying to explain why it took so long for state inspectors to raise concerns about the bleeder valve. They noted that the valve is in a location high above the roadway used by inspectors and suggested that Kamholz and others purposely kept the valve from going off during inspections.

“How much advance notice did you give Mark Kamholz?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango asked, referring to the state’s inspections.

“A day or two,” said Sitzman.

Mango also wanted to know if Sitzman ever asked Kamholz about benzene levels in the air around the plant and whether Kamholz ever identified the bleeder valve as a possible source.

“During the inspection, did you tell defendant Kamholz about your concerns about benzene?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sitzman answered.

“Were there any sources of benzene brought to your attention by defendant Kamholz?” Mango asked.

“No,” Sitzman said.

In addition to Clean Air Act violations, Tonawanda Coke and Kamholz are accused of violating a federal law known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which covers the storage and treatment of coal-tar sludge, one of the byproducts of making coke.



email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com

Confessed killer, wife had history of violence, police say

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Nedra Thomas-Mattox, 38, was the victim of “a history of domestic violence” with her husband and confessed killer, Antoine D. Mattox, according to Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda.

The commissioner and Detective Chief Dennis J. Richards said the couple’s landlord called police after finding Thomas-Mattox’s body in a rear bedroom of their home on Andover Avenue in the city’s Bailey-Kensington neighborhood.

Northeast District police arrived at the scene at about 3:25 p.m. Monday and found the couple’s 10-year-old son home. Richards said their other child, a daughter, was at school.

The police commissioner said Tuesday that Mattox was arrested Monday afternoon at a Rochester bus terminal and that he confessed to killing his wife as homicide detectives drove him back to Buffalo.

Derenda said the Andover Avenue home was “a very graphic and brutal scene” of violence.

Because of what Richards called “excellent cooperation from people in the area,” the first officers at the death scene learned that Antoine Mattox was seen fleeing the house on foot at about 1:30 p.m. Monday. An areawide “person of interest” police alert was broadcast for him, and Rochester police took him into custody at the Greyhound Bus Station in that city.

Derenda and Richards said Mattox was believed to have been on his way to Virginia when the bus he apparently boarded in Buffalo sometime midafternoon Monday stopped in Rochester to pick up other passengers. Police officials did not disclose the reason for his possible trip to Virginia.

The police commissioner and chief of detectives said that Detectives Anthony Borrelli and Mario T. Pratts formally charged Antoine Mattox with second-degree murder Tuesday. They said Detective Sgt. James P. Lonergan and Detectives James A. Lema, Reginald Minor and Salvatore A. Valso played active roles in the fast-moving investigation leading up to the arrest.

Richards said investigators still were trying to piece together the events that led to Nedra Thomas-Mattox’s death. He said the Mattox children were taken into protective custody and the family dog was taken to the city pound.

Neither Richards nor the police commissioner would disclose the exact cause of death.



email: mgryta@buffnews.com

Falls man charged in crack case; Rochester man pleads

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LOCKPORT – A Niagara Falls man was arraigned Wednesday in Niagara County Court on charges of possessing crack cocaine and hydrocodone when he was arrested in that city Sept. 6.

Timotheus Robinson, 27, of 19th Street, pleaded not guilty to third-, fifth- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He allegedly had painkiller pills and 910 milligrams of crack.

In another Falls drug case Wednesday, Ra’Kuann S. Simpson, 21, of Rochester, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and was scheduled for sentencing March 22 by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas.

Simpson and another Rochester-area man, Daquan S. Johnson, 19, of Greece, were arrested on cocaine possession charges May 11 in Niagara Falls.

Dressed up as a police officer for “protection”

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A 27-year-old Armin Place man dressed in a makeshift Buffalo police uniform was arrested by two real Buffalo Police Officers when they pulled his pickup truck over at Cazenovia Street and North Legion Drive late Monday afternoon for allegedly playing “very loud music.” When stopped by Police Officers Sean McCabe and Joseph R. Hassett the suspect, James A. Gossling, claimed he was dressed as an officer “for protection.”

Gossling was described as wearing a Buffalo police shirt, a Buffalo police jacket and tactical boots. They recovered from his truck about 5:40 p.m. Monday a police radio scanner, a pair of handcuffs and a billy club. He was charged with first-degree criminal impersonation.

Lockport judge sets trial in animal cruelty case

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LOCKPORT – City Judge William J. Watson has scheduled a trial for July 8 in the Barbara Hale Gonzalez animal cruelty case, but it’s uncertain what the subject matter will be.

That’s because Watson said Wednesday he hasn’t decided whether to grant a motion by Gonzalez to force the return of two dogs and a horse, seized from Gonzalez’ Hartland farm in 2009 after her veterinarian called police to complain about how the animals were being treated.

Gonzalez was given an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal on the cruelty charges. She brought suit to get the animals back and to obtain damages from the SPCA and the people who adopted the animals.

Attorneys in the case said it’s possible a jury may decide on the possession of the animals, but if Watson decides that question, Gonzalez still is pursuing damage claims against the adopters and the SPCA of Niagara. A ruling on possession of the animals by Watson is likely to be appealed, which attorneys said would certainly delay any trial.

Three dogs and a horse were adopted by others, including the veterinarian; one of the dogs later died of cancer.

Woman surrenders in Lockport dog theft

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LOCKPORT – A Wrights Corners woman surrendered to Lockport police Wednesday and was charged with stealing a dog valued at $1,080 from a pet store Feb. 14.

Karen A. Kostyo, 36, of Lockport-Olcott Road, is charged with third-degree burglary and fourth-degree grand larceny.

Police said they viewed a surveillance video taken at Pets Plus, 421 West Ave., in which a woman walking a beagle took it through a door marked “Employees Only” and removed a black-and-white Papillon dog from a cage before handing the beagle off to another woman.

Officer Rodney Peters and Detective Kevin Schrader interviewed Kostyo at her home Monday, and she agreed to turn herself in.

N. Tonawanda man gets 10 years for massive child porn collection

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Child pornography cases have become all too routine, but David Axberg is different from almost anyone else before him in Western New York.

Axberg’s distinction is the pure volume of his sordid collection – more than 700 videos and more than 600,000 images, one of the largest assemblies of child porn ever recorded in Buffalo federal court.

It was so large, prosecutors say, the government stopped counting at some point. “This is an unusual case,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric M. Opanga. “We’re dealing with an individual who stockpiled child pornography.”

Axberg, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors required the North Tonawanda man to plead guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography, not just one, because of the large quantity of child porn on his computers.

“He had so many he couldn’t look at all of them,” defense lawyer John F. Humann, a member of the federal Public Defender’s Office, told Arcara.

While acknowledging the large amount of child porn in his client’s possession, Humann said the sheer size of the collection was due to Axberg’s obsessive-compulsive behavior and mental illness.

He also argued that a large number of images were part of larger files that Axberg could download with the single click of a button. “He had 600,000 images,” he said. “That just shows his disorder. He just sat there downloading. It almost makes it more pathetic.”

In his plea for leniency, Humann asked Arcara to consider Axberg’s abusive upbringing, his severe mental illness and his two attempts at suicide. “He has dreams of his grandparents eating him,” he told the judge. “He was abused physically, emotionally and sexually. He needs counseling and help.”

Arcara, who could have sentenced Axberg to more prison time, also referred to the suicide attempts and noted that a court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic.

“He obviously has serious mental health issues,” the judge said.

Opanga asked Arcara to consider the victims and the need for deterrence in child porn cases, in asking for a sentence of 17 to 20 years in federal prison.

Axberg, who has been in custody for more than a year, stood before Arcara in shackles and at one point broke down in tears while expressing remorse for his crimes.

“I’ve never reached a low point in my life like I am now,” he said. “I never meant to hurt anybody.”

Axberg’s sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.



email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com

Person of interest sought in Buffalo homicide

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A 17-year-old Buffalo boy is being sought by Buffalo police as a “person of interest” in the stabbing death of Roberto Leon in the 400 block of Tonawanda Street about 11 p.m. Feb. 23. Detectives said Angel Lozada is known to frequent that section of the city’s Riverside area. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call or text Buffalo police through the confidential tipline at 847-2255 or to e-mail the department through its website at www.bpdny.org

Marijuana arrest at Maple and Virginia

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A 20-year-old Buffalo man was arrested for allegedly having 17 bags of marijuana and a Lortab out of its container when police approached him as he was leaving a store at Maple and Virginia streets about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Maurice Cheatom, no address listed, was questioned after he rushed back into the store after spotting officers on patrol. When he was confronted and patted down, officers reported finding the marijuana and Lortab on him. He was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of marijuana.

Brothers arrested for burglary attempt on Seneca Street

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Two Seneca Street brothers are being held for allegedly attempting to break into the Seneca Babcock Community Center at 1168 Seneca Street about 12:30 a.m. Sunday. Ramon Salas Jr., 24, and Samuel D. Salas, 19, are charged with burglary in the third-degree and criminal mischief for allegedly trying to break open a window on the west side of the building.

Police Officer Corey Krug and Omar Rodriguez arrested the brothers when they allegedly tried to flee. Samuel Salas was arrested on Seneca a few buildings away from the intended target. Ramon Salas was captured at Maurice and Seneca streets. Witness identified both as the suspects.

County GOP endorses Tripi for Family Court

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Erie County Republicans have endorsed Deanne Tripi for Family Court judge.

Chairman Nicholas A. Langworthy said Tripi is a veteran of private, family law practice who also served as treasurer for Republican Stefan I. Mychajliw’s recent campaign for county comptroller. She will compete for one of two Family Court positions to be vacated by the retirements of Judges Paul Buchanan and Rose Bailey.

The county committee also endorsed incumbents Timothy B. Howard for sheriff and Michajliw for comptroller, as well as incumbent Democrat Barbara Howe for surrogate judge.

Judge recuses herself in Crangle domestic case

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A judge in Erie County’s Integrated Domestic Violence Court has recused herself from presiding over a case involving a Town of Tonawanda councilman.

Daniel J. Crangle was to have appeared Wednesday before State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges.

He was charged Feb. 16 with a misdemeanor count of stalking and a violation count of harassment, based on a complaint by his estranged wife.

Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III, who presides over the integrated court in that county, will hear the case in Buffalo.

The date of Crangle’s next court appearance wasn’t available.

The specialized court, created in 2003, was formed so that domestic violence victims wouldn’t have to appear before different judges in multiple courts to deal with separate criminal, family and matrimonial cases.

Buffalo man gets 90 days for stalking woman

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A Buffalo man has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for repeatedly stalking a Cheektowaga woman over the last several months, according to Cheektowaga police.

Robert S. Banks, 48, of Fisher Street, pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal contempt for violating a court order keeping him from engaging in “any offensive or illegal behavior” toward the 44-year-old victim.

Banks was arrested in December for following the woman and writing her phone number on the bathroom wall of a local shopping center, police said.

While waiting for his court case to be heard, Banks threatened the woman in the lobby of the Cheektowaga courthouse, authorities said.

He was again arrested at that time.

Banks was given the jail sentence by Cheektowaga Town Justice Paul Piotrowski.

Police said a second case involving a different woman charging Banks with similar stalking conduct resulted in a contemplation of dismissal in consideration of Bank’s guilty plea and sentence.

Coke sludge from leak not removed for a year, supervisor says

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David Dahl still remembers the fire in the summer of 2008, the one that caused coal-tar sludge to seep from an old storage tank at Tonawanda Coke.

The fire was bad enough, the company supervisor told a federal court jury Wednesday, that 10 to 15 tons of sludge escaped from the tank that day.

Dahl also remembers the sludge still being there a year later. “It was still there in the area outside the tank,” he said of a cleanup effort in 2009.

Dahl’s testimony, much of which was echoed by a state inspector who also testified Wednesday, offered a glimpse into what federal prosecutors claim was Tonawanda Coke’s practice of illegally storing and disposing of hazardous waste.

The company is facing 18 separate charges of polluting the air and ground on and around its Town of Tonawanda plant, and three of them have to do with its handling of coal-tar sludge, one of the byproducts of its coking operation.

Prosecutors Aaron J. Mango and Rocky Piaggione also claim that the company improperly disposed of sludge by dumping it on piles of coal on the plant’s grounds.

Defense lawyers countered Wednesday by suggesting that sludge from the old storage tanks predated Tonawanda Coke and that state inspectors went years without citing the company for violations.

“Some of that material seeped out before Tonawanda Coke owned the facility,” Thomas Corbett, a retired inspector with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, acknowledged Wednesday.

Corbett also testified about the company’s practice of mixing sludge with coal, and despite suggestions from the defense that the practice might be allowable under the law, he insisted it was improper.

“No,” he said, “I didn’t believe it was in compliance.”

Gregory F. Linsin, a lawyer for the company, argued that Tonawanda Coke’s practice of mixing sludge with coal is part of a larger effort to recycle its byproducts.

The trial before Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny continues today.



email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com

Grand Island couple arrested for drug possession, growing marijuana

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A Grand Island couple was arrested Wednesday for allegedly possessing cocaine and growing marijuana in their Huth Road home, Erie County Sheriff’s Office officials said.

Christopher Weigand, 38, and Laurah Noland, 35, were charged following a raid at their home on Feb. 21 when sheriff’s deputies found a “felony amount of cocaine along with marijuana plants in an elaborate set up at the residence,” officials said.

They were charged with felony counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a narcotic drug and criminal possession of marijuana as well as other lesser charges.

Senior Det. Alan Rozansky said Weigand was a manager of a hydroponics store which gave him access to high-tech growing equipment.

They were scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon.

Drunk motorcyclist gets 4 to 12 years for killing two

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One by one, eyes moist with tears and voices choked with grief, family members of Sheila Pelton and Jocelyn B. Elberson stepped to the lectern in a hushed courtroom and addressed by name the drunk driver who was sentenced Thursday for killing the two women last November.

They described the 25-year-old Elberson as a lively friend and devoted aunt who survived heart surgery only to die while walking her puppy on a bike path. They recalled the pain of the 81-year-old Pelton dying on a beautiful fall day in front of her husband of five decades.

And they berated David A. Smith for making the choice to drink and operate his motorcycle that day, capping a record of six arrests for driving while intoxicated in three states over the last 15 years.

“I have a heart of disgust toward David Smith and the decision he made to drink and then drive. And this decision was not his first,” said Natalie Pelton, Sheila Pelton’s granddaughter.

Smith didn’t react, or face the victims’ relatives, as they criticized the 53-year-old Niagara Falls man for acting selfishly and without thinking of the consequences of his drinking and driving.

But shortly before he was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison, Smith read an apology to the Pelton and Elberson families and accepted full responsibility for the deaths of the two women.

“I know what a terrible ordeal this has been for these families,” Smith said. “I wish I could turn the clock back, but I can’t.”

State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang could have sentenced Smith to a minimum of one to three years or a maximum of five to 15 years in prison following his Jan. 10 guilty plea to felony first-degree vehicular manslaughter, second-degree vehicular assault and DWI.

Smith admitted he was riding his motorcycle drunk on Nov. 11, when he took a curvy stretch of Tonawanda Creek Road at a high rate of speed, lost control, went off the road and plowed into a group of pedestrians.

Elberson, a prep cook at Bonefish Grill in the Boulevard Mall, and Pelton, a grandmother, were killed and Pelton’s husband, Foster, 79, was badly injured in the crash.

Foster Pelton, who uses a wheelchair as he recovers from the accident, and three members of the Amherst Police Department were among the large crowd that attended the sentencing.

Lisa Pelton, Sheila and Foster’s daughter-in-law, said it’s clear Smith hasn’t learned from his previous DWIs, but she still has forgiven him.

“I want David to find forgiveness in the Lord. That’s my prayer,” Lisa Pelton said softly.

Charles and Kathleen Elberson, Jocelyn’s parents, talked about their daughter’s outgoing personality, the hundreds of people who paid their respects at her calling hours, and the struggle she faced to recover from heart surgery just eight months before she was struck and killed.

Kathleen, who was out walking with Jocelyn that afternoon, said she is haunted by the image of her daughter’s lifeless body.

Charles Elberson lamented he won’t be able to walk Jocelyn down the aisle at her wedding, dance with her at the reception or watch her raise children of her own. He said he tried to forgive Smith but he can’t, and he never will.

“I will go to my grave despising your poor decisions and your actions that took one of my joys in life from me, and my family, forever,” he said.

Smith’s record of drunken driving includes four DWI arrests in New York, one in Ohio and one in Florida, said prosecutor Kelley A. Omel, who heads the Vehicular Crimes Bureau of the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.

Attorney Joel L. Daniels, who represented Smith with Jim Faso, described his client as a dedicated former Dunlop employee, a devoted father to his two children and an experienced motorcyclist who never had an accident until the Nov. 11 crash.

Daniels conceded Smith had been drinking but said, “This was a heart-breaking accident. So sad – so tragic.”

In addition to the prison sentence, Wolfgang revoked Smith’s driver’s license and ordered him to serve five years of post-release probation. Outside court, Charles Elberson expressed dismay at the length of the sentence.

“New York State doesn’t hand out the best sentences for this kind of crime,” he said. “Something’s got to change. He didn’t learn.”

The Pelton and Elberson families have filed notice of their intent to sue the Town of Amherst, arguing the town failed to properly design and protect residents along that stretch of the bike path, where there is no barrier separating pedestrians from street traffic.

email: swatson@buffnews.com

Judge upholds Niagara SPCA’s $1,000 membership charge

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LOCKPORT – A judge ruled today that the SPCA of Niagara was within its rights to raise the fee for a voting membership from $25 to $1,000, and also upheld the results of last year’s election for the board of directors.

“It’s a corporation. They can do what they want. I’m not going to sit in and run the Niagara County SPCA,” State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. said.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by three members who favor a “no-kill” shelter, Kloch also said the 2012 election, which produced a completely new 15-member board, was perfectly legal.

“In every respect, the election of the board of directors in 2012 comported with the law and the by-laws that were then in effect,” Kloch told the attorneys.

Attorney Peter A. Reese, the husband of one of the plaintiffs, vowed that Kloch’s ruling will be appealed.

“I think these people think we don’t have the resources to pursue an appeal. They are very much mistaken,” Reese said in an interview.

SPCA Board President Bryan Barish said outside the courtroom, “We’re very pleased that the judge saw the claims were baseless, and we’re free to continue doing the good work for the animals.”

His attorney, William J. Hardy, told Kloch that 11 of the $1,000 memberships have been sold, along with 209 nonvoting memberships at lesser prices. Only the $1,000 members have the right to vote, under by-law amendments adopted recently by the SPCA board.

Previously, any member could vote, and the minimum price was $25. The only exception is the current members of the board, the executive director and the shelter director. They don’t have to pay anything.

“Members who exercise the voting franchise should have a stake in the organization,” said Michael DeFreitas, the attorney who crafted the amendment.

Reese argued that the SPCA’s action violated state law governing not-for-profit corporations, but Kloch disagreed.

“I’m not going to step into a not-for-profit corporation and tell them what they can charge for a membership,” Kloch said.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

Boston couple charged in string of bar burglaries

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A Boston couple has been arrested in connection with a string of at least six burglaries of bars and restaurants in the Southtowns, investigators from several law enforcement agencies announced Thursday.

Police executed a search warrant Wednesday at the apartment of Jacob Halbert, 23, and Erica Johns, 22. Inside, investigators found cash and liquor bottles believed to have been taken during the burglaries.

Following a string of early-morning burglaries of bars and restaurants in the Village of Hamburg, Town of Hamburg, Town of Evans and Boston over a period of three months, authorities in those municipalities recognized they had a burglary ring on their hands, explained State Police Investigator Robert Gardner.

Video and physical evidence collected at the scenes of the crimes eventually led investigators to Halbert and Johns.

Gardner said the pair allegedly stole about $5,000 and additional bottles of liquor in at least six burglaries, apparently to help feed their drug habit.

They were both charged with burglary and criminal mischief. They were arraigned and were being held at the Erie County Holding Center in lieu of $3,000 bail each.

Gardner said police are investigating whether they may be involved in other more recent burglaries in the Southtowns.
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