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Niagara Falls, Ont., drug arrests

June 12, 2013, 2:40 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – Large amounts of illegal steroids and cocaine were seized in raids at two houses here by Niagara Regional Police detectives aided by officers of the Intelligence Unit and Morality Unit.

Taken into custody at one home was Luigi Vescio, 39, of Vaughan. At a second home, also not identified by authorities, officers arrested Joseph Vincent, 33, of this city.

Vescio was charged with possession of steroids for the purpose of trafficking. He was being held pending a bail hearing. Vincent is charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, possession of proceeds of crime and possession of a prohibited weapon. He was released pending court proceedings.

During the raids a large quantity of steroids were allegedly seized with Vescio’s arrest. With the arrest of Vincent officers seized more than 85 grams of alleged cocaine valued at $8500, a small quantity of cash and a stun gun, investigators said.
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Copper thefts reported at several vacant properties in Falls

June 12, 2013, 2:43 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – City police received reports of copper thefts at three vacant buildings. All three were bank-owned, abandoned buildings and the thefts were reported by a contractor for Niagara Removal Services on Tuesday.

In the 700 block of Spruce Avenue a vacant building was found with doors and windows damaged and unsecured and copper piping was stolen from throughout the building, as well as baseboard heaters, two kitchen sinks, two hot water tanks and a number of radiators. Total loss was $8,950. The date of the break-in was undetermined.

In the 500 block of Sixth Street, doors were found kicked in at three apartments in a four-unit apartment complex. The drywall was found damaged and at least $10,000 worth of copper was reported missing. Police said the building had been abandoned for an unknown period of time and it was undetermined if the theft happened before or after the bank took ownership.

In the 1000 block of 13th Street, copper piping was stolen from the basement and second floor. The date of the break-in was undetermined. Loss was estimated at $700.
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Falls man faces cocaine charges

June 12, 2013, 2:46 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Niagara Falls man, accused of selling cocaine to a police informant who was wearing a recording device Feb. 6 in North Tonawanda, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Niagara County Court.

Michael A. Thornton Sr, 52, of Niagara Avenue, was indicted on charges of third-degree criminal sale and possession of a controlled substance.

Thornton was arrested again April 29 in a police drug raid on a room in the Hospitality Inn on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Niagara Falls, but those charges are not part of the indictment. County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas allowed him to remain free without bail.
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Drunken driver accepts second chance at plea offer

June 12, 2013, 3:07 pm
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LOCKPORT – Rodney W. Craft, 46, of Maple Terrace, North Tonawanda, pleaded guilty to a felony count of driving while intoxicated Wednesday, risking a trip to state prison when Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III sentences him Aug. 27.

In a May 29 court appearance, Craft had refused to plead guilty because Murphy wouldn’t commit to a maximum sentence of one year in the County Jail. Wednesday, Murphy still wouldn’t make that pledge, but Deputy District Attorney Theodore A. Brenner said he is recommending the local jail sentence. However, Murphy still could send Craft to state prison for up to four years on the Class E felony.

Craft was scheduled for trial Monday on a Class D DWI felony that could have brought him a seven-year prison term. Brenner said Craft was followed home by a North Tonawanda police officer Nov. 5 after Craft ran a stop sign at East and Gilmore avenues. Craft reportedly failed field sobriety tests before being arrested, Brenner said.
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NT man admits forging prescriptions

June 12, 2013, 3:09 pm
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LOCKPORT – A North Tonawanda man pleaded guilty Wednesday to forging prescriptions and attempting to get them filled Jan. 28 at a pharmacy in North Tonawanda.

Zachary S. Gravell, 25, of Oliver Street, admitted to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and was assigned to the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr.

Gravell faces up to seven years in prison if he washes out of the treatment program. He was charged with stealing a prescription pad from a doctor and trying to obtain three prescriptions in the Wellness Park Pharmacy on River Road.
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Woman pleads to three theft charges, enters drug treatment

June 12, 2013, 3:11 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Town of Niagara woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in State Supreme Court to a felony and two misdemeanors regarding crimes in Niagara Falls April 7 and 8.

Nita Snyder, 37, of Isherwood Drive, admitted to third-degree burglary, petit larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. said Snyder will remain behind bars until a bed is found for her in an inpatient drug treatment facility, where she will begin her assignment to the judicial diversion program.

Snyder admitted stealing a woman’s credit card April 7 and burglarizing a home on Bollier Avenue the next day. She must pay the victims a total of $1,270 in restitution, Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said.
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Jury to hear results of Nushawn Williams' HIV test

June 12, 2013, 3:55 pm
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Lawyers for Nushawn Williams, the Jamestown man accused of intentionally spreading the virus that causes AIDS, will be allowed to offer evidence at his trial indicating he is not infected with HIV.

State Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski on Wednesday denied a request by the state Attorney General’s Office for a hearing to try and block a jury from hearing Williams’ blood, when analyzed under an electron microscope, did not contain the virus.

Michalski’s ruling means that the reliability of the electron microscope at detecting HIV is likely to come under intense questioning from the state’s lawyers during the trial.

Attorney John R. Nuchereno, who is representing Williams, first made the claim Williams does not have HIV in May, following an electron microscope analysis of his blood conducted by Gregory Hendricks, manager of the Core Electron Microscopy Facility at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Assistant Attorney General Joseph Muia Jr. argued in court papers this week that the use of an electron microscope for that purpose was “junk science” and “would confuse the deliberative process.”

Muia included affidavits from William A. Samsonoff, former director of the Electron Microscope Core at the Wadsworth Center Laboratories of the state Health Department, and from Dr. Harish Moorjani, an HIV specialist in internal medicine.

Samsonoff said relying on an electron microscope to conclude someone is not HIV positive was “an inappropriate misleading use of a scientific result and is not and would not be accepted in either the scientific medical community or the smaller professional sub-category of electron microscope analysts as a scientifically accepted procedure or test for HIV.”

Moorjani labeled electron microscope analysis “the poorest technique for one to use to identify whether an individual is infected with HIV.”

Several jurors have been selected for a civil trial to determine whether Williams, 36, has a mental abnormality that makes him predisposed to commit sexual crimes. Jury selection continues today, and opening arguments are expected to begin on Monday.

The trial is closed to the public.

Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree (statutory) rape and one count of reckless endangerment in 1999, after authorities said he infected 12 young Chautauqua County women and a teenage girl, with HIV.

Williams completed his 12-year sentence in 2010, but he continues to be held in Wende State Correctional Facility under a state law that permits civil confinement of sex offenders.

The Attorney General has sought to keep Williams confined, arguing that he is a sexual predator who is likely to infect others with HIV.

Williams, 36, now goes by the name Shyteek Johnson.

email: jtokasz@buffnews.com
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Strykersville man killed in one-car crash

June 12, 2013, 3:59 pm
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A 34-year-old Strykersville man was killed when his car hit a pile of dirt and then a tree limb and overturned a number of times on Maple Hill Road in the Town of Wales about 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Justice D. Gaydek, the only person in his car, was reportedly ejected from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene according to the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. The accident remains under investigation.
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Lockport parking ramp demolition gets green light as suit is dropped

June 12, 2013, 7:02 pm
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LOCKPORT – The litigation over the demolition of the downtown Lockport parking ramp ended with a whimper Wednesday, and the ramp’s history will end with a bang in a few days.

A lawsuit over the bid-opening process for the job, filed by Scott Lawn Yard of Sanborn, was dropped Wednesday, leaving Empire Dismantlement, the second-lowest bidder, with a valid $1.17 million contract as awarded by the Common Council April 10.

However, there was an agreement to consider Scott Lawn for some subcontracting work on the job, such as landscaping and tree planting around the 42-space surface parking lot that is to replace the ramp at Main and Pine streets.

The lawsuit arose because Scott Lawn, which bid $987,000 on the demolition, was late to the bid opening April 5. Its representative came to City Hall an hour early but allegedly was told by a secretary in the city Engineering Department that the bids were being handled by Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, a Buffalo engineering firm also called CRA.

The Scott Lawn representative drove to Buffalo, was told at Conestoga-Rovers that the bids were to be opened in Lockport City Hall and couldn’t get back in time for the 2 p.m. deadline. After arriving late, he gave the envelope to two Conestoga-Rovers employees, who opened Scott’s bid and found it was the lowest.

However, Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano advised the Council to give the contract to Empire, a Grand Island company, because it met the deadline and Scott didn’t. Scott sued the city, blaming the city secretary for the foul-up.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. at first ordered a hearing on the facts but on May 28 changed his mind and dismissed the case on the grounds that Empire hadn’t been named as a defendant.

John P. Bartolomei of Niagara Falls, Scott Lawn’s attorney, filed a new lawsuit including Empire, which was to have been heard Wednesday morning by State Supreme Court Justice Ralph A. Boniello III. However, the attorneys instead signed a document in which Scott Lawn agreed to withdraw the lawsuit and not to file it again.

Empire Dismantlement owner David Mazur said his company could get the project moving quickly. “Anywhere from one business day to five business days,” he said when asked when work will begin. The contract gives him 90 days to finish the job.

Mazur said he agreed to consider Scott Lawn as a subcontractor for landscaping at the site. “There’s certainly a style of work that Scott does that we don’t do. We’re a demolition company,” he said.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Buffalo man gets 20 years for child exploitation

June 13, 2013, 11:52 am
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One of the biggest child pornography prosecutions in history is sending a Buffalo man to prison.

Todd Stumpf, 61, of Fillmore Avenue, was sentenced to 20 years Tuesday for his role in an international “members only" online bulletin board called Dreamboard.

Stumpf, the second local man to go prison as part of the Louisiana-based prosecution, was one of 72 people indicted in 2011 and accused of taking part in a criminal network that promoted pedophilia and encouraged the sexual abuse of children.

Federal prosecutors said Dreamboard members used the bulletin board to trade graphic images and videos of adults violently molesting children 12 and younger.

Christopher Luke, 31, of the Town of Tonawanda, was convicted in late 2011 of taking part in the same online network. He also got 20 years in prison.
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Outburst in courtroom leads to arrest

June 13, 2013, 1:42 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – A man was charged after he allegedly uttered an obscenity at a judge and fought with an officer on Wednesday morning.

Paul Kasprzycki, 60, of Ferry Avenue was charged with third-degree assault at 10:18 a.m. in the Niagara Falls Public Safety Building.

Kasprzycki allegedly became angry following an arraignment in City Court and insulted Judge Diane L. Vitello with a derogatory slur. He was removed from the courtroom and led into a holding cell.

As prisoners were being removed from the courtroom he became aggressive in the elevator with other prisoners and an officer, grabbing the officer by the throat and then he was restrained, police said.

Kasprzycki was forcibly escorted into the city police department’s basement jail and was charged without further trouble.
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Driver faces a fifth drunken driving charge

June 13, 2013, 1:50 pm
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TOWN OF NIAGARA – A Cayuga Village man with four previous drunken driving convictions, two of them within the past three months, was stopped for a fifth time on Wednesday.

William P. Rew, 55, of West Creek Drive, was recognized by a Niagara County sheriff deputy who had pulled him over in 2012 for aggravated drunken driving and was known to be driving without a license. He was stopped just before 5 p.m. in the 9000 block of Anthony Drive in Cayuga Village and charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to keep right and felony driving while intoxicated for having two previous convictions within the past 10 years. He was arraigned and held in Niagara County Jail on $1,000 bail.

Rew appeared intoxicated, according to deputies and when asked for his license he said, “You know I got it taken away.” He admitted to having had two to three beers before he took the wheel and failed all field sobriety tests, deputies reported.

Rew was convicted on drunken driving charges in Niagara County on Jan. 25, 2005 and Aug. 27, 2010; and this past year on Mar. 20 and Apr. 11, according to sheriff reports.
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Stolen property found and man arrested

June 13, 2013, 1:53 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – Police responding to a harassment call found plastic totes full of electronics that had been reported stolen earlier Wednesday from a neighboring apartment in the 700 block of Eighth Street.

Steven H. Heylek, 31, of Eighth Street, was charged second-degree burglary, fifth-degree possession of stolen property, criminal mischief and petit larceny at 6:10 p.m. Wednesday in his apartment.

A woman said someone forcibly entered her son’s Eighth Street apartment while he was in jail, sometime between Monday and Wednesday and rummaged through the apartment taking stereo equipment, a DVD player, an MP3 player, jewelry and clothing. Loss was estimated at over $1,200.

Police found Heylek with bins full of electronics which he said his friend gave to him to sell.
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Mother and daughter injured in amherst car-tractor-trailer accident

June 13, 2013, 1:57 pm
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A woman and her young daughter were taken by ambulance from the crash of a passenger vehicle and a tractor-trailer rig on Sheridan Drive at Brompton Road about 2:30 p.m. today. Amherst police are continuing to investigate the incident involving injuries to a woman reportedly in her mid-30s and her daughter reportedly about 12 years old.
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Huntress wins $3 million judgment against Amherst

June 13, 2013, 2:07 pm
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Developer William L. Huntress has won a $3 million jury verdict against the Town of Amherst after a four-week trial in state court.

Huntress sued the Town Board after it voted in 2006 to rescind a previous approval for an office park at 2190 Wehrle Drive.

During the trial, his lawyers argued that the board’s about-face on the project was due to opposition from neighbors and then-Supervisor Satish B. Mohan.

“The jury recognized the naked political conduct of the Town Board,” said Matthew D. Miller, a lawyer for the Rupp, Baase, Pfalzgraf, Cunningham & Coppola firm who represented Huntress and his company, Acquest Development.

Acquest bought the land on Wehrle in 1998 without any knowledge of a 50-year moratorium on the parcel or the $5 million in federal funds the town had received to maintain it as wetlands.

Miller said the town never informed Huntress of the moratorium at the time of his purchase and waited years before alerting him to it. The town had actually lost the moratorium documents, according to Miller.

The town initially agreed to help Huntress seek a waiver of the moratorium but changed its mind in 2006 when the Town Board voted to withdraw that offer.

“They were 99.9 percent of the way to approval when that meeting took place,” Miller said of Acquest’s progress on the office park project.

A series of lawsuits followed in which Huntress accused the town of violating his property rights and his constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.

“They took my property rights away,” Huntress told The Buffalo News in 2006. “It’s like the town taking away the water and sewer lines to your house. But it’s just a matter of time. The town is either going to pay me for my investment, or I’m going to develop the whole thing.”

Town Attorney E. Thomas Jones said Amherst was “disappointed” in the verdict and plans to appeal. “We believe that when we have the court hear it, it will be reversed,” Jones said. “We don’t believe we’ll have to pay anything.”

The town had previously appealed other parts of the case, and the latest appeal will be added to those pending in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court. That process could drag on into next year, he said. “The issues are pretty fundamental, whether he has a property right to begin with,” Jones said.

Supervisor Barry A. Weinstein, who was not on the Town Board at the time of the dispute, said that “perhaps it’s a reflection of the way the previous Town Board did business in those days.”

Weinstein said he was not worried about the town having to pay the $3 million verdict because he was confident that it will win on appeal. Jones added that the town is “nowhere near” its borrowing limit of more than $300 million.

The verdict is the second legal victory for Huntress in recent months.

In March, a federal judge dismissed a seven-count criminal indictment against the developer because of prosecutorial interference with the grand jury that indicted him.

The indictment centers on Acquest’s development of a 97-acre parcel of land at 10880 Transit Road in Amherst.

Prosecutors contend that Huntress cleared the site in 2008 and, among others things, illegally filled in wetlands and removed trees.

Huntress has countered with his own lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and what his lawyers call its “overzealous” handling of Huntress’ case.

Multiple calls to Mohan’s Amherst residence were not returned.

email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com and cspecht@buffnews.com
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Beating victim placed on probation in revenge burglary

June 13, 2013, 2:17 pm
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LOCKPORT – A beating victim who broke into the home of his assailant’s father was sentenced to five years’ probation Thursday by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr.

Thomas J. Pembleton, 34, of Cedar Avenue, Niagara Falls, had pleaded guilty to attempted third-degree burglary in the Dec. 14 incident at the home of the father of Stefan Grabowski Jr., 23, on Niagara Street in the Falls, where windows were broken and natural gas lines were cut. Pembleton agreed to pay $2,200 in restitution, although Kloch said he doesn’t think Pembleton was “the prime actor” in the cutting of the gas lines.

“The house looked empty. I let my emotions get the better of me and I broke the man’s window,” said Pembleton, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was beaten by a group of men outside Club Ultra on Third Street in Niagara Falls March 24, 2012. Grabowski was the only one apprehended. He pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sent to a drug treatment facility pending sentencing.
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Two arrested in LeRoy drug raid

June 13, 2013, 2:26 pm
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LEROY – A Clay Street couple was arrested Thursday by the Genesee County Legal Drug Enforcement Task Force during a raid on their home at midday.

Jacqueline D. Cecere, 35, and Brandon Longhany, 33, were taken into custody after a search of their residence uncovered hypodermic instruments, methadone, a small quantity of cocaine, heroin and packaging used for controlled substances, officers said.

Both suspects were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree; criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument and criminal using drug paraphernalia in the second degree. Both were issued appearance tickets for LeRoy Town Court proceedings at 1 p.m. June 24.

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Dunkirk man arrested on a drug grand jury indictment warrant

June 13, 2013, 3:35 pm
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DUNKIRK – A 24-year-old Dunkirk man was taken to the Chautauqua County Jail after his arrest Tuesday night on a grand jury indictment linked to a three-month investigation of his allegedly drug dealing in the city.

Marcus J. McCall of Deer Street was taken into custody at his home about 8:20 p.m. Tuesday by Dunkirk police officers.

A grand jury that heard a case presented against him by the Southern Tier Regional Drug Task force last week voted an indictment charging him with multiple counts of criminal possession and sale of a controlled substance linked to his alleged sales of crack cocaine to Task Force undercover agents on numerous occasions in Dunkirk. The investigation of his alleged activities continues.

Anyone with information about drug activity is urged to contact the Dunkirk police at 363-0313 or the Regional Drug Task Force at 1-800-344-8702.
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Buffalo man pleads guilty to federal illegal document charge

June 13, 2013, 5:33 pm
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A 37-year-old Buffalo man pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara to criminal possession with intent to use or transfer unlawfully identification documents allegedly destined for use by illegal immigrants.

Jorge Garcia faces a prison term of up to 15 years and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced at 1 p.m. Sept. 19.

U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. said Garcia illegally sold nine sets of identification documents for $6,300 in cash in recent years to illegal immigrants locally. The documents consisted of Puerto Rican birth certificates, New York State birth certificates, Michigan birth certificates and U.S. Social Security cards. Garcia was charged after an investigation by Federal Homeland Security agents.
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Buffalo man arrested on federal marijuana trafficking charges

June 13, 2013, 5:38 pm
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A 44-year-old Buffalo man was arrested today on federal marijuana trafficking charges and is being held pending further court proceedings next week.

U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. said Keith Goss who allegedly used a Fillmore Avenue address as a dropoff point for shipments of marijuana from Tucson, Arizona, was charged with criminal conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

Federal Prosecutor Thomas S. Duszkiewicz who is handling the case said Goss was arrested based on the delivery of a 315 pound shipment of marijuana to his dropoff point Wednesday. That shipment is valued at more than $250,000 and Goss faces a minimum 10-year prison term and $10 million fine if convicted.

The investigation of Goss was headed by agents of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration working with Town of Tonawanda police and DEA agents in Arizona.

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