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Nunda woman briefly jailed after Leandra’s Law arrest

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WARSAW – A 33-year-old Nunda woman was arrested on a charge of aggravated drunken driving for having two young children in her vehicle when she was stopped about 1:14 a.m. Friday on State Route 362 in the Town of Wethersfield.

Laurie J. Bownds, of Keating Lane, Nunda, was arrested by Wyoming County Sheriff’s deputies as she was driving south in the northbound lane of that roadway.

She failed field sobriety tests and an open alcohol container and marijuana were found in her vehicle. There were two children, ages 4 and 8, in the vehicle.

Bownds was charged with two counts of aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle under the state’s Leandra’s Law, and standard drunken driving, with higher than a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level, consumption of alcohol in a motor vehicle, unlawful possession of marijuana and failing to keep right. The children were released in the morning to an adult and Bownds’ car was impounded.

She was held for hours in the Wyoming County Jail until her bail was posted.

Third man charged in LeRoy copper thefts

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LeROY – An 18-year-old LeRoy man already in jail on unrelated charges was arrested Thursday by Genesee County sheriff’s deputies as one of the three suspects linked to a series of thefts in recent months of copper wire from the Dolomite Products Co. Inc. plant at 8250 Gulf Road.

Joseph P. Pratt of Church Street was charged with third-degree burglary, criminal mischief and grand larceny for the thefts of large amounts of copper wire from the plant that began in early January.

Michael A. Nicometo, 28, of North Street, LeRoy, and Jonathan D. Smeak, 22, of State Street Road, Batavia, were charged with the same counts earlier this week.

With the investigation continuing, all three face proceedings in Leroy Town Court Monday.

According to Dolomite Products officials, the thefts have caused costly damage to the plant’s electrical system. Nicometo is under investigation for unrelated local burglaries, officials said.



Sex offender imprisoned after committing another sex crime

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LOCKPORT – A North Tonawanda sex offender was sentenced Friday to four years in prison and 10 years’ post-release supervision for violating the terms of his probation by committing another sex crime.

Robert W. Miller, 37, of Oliver Street, was charged in December with having sexual contact with a 17-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and was already in Niagara County Jail serving a sentence that was to have expired April 17.

County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III said he gave Miller a chance by placing him on probation in December 2009, after his guilty plea to first-degree sexual abuse for molesting a 14-year-old boy in North Tonawanda the previous year. He gave Miller another break by leaving him on probation after he was found to have viewed pornography in 2010.

“I’m not going to be made a fool of a third time,” Murphy said.

Lockport man wins appeal of sentence in drug case

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A Lockport man, convicted in 2011 of possession of crack cocaine, may get out of prison sooner than expected in the wake of a ruling from the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court Friday.

The five-judge panel ruled that Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III did everything right during the trial of Samuel D. McCullough of Washburn Street, but goofed at the sentencing.

On Nov. 21, 2011, Murphy gave McCullough, 38, four years in prison for fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. The appellate court ruled that the law required Murphy to give McCullough an indeterminate sentence, such as two to four years.

The court ordered that McCullough must be resentenced in line with its ruling, which could bring McCullough up for parole sooner. At present, he isn’t eligible for a parole hearing until May 2014, according to the state prison website.

Attacker jailed to await substance abuse treatment

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LOCKPORT – A man who pleaded guilty to playing a role in a near-fatal beating outside a Niagara Falls bar last year was jailed Friday to await assignment to an inpatient substance abuse treatment facility.

Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas hiked bail for Stefan Grabowski Jr. from $5,000 to $50,000, causing him to be taken into custody.

Grabowski, 23, of Niagara Street, Niagara Falls, was to have been sentenced Friday for second-degree assault, but Farkas scrubbed that after learning that Grabowski had been arrested earlier this week in Lewiston on a driving while intoxicated charge. Defense attorney James J. Faso Jr. said Grabowski’s blood alcohol content was measured at 0.19 percent.

Grabowski was the only one of four or five attackers ever arrested in connection with the beating of Thomas Pembleton outside Club Ultra on Third Street in the Falls March 24, 2012. His sentencing has been rescheduled for July 18.

Multi-car crash reported at Main and Transit

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Amherst police late Friday night were dealing with a multi-car accident at Main Street and Transit Road.

Tow trucks were called to the scene, which was first reported to police about 9:30 p.m.

Further information was not immediately available.

Woman charged with keeping malnourished dogs

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A 34-year-old Herkimer Street woman was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals after Buffalo police found two malnourished pit bulls living in filthy kennels when they answered a complaint Wednesday evening.

Nicole L. Stanford was arrested in her home by Officers Brandon Hawkins and Allen Smith and charged with the Agriculture and Marketing Law felony offense.

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Two West Side women charged with beating neighbor

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Two Seventh Street women, related through marriage, were charged with first-degree assault after attacking a neighbor Wednesday afternoon, causing head and neck injuries that sent her to Erie County Medical Center.

Yareska Duprey-Diaz, 29, and Zuleyka M. Anaya-Duprey, 18, were arrested by Officers Richard Manley and Ibrahim H. Abdul-Wahed about 4:30 p.m. in the 400 block of Seventh Street.

After the officers responded to a 911 call about “neighbor trouble,” the victim said she had been attacked with a dark-handled knife that caused lacerations on her head and neck and was slapped, punched and kicked by the two women.

Teen pleads not guilty in fatal beating of toddler

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Dylan Schumaker, the 16-year-old accused of beating to death his girlfriend’s toddler son, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of second-degree murder and first-degree assault in Springville Village Court.

Schumaker has been charged as an adult and, as a result, his name has been released by authorities. His identity initially was withheld because of the possibility he could be granted youthful-offender status.

Following his arraignment in front of Springville Justice Kelly O’Neal Adams, Schumaker was returned to the Erie County Holding Center in downtown Buffalo, where he remains jailed without bail.

The teen is accused of repeatedly striking Austin Smith, 1, in the head. The little boy would have turned 2 today.

Schumaker allegedly attacked the child at some point while he was baby-sitting Tuesday afternoon into the evening at his parents’ Cochran Avenue home in Springville. Schumaker and Ashlee Smith, Austin’s mother, had moved there about two weeks ago.

Smith, 19, had left the boy and her 3-month-old baby in Schumaker’s care when she went to work, authorities said. She and Schumaker had been dating on and off for the last three years.

Sheriff Timothy B. Howard had said Schumaker attacked the boy because he was crying.

An autopsy determined Austin died from blunt force trauma to the head. The case against Schumaker is now expected to be presented to an Erie County grand jury for review.



email: lmichel@buffnews.com

Protester to sue NFTA, officers

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Nate Buckley, the anti-war protester acquitted of charges stemming from a demonstration at Fountain Plaza two years ago, has filed notice that he intends to sue the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority and two transit officers for wrongful arrest and battery.

Attorneys for Buckley filed a notice of claim against the authority and Officers Richard Russo and Adam Brodsky, the first step in a lawsuit.

Buckley, 27, a West Side resident, claimed in the notice that he was accosted by officers during the anti-war demonstration April 8, 2011, and “was assaulted, battered, struck, subjected to pepper spray, falsely arrested by them and taken against his will.”

Buckley contends he was falsely arrested on charges of resisting arrest, trespass and obstructing governmental administration.

After a jury trial in June 2012 that ended in a mistrial because of alleged juror misconduct, two of Buckley’s fellow protesters were acquitted of trespass counts.

Buffalo City Judge Joseph A. Fiorella in December dismissed the charges against Buckley “on the merits.” In a subsequent decision, he held that “the NFTA officers did engage in improper conduct which is repugnant to this court’s sense of justice.”

Fiorella also said that as to “evidence of guilt” of Buckley, “this court found none.”



email: mgryta@buffnews.com

Mentally ill veteran charged with possessing shotgun

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An Army veteran who has repeatedly been hospitalized for treatment of a mental illness and has threatened to harm police and others at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Buffalo has been arrested by federal agents for unlawfully keeping a shotgun at his home.

The 36-year-old City of Tonawanda man also rented an assault-style rifle at a North Tonawanda gun range and admitted to a doctor that he had thought about hurting people at the Erie County Fair and Canal Fest, events that attract tens of thousands of people, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

Christopher M. Simmance this week was charged with felony criminal possession of a weapon because it is illegal under federal law for someone who has been committed to a mental health institution to possess a weapon.

His case highlights a key piece of the debate taking place in New York and across the nation over gun laws, with advocates on both sides of the gun-control argument seeking better enforcement of laws meant to keep weapons out of the hands of emotionally disturbed persons.

Once someone has been committed to a hospital for treatment of a mental illness, the person is prohibited by federal law from having any kind of firearm. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Buffalo wasn’t able to provide data on the number of arrests made under this charge in the area.

In Simmance’s case, his concerned father contacted City of Tonawanda police in November 2011 and asked officers to remove the 12-gauge, pump-action Remington shotgun that Simmance had at his apartment.

City of Tonawanda police have arrested Simmance three times – for disorderly conduct and petit larceny in 1994, and disorderly conduct in 2010 – and have checked on his welfare on other occasions, police officials previously told The Buffalo News.

Mark A. Simmance asked officers to take his son’s shotgun because he believes Simmance suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and he shouldn’t have a weapon, according to an affidavit filed in federal district court by Special Agent Thomas Rodriguez of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Christopher Simmance served in the Army from January 1998 to January 2001, leaving active duty with the rank of specialist, according to Army records obtained by The News.

Simmance, a member of the Occupy Buffalo movement in 2011, has told reporters from The News and other media outlets that he served in Iraq and Afghanistan and he was wounded in combat.

The News reported in late 2011 that Army records do not support Simmance’s claims of seeing action in a war zone, and Simmance’s mother told the newspaper she believed her son’s mental illness led him to exaggerate his service record.

Simmance was involuntarily committed to the VA hospital twice in May 2009 and once in April 2010, Rodriguez wrote in his affidavit.

Last July, when VA police were called to the emergency room to escort Simmance to another part of the hospital, Simmance became upset and threatened to shoot the officers with ammunition that would pierce their bulletproof vests.

The next day, Simmance’s mother, Denise, contacted City of Tonawanda police because she was alarmed about several items she found in her son’s apartment while he was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at the VA hospital.

Denise Simmance turned over to police a machete, an “Army Ranger” knife, a law-enforcement-style baton and 21-round, .223-caliber ammunition magazines.

Simmance’s mother also gave police a journal that contained written threats against a janitor and another person at the VA hospital. Simmance described wanting to shoot the janitor in the head.

When VA police questioned Simmance, he said he was asked by a therapist to write down his thoughts but he didn’t recall writing those threats.

He said he did own a shotgun, which he said he used to hunt on a property in Warsaw, but his father had taken the weapon from him.

Earlier on the same day he was interviewed by the agents, Simmance told a doctor he thought about hurting people at the Erie County Fair and Canal Fest, but he later told the agents he wouldn’t harm anyone.

Last August, ATF agents talked to an employee of the Niagara Gun Range in North Tonawanda, which allows patrons to rent and shoot a variety of weapons. The employee told the agents range records show Simmance rented an assault-style rifle there in March 2011.

Simmance is not charged with renting this rifle, nor with having the ammunition clips at his apartment.

The charge covers the shotgun, and in order to bring the illegal-possession charge, federal agents and prosecutors had to show the weapon crossed state lines at some point in its history.

Simmance’s shotgun was manufactured in New York but was shipped to a Kmart distribution center in Warren, Ohio, before it was returned to New York and sold at a Kmart store in Batavia.

It’s not clear from the criminal complaint why, if police learned in November 2011 that Simmance had the shotgun, charges weren’t brought until this month. Barbara Burns, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Buffalo, said she couldn’t answer that question because it is part of an ongoing investigation.

Frank J. Christiano, resident agent in charge of the ATF, said Simmance’s arrest was the culmination of a lengthy investigation by the ATF, City of Tonawanda police, VA police and the VA’s Office of Inspector General, but he declined further comment.

Simmance was taken into custody on Sunday. A detention hearing held Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy was adjourned until April 4.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John M. Alsup is prosecuting the case.

Simmance faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony weapons charge. He remains in the temporary custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.



email: swatson@buffnews.com

Arrests for tobacco smuggling made in Niagara County Jail

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TOWN OF LOCKPORT – A Niagara Falls woman attempted to smuggle tobacco to a Niagara County Jail inmate by hiding it inside a balloon tucked into the pocket of her 4-year-old son, sheriff’s deputies said.

Tierra D. Bradberry, 24, of Fairfield Avenue, was arrested in the jail lobby at 9:26 a.m. Friday, after she was observed removing the deflated red balloon from the boy’s pocket, deputies said. She was charged with promoting prison contraband and endangering the welfare of a child. Deputies said that Child Protective Services also was also contacted.

Less than two hours later, deputies arrested someone else for trying to smuggle a tobacco mixture into the jail. Pierce L. Abrams, 22, of Printup Road, Sanborn, was also charged with promoting prison contraband.

Deputies said Abrams, who had been senteced to one to three years behind bars earlier in the day, arrived at the county jail for processing wearing a rope necklace around his neck. Attached was a pouch containing what deputies described as a mixture of tobacco and “a leafy substance.”

Two convenience store clerks charged in alcohol sales sting

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TOWN OF LOCKPORT – Two people were arrested as police and state Liquor Authority agents targeted 21 area convenience stores Thursday night, checking for underage sales of alcohol.

State police, Niagara County sheriff’s deputies and SLA agents conducted the operation between 5 and 10 p.m. Clerks at Kenyon’s on Lockport-Olcott Road, Newfane, and Valero’s on Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, sold alcohol to underage agents, authorities said.

Charged with first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child and prohibited sales were Justin D. Ferington, 18, of Newfane, and Addison F. Hatcher, no age given, of Sanborn.

Four-wheel ATV worth $6,300 stolen from Niagara Falls home

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NIAGARA FALLS – A 2012 Polaris all-terrain vehicle worth $6,300 was stolen overnight Friday from a home in the 400 block of 21st Street, police said.

The four-wheeler was parked in a lot next to the home, where the thief security cables and rolled the vehicle off its trailer and into a nearby alley, police said. The theft occurred between 7 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday.

Bogus c-note passed at Seneca Niagara Casino poker table

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NIAGARA FALLS – Employees of the Seneca Niagara Casino said someone passed a counterfeit $100 bill at the Fourth Street gaming place early Saturday.

Police said the bogus bill was used at a poker table about 2 a.m. By the time casino personnel scanned the bill and determined it was fake, the person who passed it had left, police said.

Man loses cell phone, vehicle in Kensington robbery

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A man was robbed of his cell phone and his vehicle early Saturday in the city’s Kensington neighborhood.

The victim told police he was at Orleans Street and Alice Avenue at about 3 a.m. Saturday, when he was approached by two males dressed in all black.

One pulled out a black revolver and took the victim’s cellphone, according to police reports. The robbers then stole a 2000 Chevrolet Tahoe – owned by the victim’s girlfriend –and took off.

Convenience store clerks in Akron charged following sting

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Two people were charged with selling alcohol to minors during stings over the weekend in Akron, state police said Saturday.

State police, the Akron Police Department and the State Liquor Authority conducted the detail Friday at five Akron establishments.

Jason Wells, 28, an employee of the Uni-Mart at 12996 Main St., and Faith A. Milhollen, 33, an employee of The Filler, 40 Main St., were charged with unlawfully dealing with a child and prohibited sale of alcohol to a minor. Both are scheduled to appear in Town of Newstead Court at a later date.

Three other establishments were checked during the sting and were found in compliance. They were: The Village Inn, 15 Cedar St.; Main Street Pub, 11986 Main St.; and Akron & Brauns, 11891 Main St.

Kennedy man charged with felony DWI

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KENNEDY – A Kennedy man has been charged with felony driving while intoxicated, state police said Saturday.

David E. Workman, 58, was charged Friday with driving while intoxicated, first-degree felony aggravated unlicensed operation, refusal to take a breath test and not wearing a seatbelt, police said.

Workman was arrested about 8 p.m. Friday, after a trooper spotted him in his vehicle parked on the shoulder of Route 394. When the trooper pulled over to assist, Workman pulled away without wearing a seatbelt, authorities said.

When stopped, the trooper discovered Workman’s license was suspended and that he had a previous DWI within the past 10 years. He was arraigned in Poland Town Court and taken to Chautauqua County Jail.

DWI suspect has a close call on his birthday

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A birthday turned out not so happy for a Gowanda man on Saturday, police said.

Charles Burgess, 22, of Route 39, was charged with driving while intoxicated while driving in the Town of Collins, after celebrating his birthday in Hamburg, police said.

Burgess was driving south on Route 62, when he nearly struck another car, police said.

The driver of the other vehicle turned around, followed Burgess and used his cellphone to call police. Troopers spotted Burgess’ car near the police barracks in Collins, where they stopped him for erratic driving, authorities said.

Police said his blood-alcohol content was .15 percent. Burgess is due in Collins Town Court later this month.

The time of the incident was unclear.

Friend urged slain Buffalo woman to leave husband

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Last December, when Nedra E. Thomas-Mattox arrived at Haven House, a shelter for domestic violence victims, “her face was a mess after she was beaten and abused by her husband,” said a friend currently living in an out-of-state domestic shelter.

The friend, who spoke on the condition that she not be identified, said Thomas-Mattox’s face was covered in bandages when police took her to Haven House.

The battered body of Thomas- Mattox, 38, was found March 11 in a bedroom of the couple’s home on Andover Avenue in the city’s Bailey-Ken- sington neighborhood. Police said the woman was beaten to death by her husband of 10 years, Antoine D. Mattox, 32.

Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III and James F. Bargnesi, chief of the DA’s homicide bureau and the chief prosecutor in the case, declined to comment on the unidentified friend’s statements, as did a Haven House official.

Meanwhile, attorney E. Carey Cantwell, who represents the murder suspect, said he learned Friday during a felony hearing in the case that a grand jury had already voted a murder indictment against his client, who is behind bars. Court sources said Mattox’s arraignment on the indictment will not take place until at least sometime this week.

Mattox was arrested at a Rochester bus terminal, hours after he beat his wife to death, authorities said. Police believe Mattox was returning to Virginia, where the couple used to live and where the suspect still has relatives.

An autopsy revealed that Thomas-Mattox died of blunt-force trauma.

Buffalo Police arrest records state that Mattox killed his wife “by beating her with his fists, kicking her and beating her with an iron.”

The friend of the wife, who contacted The Buffalo News, said that soon after they became friends in Haven House last December, “I begged her not to remain in Buffalo after 10 years of abuse and seeing her face.”

She added that she told Thomas-Mattox, “There was no way [her husband] was going to let her live.”

According to the friend, Thomas-Mattox told her she had three children – two who still lived with Thomas-Mattox in the Andover Avenue home.

“I wish to God I said more to Nedra,” the friend said. “I begged her not to stay around Buffalo.”



email: mgryta@buffnews.com
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