Arturo D. Ross Sr., 40, of Olean, has been ordered to serve two consecutive prison terms totalling five years by Cattaraugus County Judge Ronald D. Ploetz on his guilty plea to drug trafficking earlier this year while he was already on probation for the burglary of an Olean business.
The judge, who had placed Ross on probation for five years in the Olean burglary case last Feb. 18, imposed the consecutive prison terms on his July 22 guilty plea to drug sales in Olean only two days later, on Feb. 20 and again last March 16. The judge also ordered him to submit to up to four years of post-prison supervision.
Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Pettit Reiman said Ross, who has been jailed for months now, pleaded guilty in July to cocaine possession and sales charges in July. The judge also sentenced Ross to a one-year term on his probation violation conviction but he will serve that during his five years in state prison, the prosecutor said.
In other court action during the past week:
• Roman G. Gabriel, 35, of West Green Street, Olean, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with operating an indoor marijuana-growing operation. Pettit Reiman said Olean police last March raided his home and seized a growing system and 220 pot plants that had a potential street sale value of about $200,000. She said police seized the hydroponic growing system, valued at $10,000, along with lighting, an irrigation and ventilation system and fertilizers. A Cattaraugus County grand jury has charged Gabriel with one count of criminal possession of marijuana in the second degree which carries a seven-year prison term if he is convicted and a misdemeanor count of illegal growing of cannabis.
• Heidi L. Clayson, 33, of Franklinville, faces a possible prison term of up to 25 years when she is sentenced Nov. 25 on her guilty plea to criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree for a crack cocaine sale in the City of Olean last Feb. 27 that led to her indictment.
• Stephen J. Jones, 20, of Bradford, Pa., waived indictment and pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary and petit larceny for a Town of Carrollton burglary last April 30. He faces sentencing Jan. 6.
• Steven J. Little, 56, of Little Valley, was sentenced to five years’ probation, his driver’s license was revoked for one year and he was ordered to have an ignition interlock system in his car for five years when he gets his license back as a result of his guilty plea to a felony charge of driving while intoxicated. Pettit Reiman said Little had a blood alcohol content of 0.12 percent when he was arrested near his home last Oct. 11. The state’s legal limit is 0.08 percent.
• Harry W. Ginnery Jr., 31, of Great Valley, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with aggravated driving while intoxicated, regular DWI, criminal mischief and driving with no inspection certificate when he was arrested in the Village of Ellicottville on April 26. Pettit Reiman said Ginnery had a blood alcohol reading that day of 0.20 percent.
• Mary E. Proctor, 25, of West Valley, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging her with grand larceny in the third degree, welfare fraud in the third degree and offering a false instrument for filing for allegedly illegally obtaining more than $3,000 in public benefits between April 2009 and July 2011.
email: mgryta@buffnews.com