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Man arrested in stolen car with stolen property

April 12, 2013, 5:50 pm
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A 22-year-old Hamilton Street man was arrested in an allegedly stolen Prius when he was stopped at Military Road and Kail Street about 11:30 p.m. Thursday.

Rafael Alicea-Torres was charged with driving without a license, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and criminal possession of stolen property. Police said they also found in the vehicle a laptop, a PlayStation system and a digital camera, all of which had been reported stolen earlier.
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Man stabbed in arm during argument

April 12, 2013, 5:53 pm
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A 45-year-old Drexel Road woman was arrested about 6:15 p.m. Thursday for allegedly using a small knife to stab a male friend in the left arm during an argument in her home.

Cassandra Butler was charged with third-degree assault and harassment. The victim told officers she also verbally abused him after stabbing him.
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Loud music leads police to drug operation

April 12, 2013, 6:15 pm
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Three young out-of-town men were arrested on a variety of drug-related criminal charges after Buffalo police found a possible drug-dealing operation when they were attracted by loud music coming from an upper apartment at 3160 Main Street about 5 a.m. Friday.

Zeeshan K. Balooch, 20, of East Meadow; Yaron Bernstein, 21, of Newton, Pa.; and Teron M. Coleman, 20, of Melville, were arrested after officers found a marijuana grinder, a weight scale with marijuana and a white residue on it, baggies containing a crystal substance, marijuana in several locations, and $4,023 in a small box under a computer stand.

The suspects were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, criminal possession of marijuana, criminal possession of controlled substances outside their original container and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
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Couple sentenced for Orchard Park PTO theft

April 12, 2013, 7:16 pm
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The former treasurer of a parent-teacher organization at Orchard Park Middle School and her husband were each sentenced Friday to five years’ probation and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service for stealing $29,532 from the organization’s bank account,

Elizabeth and Daniel J. Losardo, of Manor Lane, Hamburg, had faced up to four years in prison. Each pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny.

Elizabeth M. Losardo, 53, was the organization’s treasurer from July 2010 through last June. Because of her position, she had access to the bank account.

At the sentencing, Erie County Judge Kenneth F. Case said the stolen money was spent on household bills because the couple’s other money was used to pay off Daniel Losardo’s gambling debts.

Neither Losardo spoke at the court hearing.

“While volunteering is admirable, it’s probably about as hypocritical as you can be to turn around and steal from the people you’re volunteering to help,” Case told Elizabeth Losardo. “While I’m trying to be somewhat understanding of what would appear to be a gambling addiction, it’s disconcerting, to say the least, to see this happen.

“I know they call it a parent-teacher organization, but really it’s about the kids,” the judge said. “To see someone placed in a position of trust to turn around and betray that trust is disturbing.”

The Losardos have made full restitution, said John C. Doscher, head of the Erie County District Attorney’s Special Investigations Bureau.

The thefts occurred between February 2011 and May 2012.

The two acted in concert to steal the money, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

A law enforcement official told The Buffalo News in October that investigators believe that Elizabeth Losardo had an ATM card and that her husband, 45, may have used the card to make cash withdrawals.

A presentence report prepared by the county’s Probation Department recommended probation.

Michael P. Caffery, the couple’s defense lawyer, said neither Losardo has a prior criminal record and asked the judge to follow the Probation Department’s recommendation.

But Case offered a stiff warning as he imposed community service.

“Whatever you do, don’t steal from the people you’re doing community service for, or you’ll be on your way to jail,” he said.



email: plakamp@buffnews.com
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Erie County prosecutors gain guilty pleas in five illegal gun cases

April 12, 2013, 7:53 pm
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Five people, caught in separate incidents, have admitted in court in the past week to illegally possessing weapons in Buffalo.

“Five potential shooters off the streets,” Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said. “If they had chosen the mayor’s gun buy-back program, they could have spent a night on the town. Now they’ll spend the next 3½ to 15 years in state prison. They chose unwisely.”

The five Buffalo residents face maximum prison sentences of 15 years after pleading guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.

• Kenneth Virges, 43, of Nevada Avenue, admitted possessing a loaded, stolen 9mm pistol that police found in his car after they responded to a call on May 13, 2012 about a man smoking marijuana in his car.

Virges also pleaded guilty to criminal possession of marijuana. The conviction is his fourth felony conviction since 1991. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 18 by Erie County Judge Michael D’Amico.

• Daniel Burnett, 23, of Grape Street, admitted possessing a .22-caliber revolver in his pants pocket. Police officers arrested Burnett on Oct. 5, 2012 on Rodgers Street while they were on the lookout for a person who reportedly brandished a gun and threatened a woman about 10 minutes earlier. Burnett is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22 by State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang.

• Terence Williams, 29, of Crowley Avenue, admitted possessing a loaded 9mm pistol in his vehicle. Williams, considered a person of interest in an assault case and suspected of dealing heroin in the Riverside section of the city, was found at a gas station on Ontario and Skillen streets on April 26, 2012, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Williams tried to get away by backing his vehicle into a police car. Police also found heroin and marijuana inside the vehicle. Williams posted bail but then fled. The U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force found and returned him in September. Williams is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22 by Wolfgang.

• Steven J. Buchanan, 19, of Walden Avenue, admitted possessing a .380 automatic pistol. Police spotted Buchanan riding his bicycle against traffic on July 18, 2012 and were going to write him a summons for the infraction. He tried to get away on foot, and during the chase, police said he threw an object. Buchanan said he tossed a fake gun. Police could not find it and later released him. Later that evening, a police officer responded to a 911 call about a discarded gun in a yard. Officers realized the gun was found in an area where police had chased Buchanan, so they questioned him again, during which time he admitted possessing the pistol. Buchanan is scheduled to be sentenced on June 11 by Erie County Judge Sheila A. DiTullio.

• Jose Mendoza, 23, of Bird Avenue, admitted possessing a .38-caliber revolver on Aug. 26, 2012. Police received information that Mendoza was carrying a weapon in the vicinity of Perkins Place and Herkimer Street. When police showed up, he fled and threw a bag to the ground, according to the District Attorney’s Office. An officer recovered the bag, and Mendoza was arrested on a warrant the next month. Testing revealed Mendoza’s DNA was on the weapon. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 31 by State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia.

In all five cases, the charges they pleaded guilty to are the highest they could have been convicted of had they gone to trial, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Sedita cited the work of prosecutors John P. Gerken Jr., Sara Ogden, Brian Langenfeld and Rene Juarez, as well as the efforts of police officers.

In arresting Virges, police officers Joseph Doxbeck and Charmaine Grabowski displayed “quick response and keen instincts,” which resulted in a conviction and mandatory incarceration of an armed three-time prior felon, Sedita said.

Sedita also praised police officers for their work investigating Buchanan.

“Because of their presence of mind and dogged determination, another gun-toting hoodlum will face a mandatory term of imprisonment,” Sedita said.



email: plakamp@buffnews.com
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Suits filed in body tampering, injured cop cases

April 12, 2013, 11:12 pm
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LOCKPORT – The parents of a man killed in a car crash, a part of whose body was taken to be used in training a dog, filed a lawsuit against Niagara County this week.

Danny P. Dunn Sr. and Anita L. Dunn brought suit in State Supreme Court against the county, former County Coroner Russell Jackman II, the Cambria Volunteer Fire Company and its former chief, E. Vincent Salerno.

The plaintiffs’ son, Roger Dunn, was killed April 13, 2012, in a crash on Saunders Settlement Road in Cambria.

The suit, filed by Lewiston attorney Michael J. Dowd, says that the victim’s parents didn’t know until they heard media reports that Jackman had removed a piece of their son’s body tissue, which he gave to Salerno for use in training a dog to sniff out cadavers.

Jackman and Salerno both resigned their posts and pleaded guilty to obstructing governmental administration. Each was fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service with the SPCA, as well as writing letters of apology to the Dunns.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages as well as compensation for emotional and psychological distress.

Dowd did not return a call seeking cowmment Friday.

In another case, a police officer hurt quelling a domestic dispute also sued the county. Michael J. Skoney, of Niagara Falls, attorney for Town of Niagara Officer Kellie Treis, did not return a call seeking comment.

Treis was hurt in trying to subdue a 15-year-old boy in the Cayuga Village mobile home park in January 2012.

The suit seeks permission to file a notice of claim, a mandatory preliminary to a case against a local government, well after the normal 90-day deadline.

If that notice of claim is allowed, the proposed lawsuit would charge that a civilian dispatcher in the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, now-retired Jeffrey Bruce, called off backup units that were heading to the scene.

According to Treis’ original incident report, she and Officer Edward Finley were assigned to investigate an incident between the 15-year-old and his grandmother. Treis’ report doesn’t mention a lack of backup.

It does say that she and Finley were hurt when they tumbled down stairs trying to handcuff the boy, who fought with them. Treis said she pushed the emergency identifier button on her radio and three other officers came to the scene and arrested the teen. He was charged in Family Court with assault.

Treis hurt her knee and hand, while Finley hurt his hand. Finley has not filed any lawsuit.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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West Seneca police charge man on payloader with DWI

April 13, 2013, 10:53 am
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The drunken driving arrest West Seneca police made Friday night was not a typical DWI stop.

Officers were dispatched at about 6:40 p.m. Friday after receiving several reports of a payloader stuck in the mud on Casimer Street. Witnesses, including a couple of the town’s sewer department employees, reported that its operator appeared to be intoxicated.

Police found the payloader stuck in the mud on the berm overlooking Buffalo Creek. After talking to witnesses, officers determined that Daniel J. Chowaniec, 45, of Weimer Street, Buffalo, had stolen the payloader, valued at $150,000, from the salt barn at the Thruway’s Ogden Street exit ramp.

Chowaniec had driven the payloader from the salt barn and ended up on Casimer Street, where he attempted to traverse the flood control berm between the street and the creek, police said. Along the way, he caused extensive damage to town property, police said.

After failing field sobriety tests, Chowaniec was charged with driving while intoxicated by Officers Travis Deubell and Jesse Reed. He also was charged with felony counts of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, criminal mischief, criminal possession of stolen property and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Police said Chowaniec refused to take a chemical test to determine the amount of alcohol in his system.

Following arraignment in West Seneca Town Court, Chowaniec was sent to the Erie County Holding Center in lieu of a total of $10,000 cash or $20,000 property bail.

Representatives of the state Thruway Authority removed the payloader. State Police also lodged a felony charge of grand larceny in connection with the theft of Thruway Authority property.

email: jhabuda@buffnews.com
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Judge denies Barnes new hearing in ’86 killings

April 13, 2013, 4:04 pm
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LOCKPORT – Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas changed her mind last week and refused to hold another hearing for a Lockport man convicted of a 1986 double murder.

Farkas was angered when defense attorney Dominic Saraceno sought to force the District Attorney’s Office out of the case.

She reacted by canceling the hearing she had scheduled on whether the public defender who originally represented William J. Barnes Jr. withheld a plea offer from him 27 years ago.

“Take him back [to prison]. I’m not going to let these issues become eternal. If I’m wrong, so be it. He can take it to the next level. I’m not letting these cases go on forever and spending the taxpayers’ money on something that happened 15 or 20 years ago,” Farkas said.

Counting appeals, this was Barnes’ ninth attempt at winning a new trial since a jury in January 1987 convicted Barnes of murdering his girlfriend, Irene L. Bucher, 21, and William R. Moffitt, 35, on Jan. 7, 1986, when Barnes caught them having sex in the apartment Barnes and Bucher shared on Park Avenue in Lockport.

In March 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court opened a new angle for Barnes to pursue. It ruled in a Missouri case that if a defense attorney withholds a plea offer from his client that the defendant and the judge would have accepted, a conviction can be overturned.

Court minutes from 1986 show that a plea offer with a sentence of 25 years to life was made to Barnes’ attorneys, Joseph L. Leone Jr. and the late Robert A. Rotundo.

This apparently occurred in a private conference among the prosecutor, Stephen A. Shierling; County Judge Aldo L. DiFlorio; and the defense attorneys. There was no stenographic record, and the minutes don’t say if Barnes was there.

Barnes, now 50, said in a Buffalo News interview at Wende Correctional Facility in November that he wasn’t present.

But a letter he wrote to Leone in September 1986 said that he would be willing to take a 25-to-life sentence.

Leone told The News that Barnes rejected the plea offer. Barnes went to trial in January 1987 and was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder. DiFlorio sentenced him to two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life.

“I granted this hearing out of an abundance of caution,” Farkas said. “I have since been told by a judge on the Court of Appeals that if I have an affidavit from an attorney who says a plea bargain was communicated, I shouldn’t even be having a hearing.”

Public defender Saraceno said a special prosecutor was necessary because Leone and current District Attorney Michael J. Violante were law partners at the time of the trial.

Leone told The News that he and Violante didn’t join forces until after the Barnes trial, in which Violante played no role.

“I think there is an appearance of impropriety,” Saraceno argued, and as he pressed the point, Farkas erupted and canceled Barnes’ latest day in court.

There may be another. Barnes submitted a new motion, alleging that his rights were violated because the jury selection process at his trial was not transcribed.

“I have an affidavit [from DiFlorio’s court reporter] that says that was the ordinary procedure then,” Assistant District Attorney Thomas H. Brandt said. Procedures have changed, and jury selection is always transcribed in County Court now.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Police suspect burglary of Cayuga Drive bar may be inside job

April 13, 2013, 4:04 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – Police said they are investigating a possible employee connection in the Friday morning burglary of Poppy’s Place on Cayuga Drive.

Surveillance cameras showed a man wearing gloves and a bandanna over his face entering the bar about 5:10 a.m. and heading straight to a cabinet where the “money bag” is stored, police said. The burglar grabbed the bag containing $400 and two bottles of beer before leaving, police sdaid.

Police said that the employee appears on the surveillance video a short time later, entering the bar and leaving the owner a note before taking three bottles of beer and leaving. A door to the tavern was forced open and a window broken, resulting in $300 worth of damage, police said.
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State lawyers fund pays back victims of fraud

April 13, 2013, 4:14 pm
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A total of 187 people victimized by 60 lawyers were repaid $5.4 million in 2012, according to Timothy O’Sullivan, a spokesman for the state’s Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.

The overall sum includes $417,818 repaid to eight clients victimized in the eight-county Eighth Judicial District, based in Buffalo.

One client of lawyer Kenneth F. Bernas recouped $376 in legal fees last year. However, over the past three years the fund – financed by fees assessed to the state’s more than 298,000 registered lawyers – reimbursed 33 Bernas clients more than $1.2 million, O’Sullivan said.

Bernas, 56, has been incarcerated in Groveland Correctional Facility since 2011. He is serving a prison term of 2∑ to 7 years that State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang imposed upon his conviction on multiple grand larceny charges. Wolfgang also ordered Bernas to pay back another $1.8 million in the criminal case. He is not eligible for parole consideration until February 2015.

About $500,000 from the sale of a $2 million mansion Bernas had built in East Aurora was used to reimburse clients he defrauded over the years, O’Sullivan said.

Also last year, the fund repaid a total of $160,264 to a Grand Island woman and the estate of a Wheatfield man, both swindled by disbarred Niagara County attorney Robert J. Niemel, as well as $251,478 to three clients of former North Tonawanda lawyer David R. Schnell. Both lawyers received jail terms in those cases.

Also, the fund reimbursed a Buffalo couple the $4,300 they paid Buffalo attorney Richard L. Baumgarten for legal fees in an ineffective criminal appeal and $1,400 to clients of attorney Alan E. Fielitz of Lackawanna.

In 2009, Fielitz was sentenced to weekends in jail for defrauding six people who received $102,000 from the lawyers’ fund several years ago.

Baumgarten was suspended from practicing law but later reinstated and, at the time of his death in 2007, he was considered a lawyer in good standing, O’Sullivan said.

In its 2012 annual report, the seven-member board of the Lawyers’ Fund thanked the following Western New York lawyers for assisting victimized clients: John G. Brenon, Donna L. Haslinger, Robert E. Nicely, Mark E. Saltarelli and Douglas Trumpler of Erie County; Thomas D. Williams of Genesee County; and Richard I. Reitkopf and Brian Shiffrin of Monroe County.

The Lawyers’ Fund was created in 1982 by the Court of Appeals in Albany. Since then, it has paid out $163.7 million to 7,255 people victimized by lawyers statewide.

O’Sullivan pointed out that the most common cases are attorney thefts from real property escrow funds.



email: mgryta@buffnews.com
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Falls burglary victim has hunch crime was triggered by spurned invitation

April 13, 2013, 4:20 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – The resident of a Fifth Street home burglarized Friday night suspects the perpetrator was a visitor to the home earlier in the day who had asked him about “doing some break-ins.”

A bedroom window to the home was broken out between 7 and 11:30 p.m. and a 19-inch flat-screen television, X-Box 360 videogame system and four game cartridges were stolen. The loss was placed at $460. Police said the visitor, who had played videogames, left in a huff after his burglary overture was rejected.
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Falls woman accused of attempt to smuggle pills into jail

April 13, 2013, 4:25 pm
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TOWN OF LOCKPORT – A Niagara Falls woman was arrested Friday afternoon for attempting to smuggle 13 pills into Niagara County Jail, authorities said.

Gina M. Kiesinger, 23, of Monroe Avenue, was charged with promoting prison contraband at 2:40 p.m., after jail officials discovered the pills during a search, authorities said. Deputies said further charges are possible.
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Shot fired into DeVeaux-area home follows break-in attempt

April 13, 2013, 4:34 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – A gunshot was fired into a DeVeaux-area home early Friday after an unsuccessful break-in attempt, police said.

The shot, fired about 2:30 a.m., penetrated the e rear door of a McKoon Avenue home and ricocheted off the floor and wall, police said. The bullet was recovered.

Officers said muddy footprints showed someone had attempted to kick in the door. Damage was placed at $260.
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Suspect in stabbings of two arrested after crashing into Michigan Avenue bar

April 13, 2013, 6:40 pm
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Two people were stabbed in a Carlton Street apartment and their attacker arrested early Saturday after a crash, Buffalo police said.

Keith Dejournette, 59, of Carlton Street, was listed in serious condition in Erie County Medical Center, after being stabbed in his left leg and ear, according to police and hospital officials.

His daughter, Candace Stewart, no age available, also was stabbed in her lower left leg when trying to defend her father. She was treated in ECMC and released, a hospital official said.

Meanwhile, Lloyd Evans, 50, no address available, was arrested in the attack and charged with first-degree assault and criminal trespass, according to police.

The attack occurred about 12:30 a.m., when Dejournette returned to his Carlton Street apartment and found Evans in the living room with Stewart, police said. The attack occurred after Dejournette told Evans to leave, police added.

Evans, who was chased out of the apartment, drove off but was apprehended on Michigan Avenue, where he drove his car into a bar, police said.
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Elderly man found dead in burning house

April 14, 2013, 8:54 am
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An elderly man was found dead inside a Lewiston home early this morning after fire swept through the Lower River Road house, according to the Niagara County Sheriff’s department.

Lewiston police and Niagara County deputies arriving at 4702 Lower River Road had been told the man might be in the burning house, and they attempted to enter the burning building several times in hopes of rescuing him, but each time were held back by the heavy smoke, the Sheriff’s department said. Firefighters found the man dead inside the residence. His name was not released, pending notification of his family, officials said.

The fire was reported to authorities at 2:18 a.m. by a 911 call. The house appears to be a “total loss,” authorities said.

The cause of the fire, and of the man’s cause-of-death remain under investigation.

Lewiston #1 Fire Department responded to the scene with assistance of the Upper Mountain, Youngstown, Sanborn and Ransomville fire companies.
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Baby injured in Alden domestic assault

April 14, 2013, 10:50 am
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An Alden man was charged with assault following a domestic incident that left a woman and 8-month old baby with minor injuries, state police said today.

Matthew Poole, 43, threatened then assaulted the woman at about 2 a.m. Saturday, according to police. The woman and the baby were taken to Women and Children’s Hospital. The baby, police said, had a bruised face. The extent of the woman’s injuires was not immediately available, but she as well as the baby were released from the hospital after being treated, police said.

Poole was charged with misdemeanor assault, menacing, endnagering the welfare of a child, harassment and unlawful possession of marijuana. He was arraigned in Alden Village Court, and remanded to the Erie County Holding Center on $1,000 bail.



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Springville man faces felony drunk driving charge

April 14, 2013, 10:54 am
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A Springville man faces a felony drunk driving charge after being arrested Saturday night for the second time in four years, according to the Erie County Sheriff’s Office.

Nicaiah Ausman, 26, was spotted driving erratically on Elk Street without headlights on Saturday night, deputies said. Ausman, they said, drove through a stop sign, and failed to stay on the right side of the road.

Deputy Jonathan Hanna pulled Ausman over, suspected he was intoxicated, and took him to the Springville substation at about 9:15 p.m., authorities said. Ausman refused to submit to a breath test, deputies said.

Deputies learned Ausman had been convicted of drunk driving in 2009. Because of the prior conviction, he was charged Saturday night with felony drunk driving. He was also charged with driving without a license and numerous vehicle and traffic infractions. Ausman was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon, according to a press release issued by the Sheriff’s Office. The press release did not state what type of weapon was found, and no additional information was being released by the Sheriff’s Office.
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Fire in garage of Newfane home chases resident

April 14, 2013, 2:27 pm
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NEWFANE – One resident fled from a home at 3948 Lockport-Olcott Road Saturday night after a fire broke out in the attached garage, Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said.

The blaze at 9:30 p.m. was brought under control by Wrights Corners and South Wilson fire companies. No damage estimate was available and the cause is under under investigation.
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GPS units targeted in pair of Falls car break-ins

April 14, 2013, 2:45 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – Global positioning systems were targeted in two car break-ins unday morning, Niagara Falls police said..

One car was parked in the lot of the Days Inn on Main Street, police said. A passenger window was smashed between 4 and 9 a.m. and the GPS, a watch, digital camera and 10 compact discs were stolen. The loss was estimated at at $740.

Meanwhile, a $200 GPS was stolen from an unlocked car parked on 91st Street. Further information was unavailable.
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Tourists on coffee break lose their passports in car break-in

April 14, 2013, 2:56 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – Passports were among items stolen from the car of two tourists who had stopped for coffee in a Niagara Falls Boulevard business about 9:15 a.m. Saturday, police said.

A Texas woman and her Wyoming companion discovered a bag containing the passports was stolen from their vehicle about a half-hour later, police said. Among other items stolen were a camera and two cellphones. The loss was estimated at $550.
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