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Mother of victim rejects ties to child rapist

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The mother of a girl raped when the child was 12 says she has always supported her daughter and wants nothing to do with the man responsible for the sexual attack.

Upset over a prosecutor’s remarks that questioned her support for her daughter during the Erie County Court sentencing Thursday of rapist Cotrell Jenkins, the mother called The Buffalo News on Friday from her out-of-state residence to say she is a caring parent and intentionally relocated to start a new life for her family and get away from Jenkins, her ex-boyfriend.

Jenkins, 27, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after admitting he raped the girl more than two years ago.

“I don’t appreciate the things that were said in court. My daughter and I have moved on. I believed my daughter from the start,” the mother said in contradicting the prosecution’s claims that the mother only accepted the fact that Jenkins impregnated her child after being shown DNA test results proving his paternity.

The mother says that she does not know the circumstances of the rape but that Jenkins should not have harmed her daughter. Jenkins had said he does not recall the rape, claiming that he may have blacked out from taking prescription pain medication and alcohol.

“My daughter told a few different stories, that she willingly got in bed with him or that he put a pillow over her head. I honestly don’t know what happened. It doesn’t matter if she got into bed with him. She’s a child, and he’s an adult, and he should have walked away,” the mother said.

The rape occurred when the mother was expecting a child with Jenkins. That child, a son, is now 2 years old and lives with her and her daughter and other siblings. The daughter’s pregnancy from Jenkins, authorities said, ended in an abortion.

Despite claims made by Jenkins’ attorney at the sentencing, the mother says she has no intention of reuniting with him when he completes his prison term.

“I don’t want to be involved with him, but he does have the right to see his son when he gets out, if that’s what he chooses to do,” the mother said.

As part of Jenkins’ sentence, Erie County Judge Kenneth F. Case issued an order of protection that prevents him from having any contact with the victim until March 28, 2035.

“He will never have contact with my daughter again. Me, as a mother, would not let that happen,” the mother said.



email: lmichel@buffnews.com

Driver in traffic arrest charged with cocaine possession

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A Tacoma Avenue woman was charged with drug and unsafe driving counts after running a stop sign at Esser Avenue and Ullman Street about 3:31 a.m. Thursday, Buffalo police said.

Michelle L. Intrabartolo, 37, who had concealed powder cocaine in her bra, police said, was charged her with criminal possession of a controlled substance and failure to stop for a stop sign.

Two facing drug charges after traffic stop

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Two people were arrested on drug and other charges after their car was stopped in the second block of Tonawanda Street about 9:40 p.m. Thursday.

Jeremiah Carmody, 31, of Niagara Street and Allessandra Volpe, 31, of Dimatteo Drive, North Tonawanda, were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, pills outside original container and a forged instrument count.

Police said they found clonazepam and alprazolam pills not in their original containers. They also were charged with having a fake New York state inspection sticker on their car, which was impounded.

Man who raped 12-year-old girl gets 14-year sentence

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Cotrell Jenkins got 14 years behind bars – close to the maximum sentence – for raping a 12-year-old girl.

People on hand Thursday in Erie County Court who were hoping he would get a lighter sentence included not only his family but the mother of the victim, who for months refused to believe Jenkins, her boyfriend and the father of her unborn son at the time, had committed the crime.

Only when the mother was confronted with DNA evidence to prove Jenkins had impregnated her daughter did she stop maintaining his innocence, Assistant District Attorney Marni Bogart said. But she still “stood by her man” by insisting her daughter was a willing participant in the sexual encounter, the prosecutor said.

Jenkins, 27, claims he has no recollection of the attack two years ago and that he must have blacked out from being “jacked up on Loritabs and alcohol,” Bogart said, quoting Jenkins.

“The girl went to her grandmother and godmother because she knew her mother wouldn’t be supportive. The grandmother and godmother took her to Women and Children’s Hospital and it was determined she was nine weeks pregnant. She suffered the trauma of an abortion, then medical complications,” Bogart said, adding that at one point during the attack Jenkins covered the girl’s head with a pillow.

Erie County Judge Kenneth F. Case settled on a sentence of 14 years, rather than the maximum of 17 years or minimum of 10 years. He said it was shocking to read some of the statements Jenkins had made to authorities.

“In your initial statement to police, you said ‘I never did her’ and, ‘Well, she’s fast for her age.’ I don’t know how to respond to that,” Case said.

Defense attorney Thomas J. Eoannou urged the judge to take into consideration that Jenkins has no prior arrests, that the behavior was an “aberrational event,” and that when he is eventually released from prison, he and the victim’s mother plan to reunite and raise their son, who is now 2 years old.

Eoannou also pointed out that Jenkins, who is learning disabled, has been a devoted single parent to his other son, an 8-year-old with autism.

Dressed in jeans and a checked shirt, the stocky Jenkins told the judge he was remorseful. “I apologized to the young lady in the case,” he said. “I’m remorseful. They say I’m not remorseful. I am remorseful.”

The victim, now 14, her mother and the toddler have moved to North Carolina, said Bogart, who repeatedly sought to diminish any weight a letter written to the judge by the mother seeking leniency might carry.

“I call her a mother, but I use the word loosely. The worth of that term applied to her is not worth the paper her letter is written on,” Bogart said.

The prosecutor added, “While the mother was pregnant with his baby, he turned to her daughter for sex. The mother finally accepted that he was the father when shown DNA results. She then started saying it was consensual. A child cannot consent to sex with an adult and he put a pillow over her head.”

Bogart said that Jenkins had already received his share of mercy when he was allowed to plead guilty last fall to a Class B felony of first-degree rape, rather than face a trial on two A-felony charges of predatory sexual assault. If he had been convicted of those felonies, he could have been sentenced to prison for life.

Eoannou said that Jenkins regularly drove to Rochester to work at a relative’s pawn shop to support his family and that he had lived with the girlfriend for about four years on Richlawn Avenue.

“Other than this obviously very serious incident, by all accounts, he was a good provider and father and had no involvement with the criminal justice system.” Eoannou said.

With 13 months already served and anticipated credit for trouble-free behavior in prison, the attorney estimated that Jenkins would be released from prison in 11 years.

“It is both of their desires to reunite once Cotrell is released,” Eoannou said of his client and girlfriend.

Case ordered that Jenkins be placed on supervised release for eight years after serving his sentence and that he have no contact with the victim through an order of protection that will remain in force through March 2035.



email: lmichel@buffnews.com

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Buffalo Police honor meritorious acts, service

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Buffalo Police Officer Joseph Doxbeck risked his life when he dove into the icy Buffalo River to save a robbery suspect who got tangled in reeds and debris while trying to escape Feb. 21, 2012.

For his heroism, Doxbeck was presented the Police Department Medal of Valor during a ceremony Friday at Buffalo Police Headquarters.

Doxbeck ignored his own safety when he made the plunge from a dock at the foot of Ohio Street to rescue the suspect, Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda noted.

In other awards:

• The Buffalo Peacemakers group received the Civic Group Award and its leaders, the Rev. Dan Schifeling and the Rev. James Giles, were honored for founding the organization to provide intervention in the lives of city youngsters involved in gang activity or at-risk youths.

• Mayor Byron W. Brown presented his Mayor’s Civilian Awards to David Locke, who flagged down police officers to alert them to an armed robber in a grocery store March 12, 2012, and John Booker, who administered CPR to a woman unconscious and not breathing in her car April 27, 2012.

• Officers Valerie C. Shropshire and Sheila Y. Suggs-Barrons received Department Leadership awards for longtime efforts to help city families victimized by crime and other misfortunes.

• Officer Juan Phillips was presented a Leadership Award for his work as a resource officers at Burgard High School over the past seven years. He was praised by peers for a “commanding yet respectful presence and professional demeanor” at the school.

• Receiving Police Commissioner Medals of Commendation for bravery were: Lts. Mary E. Hanley, Michael A. March and Thomas J. Moran; Detective Sgt. John F. McGrath; and Officers John F. Abrams, Elizabeth A. Baker, Donna M. Benitez, Obed Casillas, Ronald J. Clark, Mark J. Cyrek, David K. Daniels, Dennis R. Gilbert, Robert E. Lee, James R. McAndrew, Joseph F. Mullen, Kathleen M. Paul, Kelvin L. Sharpe, Joseph J. Szafranski and Robert W. Yeates.

• Medals of Commendation were also given to the department’s K-9 Unit and their dogs: Lt. Salvatore P. Losi, leader of the unit, and his dog Thor; and officers (and their dogs) David Acosta and Konan, James R. Howe and Stark, Dennis J. Kessler and Duke, John T. Kujawa and Destro, Budilio R. Rodriguez and Ares, and Mary Ellen Sawicki and Herc.



email: mgryta@buffnews.com

Gun-waving convenience store robber betrays preference for cigarette brand

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NIAGARA FALLS – A bandit wearing surgical gloves and waving a handgun made off with $40 in cash and seven packs of cigarettes after holding up the Niagara Street 7-Eleven store early Saturday, police said.

A man wearing a hoodie, with a bandanna covering his face, entered the store shortly after 5 a.m. and ordered a cashier to place the cash drawer on the counter, police said. The robber, who demanded all the store’s Newport cigarettes, fled on foot. Police estimated the loss at $110.

Aggravated DWI charge lodged against snoozing driver

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HARTLAND – A Barker man slumped over the wheel of his idling car – its emergency flashers activated – in the middle of Hosmer Road about 3:30 a.m. Saturday was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated, Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said.

Matthew J. Ingro, 35, of Coleman Road posted a blood-alcohol content of 0.22 percent, nearly three times the legal limit, deputies added. Ingro also was charged with parking on a highway and drinking alcohol in a motor vehicle on a highway.

Judges advise Amherst on how to collect millions from state agency

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You know you’re not in a good place when high-level judges start giving your opponents explicit advice on how to defeat you in court. So it is with the State Insurance Fund.

For years, the Town of Amherst has been unsuccessfully fighting the state agency for reimbursement over a multimillion-dollar judgment it paid to the victim of a roofing accident who was left partially paralyzed more than a decade ago.

Last week, the Rochester Appellate Division of State Supreme Court denied the town’s latest attempt to recoup more than $30 million in principal and interest costs from the State Insurance Fund, dismissing two of its causes of action in an eight-page ruling. But the court didn’t stop there.

“Our inquiry, however, does not end at this juncture,” Judge Eugene Fahey stated, in a rare, signed decision.

The judges then devoted 30 lines of explicit legal instruction on how the town should compel the state insurance agency to pay the town the money it’s owed.

Town Attorney E. Thomas Jones said that shows the judges “understand that justice wasn’t being done.”

Joseph DeMarie, the lawyer representing the Town of Amherst in this case, called the instructions from the appellate court unusual.

“It’s pretty obvious that the court and Judge Fahey was disgusted with the State Insurance Fund,” he said.

The entire matter was sparked by the injury of a contractor who fell from the roof of a building at a state park in the town and broke his neck in 2002. The town paid $23.4 million to the injured worker because the town was maintaining the property and has spent more than five years in a long war against the state insurance agency to get reimbursed.

The potential impact on Amherst taxpayers will be enormous if the matter is not resolved. Already, the town has spent about half a million dollars in legal fees and bond costs related to this case, said Supervisor Barry Weinstein.

The legal nightmare known to most as the “Bissell case” has left town leaders supremely frustrated by what many consider to be legal subterfuge and ethical missteps by the State Insurance Fund. Piles of legal judgments against the amply funded state insurance agency and the roofing company it once insured have not produced a dime in payouts.

To appreciate the nature and scale of this financial drama requires some background.

Eleven years ago, Amherst contracted with McGonigle and Hilger Roofing Co. of Lockport to check for a roof leak at St. Mary of the Angels Motherhouse in Amherst State Park. Under an agreement with the state, the town is responsible for maintenance of buildings in the park.

The company sent Peter E. Bissell of Sanborn, who fell from a ladder during his inspection and broke his neck, leaving him partially paralyzed in both legs but still able to feel extreme pain in his limbs.

Multiple lawsuits and appeals by all parties followed. The first resulted in a $30.3 million jury award to Bissell in State Supreme Court in 2007. The amount was reduced to $18.3 million a year later. Because of accumulating interest, the town ended up paying the Bissell family $23.4 million.

The town’s insurance carrier covered $10 million of the judgment, and the town borrowed $13.4 million to pay for the rest. In 2011, the town began repaying that debt by borrowing money from its own reserves to the tune of $3.2 million a year.

“It’s a large deficit,” Weinstein said of the general fund’s draining reserves. “It’s very ugly.”

Because the town maintains Amherst State Park, the town was liable for Bissell’s injuries under the state’s Scaffold Law, which holds property owners responsible for any injury to workers on their property regardless of fault.

But the town then sued McGonigle & Hilger Roofing, and two courts held that the roofing company was ultimately responsible for Bissell’s injuries. In March 2011, the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, refused to hear the case.

Initially, town leaders thought that meant the town would be reimbursed $13.4 million plus interest right away because the now-defunct roofing company was insured by the State Insurance Fund, a state agency that is also the largest supplier of workers’ compensation insurance in New York.

They were wrong.

Instead of paying the claim, the State Insurance Fund paid for a lawyer to represent the roofing company’s owners and absolved the owners of any financial risks. In turn, the company owners resisted the town’s attempts to collect money from the State Insurance Fund by declining to ask their insurance agency to pay the claim.

“A logical mind would think that [the insurance fund] would have indemnified the Town and [the town’s excess insurance carrier], and this matter would have been resolved,” Judge Fahey stated, “Logic, however, did not prevail.”

The town subsequently sued the roofing company officers – Arthur Hilger and Sally Bisher – directly. Last week’s appeals decision was the latest outcome of that legal gambit, following a lower court victory in the same case a year ago.

The Appellate Division ruling essentially directs the town to fast-track the case in State Supreme Court and ask the judge to legally resurrect the defunct roofing corporation. The corporation could then be compelled to require the State Insurance Fund to satisfy Amherst’s claim.

“We remit the matter to Supreme Court for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion,” Fahey stated.

Representatives of the State Insurance Fund have said they do not comment on ongoing litigation. However, lawyers for the town say they hope the state agency is getting the message and will settle the claim soon.

“I just hope,” said Jones, the town attorney, “that the State Insurance Fund realizes that their legal gymnastics are coming to an end.”



email: stan@buffnews.com

Two injured in motorcycle crash on Maple Road in Amherst

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Two people were taken to the hospital when a motorcycle collided with a vehicle on Maple Road in Amherst Saturday afternoon.

The motorcyclist, Ryan J. Hudson, 25, of Amherst, was transported by Twin City Ambulance to Erie County Medical Center with serious injuries, said Amherst Capt. Patrick M. McKenna.

The driver of the vehicle, Linda Marie Johnson, 48, of Lockport, also was taken to ECMC for evaluation.

The crash occurred shortly after 4 p.m., McKenna said. Johnson, who was heading west on Maple, tried to make a left turn into the Boulevard Mall and collided with Hudson, who was traveling east on Maple, investigators said.

Hudson’s motorcycle was split in half, McKenna said. Half of the motorcycle vaulted into the air and came to rest several feet away from impact, he added.

Speed may be one contributing factor in this crash, police said.

Senior Investigator James Quigley is leading the investigation. The eastbound lanes of Maple were closed for several hours after the crash.

Bemus Point man charged with DWI in rollover crash

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ELLERY – A Bemus Point man was charged with driving while intoxicated after crashing his vehicle on Salisbury Road about 3:42 a.m. Saturday.

Charles T. Glenn, 21, also was charged with refusing a breath test, failure to reduce speed on a curve and failure to keep right. Chautauqua County sheriff’s deputies said Glenn lost control on a curve and his vehicle rolled onto its side, coming to a rest against a street sign,

Glenn, who was checked by emergency medical personnel of Ellery Center and Maple Springs fire departments, was released for a later appearance in Ellery Town Court.

Damage placed at $55,000 in Niagara Falls house fire

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NIAGARA FALLS – A kitchen fire caused $55,000 damage to a home on Sherwood Avenue Saturday night.

Firefighters were called just after 6:30 p.m. Saturday to extinguish the blaze at 3525 Sherwood, fire officials said.

The fire – which started in a kitchen due to an unknown problem with the stove – caused $35,000 damage to the structure and $20,000 damage to its contents.

Judges advise Amherst on how to collect millions from state agency

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You know you’re not in a good place when high-level judges start giving your opponents explicit advice on how to defeat you in court. So it is with the State Insurance Fund.

For years, the Town of Amherst has been unsuccessfully fighting the state agency for reimbursement over a multimillion-dollar judgment it paid to the victim of a roofing accident who was left partially paralyzed more than a decade ago.

Last week, the Rochester Appellate Division of State Supreme Court denied the town’s latest attempt to recoup more than $30 million in principal and interest costs from the State Insurance Fund, dismissing two of its causes of action in an eight-page ruling. But the court didn’t stop there.

“Our inquiry, however, does not end at this juncture,” Judge Eugene Fahey stated, in a rare, signed decision.

The judges then devoted 30 lines of explicit legal instruction on how the town should compel the state insurance agency to pay the town the money it’s owed.

Town Attorney E. Thomas Jones said that shows the judges “understand that justice wasn’t being done.”

Joseph DeMarie, the lawyer representing the Town of Amherst in this case, called the instructions from the appellate court unusual.

“It’s pretty obvious that the court and Judge Fahey was disgusted with the State Insurance Fund,” he said.

The entire matter was sparked by the injury of a contractor who fell from the roof of a building at a state park in the town and broke his neck in 2002. The town paid $23.4 million to the injured worker because the town was maintaining the property and has spent more than five years in a long war against the state insurance agency to get reimbursed.

The potential impact on Amherst taxpayers will be enormous if the matter is not resolved. Already, the town has spent about half a million dollars in legal fees and bond costs related to this case, said Supervisor Barry Weinstein.

The legal nightmare known to most as the “Bissell case” has left town leaders supremely frustrated by what many consider to be legal subterfuge and ethical missteps by the State Insurance Fund. Piles of legal judgments against the amply funded state insurance agency and the roofing company it once insured have not produced a dime in payouts.

To appreciate the nature and scale of this financial drama requires some background.

Eleven years ago, Amherst contracted with McGonigle and Hilger Roofing Co. of Lockport to check for a roof leak at St. Mary of the Angels Motherhouse in Amherst State Park. Under an agreement with the state, the town is responsible for maintenance of buildings in the park.

The company sent Peter E. Bissell of Sanborn, who fell from a ladder during his inspection and broke his neck, leaving him partially paralyzed in both legs but still able to feel extreme pain in his limbs.

Multiple lawsuits and appeals by all parties followed. The first resulted in a $30.3 million jury award to Bissell in State Supreme Court in 2007. The amount was reduced to $18.3 million a year later. Because of accumulating interest, the town ended up paying the Bissell family $23.4 million.

The town’s insurance carrier covered $10 million of the judgment, and the town borrowed $13.4 million to pay for the rest. In 2011, the town began repaying that debt by borrowing money from its own reserves to the tune of $3.2 million a year.

“It’s a large deficit,” Weinstein said of the general fund’s draining reserves. “It’s very ugly.”

Because the town maintains Amherst State Park, the town was liable for Bissell’s injuries under the state’s Scaffold Law, which holds property owners responsible for any injury to workers on their property regardless of fault.

But the town then sued McGonigle & Hilger Roofing, and two courts held that the roofing company was ultimately responsible for Bissell’s injuries. In March 2011, the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, refused to hear the case.

Initially, town leaders thought that meant the town would be reimbursed $13.4 million plus interest right away because the now-defunct roofing company was insured by the State Insurance Fund, a state agency that is also the largest supplier of workers’ compensation insurance in New York.

They were wrong.

Instead of paying the claim, the State Insurance Fund paid for a lawyer to represent the roofing company’s owners and absolved the owners of any financial risks. In turn, the company owners resisted the town’s attempts to collect money from the State Insurance Fund by declining to ask their insurance agency to pay the claim.

“A logical mind would think that [the insurance fund] would have indemnified the Town and [the town’s excess insurance carrier], and this matter would have been resolved,” Judge Fahey stated, “Logic, however, did not prevail.”

The town subsequently sued the roofing company officers – Arthur Hilger and Sally Bisher – directly. Last week’s appeals decision was the latest outcome of that legal gambit, following a lower court victory in the same case a year ago.

The Appellate Division ruling essentially directs the town to fast-track the case in State Supreme Court and ask the judge to legally resurrect the defunct roofing corporation. The corporation could then be compelled to require the State Insurance Fund to satisfy Amherst’s claim.

“We remit the matter to Supreme Court for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion,” Fahey stated.

Representatives of the State Insurance Fund have said they do not comment on ongoing litigation. However, lawyers for the town say they hope the state agency is getting the message and will settle the claim soon.

“I just hope,” said Jones, the town attorney, “that the State Insurance Fund realizes that their legal gymnastics are coming to an end.”



email: stan@buffnews.com

Fire engulfs vacant house on Metcalfe

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An early morning fire at a vacant house on Metcalfe Street lighted up the sky as firefighters responding to the call found the structure fully involved in flames, according to the Buffalo Fire Department dispatch center.

The fire at 91 Metcalfe, in the Fillmore Avenue-Clinton Street area, was reported at 4:10 a.m. It left an estimated $25,000 damage to the 2.5-story house, which has been slated for demolition.

No injuries were reported.

Chase ends with SAFE Act arrest

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An 18-year-old man was arrested early today and charged with violating the state’s new gun control law after a foot chase through an East Side neighborhood ended with the recovery of a 9mm handgun, said Buffalo police.

Darquane M. McDuffie was arrested after he reportedly jumped from the rear seat of a vehicle that police were trying to stop near the intersection of Sweet Avenue and Stanislaus Street.

Officers Adam O’Shei and Joseph Walters gave chase on foot and caught McDuffie, who they said discarded a loaded handgun while running.

The handgun, described in police reports as a 9mm pistol with a 12-round magazine, had one round in the chamber plus 11 in the magazine. It was recovered by Buffalo Police Lt. Ivan Watkins in the driveway of 161 Stanislaus Street in the Broadway-Fillmore area.

During processing, police said, they found 10 bags of marijuana hidden in McDuffie’s right pant leg.

Police charged McDuffie with unlawful possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device under the New York SAFE Act. Enacted on January 15, the law prohibits having more than seven rounds in a magazine.

McDuffie also faces charges of felony possession of a weapon, obstruction and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Among other things, the NY SAFE Act tightens the definition of illegal “assault weapons” and requires owners of formerly legal semiautomatic guns to register them.

Motorcyclist in critical condition

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The driver of a motorcycle that collided with a vehicle on Maple Road in Amherst was in critical condition Sunday in Erie County Medical Center.

Ryan J. Hudson, 25, of Amherst was traveling east on Maple shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday when his motorcycle collided with a vehicle traveling west and turning left into the Boulevard Mall.

Amherst police, who suspect speed may have been a factor in the accident, said Hudson’s motorcycle was cut in half with one half of it propelled into the air.

The accident, which is still under investigation, resulted in Maple Road being closed to traffic for several hours Saturday.

The driver of the other vehicle, Linda Marie Johnson, 48, of Lockport, was treated at ECMC and later discharged.

Two-car crash results in DWI charge

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A two-car crash on East Delavan Street on Saturday resulted in the arrest of one of the drivers for driving while intoxicated.

Buffalo police said Raymond Walker, 54, of Cornwall Street, rear ended another car at about 9 p.m and sent the other driver to Erie County Medical Center with neck and back injuries. The injured driver was not identified.

Police said officers smelled alcohol on Walker and charged him with DWI after he refused a breath test.

Man arrested at Peace Bridge on child porn charge

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A New York State man was arrested at the Peace Bridge Saturday on charges of importing and possessing child pornography.

Niagara Regional Police said Clinton Jensen, 30, was entering Canada from the U.S. when he was stopped for an inspection and found to have child porn in his possession.

Jensen, whose address was not released, will be held until a bail hearing can be held in St. Catherines, Ont.

West Side stabbing sends man to ECMC

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A stabbing on Buffalo’s West Side resulted in the arrest late Saturday night of a Niagara Falls man.

Steven L. Fowler, 35, was charged with assault in connection with the stabbing of Leroy L. Twitty in the 200 block of Massachusetts Avenue earlier in the day.

Buffalo police said Twitty, a Town of Tonawanda resident, was stabbed in the chest with a knife that was later recovered by investigators. Twitty was listed in serious condition Sunday in Erie County Medical Center.

Fowler was arrested inside a residence on Massachusetts Avenue shortly after the stabbing, police said.

Anti-crime task force back for good

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Strike Force, the police task force that pounced on criminals during two 100-day periods last year, is back – and this time for good.

Composed of Buffalo police officers, state troopers and Erie County sheriff’s deputies, Strike Force will flood the city’s high-crime hot spots starting today to shut down criminal activity as soon as intelligence emerges to identify those areas.

“Strike Force is highly mobile, so patterns of deployment will vary, and the criminal element will be kept off guard,” Mayor Byron W. Brown said. “The criminals won’t know where it’s coming from or when it’s coming.”

Results from Strike Force actions last summer and again in the fall justified making the unit permanent, Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said.

“It has been highly effective and now, on a full-time basis, we are expecting even better results,” Derenda said.

In 2012 operations, Strike Force members:

• Arrested 3,251 individuals.

• Removed 44 illegal guns.

• Seized $74,356 in cash.

• Impounded 1,850 vehicles.

• Issued 12,129 traffic summonses, 106 quality-of-life summonses and 313 parking tags.

Strike Force is starting before the warmer months, when crime traditionally increases, to focus on gangs, drugs and illegal guns, and it is just one part of a multipronged approach aimed at reducing crime, the mayor and commissioner said.

“It’s going to put a lot of pressure on criminals, and it is going to send a clear and ongoing message that criminal activity is not going to be tolerated in the City of Buffalo,” Brown said.

Residents who pass along reliable information on criminal activities to the department’s confidential TIP-CALL line, 847-2255, can expect a rapid response, the mayor said.

“Citizens absolutely have a role to play. It’s always helpful and part of the mix that is utilized in going after the criminal element,” Brown said.

Other specialized police initiatives will also be unveiled in the coming months, the mayor added, including a sixth gun buyback program that will take place in early May.



email: lmichel@buffnews.com
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