An suspected crack cocaine dealer in the Niagara Falls was arrested on charges of third-degree and fourth-degree criminal possession of controlled substance after a traffic stop, city police said.
Antoine D. Hudson, 32, of Hyde Park Boulevard, was pulled over Jan. 10 in the 400 block of Fifth Street and charged with not wearing a seat belt and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Additional charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance had been pending after Hudson was found with a clear baggie containing three grams of suspected crack cocaine, according to narcotics investigators.
• A North Tonawanda man who pleaded guilty to two felonies in a domestic violence case was placed on five years’ probation by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas. Aaron C. Swierszcz, 39, of Miller Street, had admitted to attempted second-degree assault and first-degree criminal contempt of court. He was charged with assaulting a woman four times between July 7 and Dec. 27, choking her on the last occasion, all in violation of a restraining order.Alexander T. Carncross, an Iraq War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was assigned to Buffalo Veterans Treatment Court in the wake of a guilty plea to first-degree reckless endangerment.
“We invented our own diversion program for you,” Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas told Carncross, 24, of Shenk Road, Sanborn.
If he succeeds in veterans court, Carncross’ charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor, Farkas said, and he will be placed on probation. But if he fails, he faces up to seven years in prison.
On July 2 in his former home on Porter Road in the Town of Niagara, a friend took a loaded handgun away from the intoxicated Carncross, who wrestled with the man to try to get the gun back.A Lockport woman said she was arguing with her boyfriend about not going to the dentist, and the argument escalated when she made an appointment for him.
Brian L. Shellman, 39, of Allen Street was charged by Lockport police with fourth-degree criminal mischief and attempted third-degree assault at 11:15 a.m. in the couple’s Allen Street home.
The woman said Shellman struck her in the left side of the face as she came into the room and slapped her daughter’s phone out of her hand, then broke it, as she attempted to call 911. The victim said she would drive herself to the hospital for medical treatment, police said.
The woman said she also had a valid, limited order of protection, and Shellman was charged with second-degree criminal contempt for violating the order.
• Justin G. Kopp, 30, of Mill Street, Lockport, will spend weekends in Niagara County Jail for the next four months, County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas ordered. Kopp, who pleaded guilty to felony driving while intoxicated, also will serve five years on probation and pay fines and fees totaling $3,020. Kopp’s blood alcohol content was measured at 0.23 percent following his arrest June 9 in the City of Lockport.
• A Centre Court woman told police that someone stole the front bumper off her car overnight. The woman’s 2004 Chrysler was parked in front of her apartment in Niagara Falls when the bumper, including the fog lights, was removed and stolen. The theft occurred sometime between midnight and 2 a.m. and resulted in an estimated $300 loss.
• Ignoring noises in the night, a South Avenue woman awoke to find that someone had entered her home and stolen her snow blower, Niagara Falls police said. The victim told police she heard noises around 4 a.m. but dismissed it as neighborhood animals knocking over garbage cans. When she checked around 3 p.m., she discovered her snow blower missing from a rear hall area. Someone had removed a doorknob to gain entry to the area, police said. The blower was valued at $200.
• A 24th Street woman told Niagara Falls police that a visitor to her home stole about $1,200 worth of valuables after she left briefly to go to the store. The victim told police that the woman came to her home around 11 p.m. Thursday, and that the victim left briefly a couple hours later to visit the store. Upon returning, she found the visitor gone, along with her tablet computer, a cellphone and a diamond bracelet. Also missing was the victim’s food stamp card.
• A North Tonawanda woman, arrested on cocaine possession charges Aug. 31 in Niagara Falls, pleaded not guilty to an indictment in Niagara County Court. Cindy L. Ventresca, 41, of Wallace Avenue, is charged with third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said 0.16 ounces of powder cocaine was found when she was searched after the vehicle in which she was a passenger was stopped in Niagara Falls.• Electronics were stolen in a weekend burglary at a home in the 700 block of Fourth Street while the owner was on vacation.
The victim said that while she and her husband were gone for four days, someone was able to enter a room off the garage and take a 36-inch flat screen television, DVDs and a surround sound stereo system.
Niagara Falls police reported that a rear gate on the property, which backs up to an alley, had been left open. An alarm activation was recorded by police on Friday. Video surveillance in the area is also being checked, police said.
• A friend of a Haeberle Avenue woman’s adult son, known to be a drug abuser, walked into a her home and snatched her purse from her hands, Niagara Falls police said. The man entered the home around 5:30 p.m., police said, and confronted the 63-year-old victim. He fled with her purse, which contained $240 in cash, a bank card and a benefits card.• Guests at a Niagara Falls Boulevard motel destroyed a microwave oven, refrigerator, lamp, telephone and dresser during a night of mischief, police said . An employee of the motel told Niagara Falls police that an 18-year-old city woman checked into a room at 9 p.m. Saturday and that several other people joined her a short time later. The group was asked to quiet down at least twice during the night and was finally asked to leave at 9 a.m. due to their disorderliness, police said. At that point, four people confronted the female employee in the motel office, with one woman swinging a chair and striking the employee in the knee. All four had left by the time police arrived and discovered the damage inside their room. Officers estimated at least $700 damage was done to the furnishings.
• On one of the coldest nights of the year, a Lockport man lost not only his money, but also his winter hat and gloves, Niagara Falls police said. The 23-year-old victim told police he had parked his car in the side lot of a Third Street nightclub around 9:30 p.m. and, upon returning to it several hours later, found that someone had shattered the driver’s side window and stolen his belongings, including $40 in cash. He estimated his total loss at about $300.
• A Lockport woman was charged with drug possession and stealing her mother’s pickup, Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said.
Jacqueline P. Barrett, 27, of Lake Avenue, is accused of taking the vehicle without permission late Monday. Deputies said they found Barrett with the truck at 1 a.m. Tuesday on Washburn Street in the City of Lockport. They also found two glass tubes with wire mesh that contained residue of crack cocaine, according to a sheriff’s report.
Barrett was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, operating an unregistered and uninspected motor vehicle on the highway, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. The young woman told deputies she took the pickup to buy crack cocaine at the home of a local drug dealer, deputies reported.
Her mother told deputies that Barrett tried to leave the house with a bag containing her camera, jewelry and a thumb drive, but she was able to grab the bag away from her before she left. The mother also told deputies her daughter has stolen from her in the past.
• A Lockport man, who had sex with a 14-year-old girl before stashing her in a closet as police looked for her, pleaded guilty in Niagara County Court.
County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III set sentencing April 23 for Jarad R. Matsulavage, 19, of Robinson Road, who pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual act. The maximum sentence is seven years in prison plus 10 years of post-release supervision.
Police, who had received a tip, searched Matsulavage’s apartment for about an hour before finding the girl about 4:30 a.m. Oct. 11. The girl had not been forced into the closet, prosecutors said, and the charges against Matsulavage stemmed solely from her age.
• A man whose vehicle snapped off a utility pole and rolled over, injuring a female passenger, was arraigned in Niagara County Court.
Daniel W. Lounsbury, 53, of Portage Road, Niagara Falls, pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, driving while his ability was impaired by drugs and by a combination of alcohol and drugs, misdemeanor driving while intoxicated, speeding, failure to keep right and reckless driving.
Deputy District Attorney Theodore A. Brenner said the crash occurred Oct. 11 in the 700 block of 15th Street. Lounsbury’s blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.12 percent, and he also had allegedly been using marijuana.A driver stopped for a traffic infraction said he didn’t have a license, but Lockport police said both he and his passenger were carrying marijuana.
Driver Joseph A. Smith, 23, of South Street was stopped just before 7 p.m. on Gooding Street for failure to signal a turn, and after he told police he only had a learner’s permit, he was additionally charged for operating a motor vehicle without a license.
Police said there was a strong odor of marijuana in the car, and both Smith and his passenger, Allan A. Scott, 33, of Locust Street were found to be carrying plastic baggies of marijuana in their pants. Each were charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.
• Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said they found it suspicious when a car pulled out of a Military Road dealership at 3:30 a.m., so they stopped and questioned the driver.
The driver, Kenneth R. Hamilton, 51, of Kline Road, who was accompanied by his son, was found to be carrying large bolt cutters, a screwdriver, work gloves, black hats and ski masks.
Hamilton, who has a lengthy arrest record, according to deputies, told them he was at the dealership with his son to look at cars.
Hamilton was charged with driving without a license and was additionally charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance after deputies said they found a crack pipe in the vehicle which contained a suspected cocaine.
Antoine D. Hudson, 32, of Hyde Park Boulevard, was pulled over Jan. 10 in the 400 block of Fifth Street and charged with not wearing a seat belt and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Additional charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance had been pending after Hudson was found with a clear baggie containing three grams of suspected crack cocaine, according to narcotics investigators.
• A North Tonawanda man who pleaded guilty to two felonies in a domestic violence case was placed on five years’ probation by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas. Aaron C. Swierszcz, 39, of Miller Street, had admitted to attempted second-degree assault and first-degree criminal contempt of court. He was charged with assaulting a woman four times between July 7 and Dec. 27, choking her on the last occasion, all in violation of a restraining order.Alexander T. Carncross, an Iraq War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was assigned to Buffalo Veterans Treatment Court in the wake of a guilty plea to first-degree reckless endangerment.
“We invented our own diversion program for you,” Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas told Carncross, 24, of Shenk Road, Sanborn.
If he succeeds in veterans court, Carncross’ charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor, Farkas said, and he will be placed on probation. But if he fails, he faces up to seven years in prison.
On July 2 in his former home on Porter Road in the Town of Niagara, a friend took a loaded handgun away from the intoxicated Carncross, who wrestled with the man to try to get the gun back.A Lockport woman said she was arguing with her boyfriend about not going to the dentist, and the argument escalated when she made an appointment for him.
Brian L. Shellman, 39, of Allen Street was charged by Lockport police with fourth-degree criminal mischief and attempted third-degree assault at 11:15 a.m. in the couple’s Allen Street home.
The woman said Shellman struck her in the left side of the face as she came into the room and slapped her daughter’s phone out of her hand, then broke it, as she attempted to call 911. The victim said she would drive herself to the hospital for medical treatment, police said.
The woman said she also had a valid, limited order of protection, and Shellman was charged with second-degree criminal contempt for violating the order.
• Justin G. Kopp, 30, of Mill Street, Lockport, will spend weekends in Niagara County Jail for the next four months, County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas ordered. Kopp, who pleaded guilty to felony driving while intoxicated, also will serve five years on probation and pay fines and fees totaling $3,020. Kopp’s blood alcohol content was measured at 0.23 percent following his arrest June 9 in the City of Lockport.
• A Centre Court woman told police that someone stole the front bumper off her car overnight. The woman’s 2004 Chrysler was parked in front of her apartment in Niagara Falls when the bumper, including the fog lights, was removed and stolen. The theft occurred sometime between midnight and 2 a.m. and resulted in an estimated $300 loss.
• Ignoring noises in the night, a South Avenue woman awoke to find that someone had entered her home and stolen her snow blower, Niagara Falls police said. The victim told police she heard noises around 4 a.m. but dismissed it as neighborhood animals knocking over garbage cans. When she checked around 3 p.m., she discovered her snow blower missing from a rear hall area. Someone had removed a doorknob to gain entry to the area, police said. The blower was valued at $200.
• A 24th Street woman told Niagara Falls police that a visitor to her home stole about $1,200 worth of valuables after she left briefly to go to the store. The victim told police that the woman came to her home around 11 p.m. Thursday, and that the victim left briefly a couple hours later to visit the store. Upon returning, she found the visitor gone, along with her tablet computer, a cellphone and a diamond bracelet. Also missing was the victim’s food stamp card.
• A North Tonawanda woman, arrested on cocaine possession charges Aug. 31 in Niagara Falls, pleaded not guilty to an indictment in Niagara County Court. Cindy L. Ventresca, 41, of Wallace Avenue, is charged with third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said 0.16 ounces of powder cocaine was found when she was searched after the vehicle in which she was a passenger was stopped in Niagara Falls.• Electronics were stolen in a weekend burglary at a home in the 700 block of Fourth Street while the owner was on vacation.
The victim said that while she and her husband were gone for four days, someone was able to enter a room off the garage and take a 36-inch flat screen television, DVDs and a surround sound stereo system.
Niagara Falls police reported that a rear gate on the property, which backs up to an alley, had been left open. An alarm activation was recorded by police on Friday. Video surveillance in the area is also being checked, police said.
• A friend of a Haeberle Avenue woman’s adult son, known to be a drug abuser, walked into a her home and snatched her purse from her hands, Niagara Falls police said. The man entered the home around 5:30 p.m., police said, and confronted the 63-year-old victim. He fled with her purse, which contained $240 in cash, a bank card and a benefits card.• Guests at a Niagara Falls Boulevard motel destroyed a microwave oven, refrigerator, lamp, telephone and dresser during a night of mischief, police said . An employee of the motel told Niagara Falls police that an 18-year-old city woman checked into a room at 9 p.m. Saturday and that several other people joined her a short time later. The group was asked to quiet down at least twice during the night and was finally asked to leave at 9 a.m. due to their disorderliness, police said. At that point, four people confronted the female employee in the motel office, with one woman swinging a chair and striking the employee in the knee. All four had left by the time police arrived and discovered the damage inside their room. Officers estimated at least $700 damage was done to the furnishings.
• On one of the coldest nights of the year, a Lockport man lost not only his money, but also his winter hat and gloves, Niagara Falls police said. The 23-year-old victim told police he had parked his car in the side lot of a Third Street nightclub around 9:30 p.m. and, upon returning to it several hours later, found that someone had shattered the driver’s side window and stolen his belongings, including $40 in cash. He estimated his total loss at about $300.
• A Lockport woman was charged with drug possession and stealing her mother’s pickup, Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said.
Jacqueline P. Barrett, 27, of Lake Avenue, is accused of taking the vehicle without permission late Monday. Deputies said they found Barrett with the truck at 1 a.m. Tuesday on Washburn Street in the City of Lockport. They also found two glass tubes with wire mesh that contained residue of crack cocaine, according to a sheriff’s report.
Barrett was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, operating an unregistered and uninspected motor vehicle on the highway, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. The young woman told deputies she took the pickup to buy crack cocaine at the home of a local drug dealer, deputies reported.
Her mother told deputies that Barrett tried to leave the house with a bag containing her camera, jewelry and a thumb drive, but she was able to grab the bag away from her before she left. The mother also told deputies her daughter has stolen from her in the past.
• A Lockport man, who had sex with a 14-year-old girl before stashing her in a closet as police looked for her, pleaded guilty in Niagara County Court.
County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III set sentencing April 23 for Jarad R. Matsulavage, 19, of Robinson Road, who pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual act. The maximum sentence is seven years in prison plus 10 years of post-release supervision.
Police, who had received a tip, searched Matsulavage’s apartment for about an hour before finding the girl about 4:30 a.m. Oct. 11. The girl had not been forced into the closet, prosecutors said, and the charges against Matsulavage stemmed solely from her age.
• A man whose vehicle snapped off a utility pole and rolled over, injuring a female passenger, was arraigned in Niagara County Court.
Daniel W. Lounsbury, 53, of Portage Road, Niagara Falls, pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, driving while his ability was impaired by drugs and by a combination of alcohol and drugs, misdemeanor driving while intoxicated, speeding, failure to keep right and reckless driving.
Deputy District Attorney Theodore A. Brenner said the crash occurred Oct. 11 in the 700 block of 15th Street. Lounsbury’s blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.12 percent, and he also had allegedly been using marijuana.A driver stopped for a traffic infraction said he didn’t have a license, but Lockport police said both he and his passenger were carrying marijuana.
Driver Joseph A. Smith, 23, of South Street was stopped just before 7 p.m. on Gooding Street for failure to signal a turn, and after he told police he only had a learner’s permit, he was additionally charged for operating a motor vehicle without a license.
Police said there was a strong odor of marijuana in the car, and both Smith and his passenger, Allan A. Scott, 33, of Locust Street were found to be carrying plastic baggies of marijuana in their pants. Each were charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.
• Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said they found it suspicious when a car pulled out of a Military Road dealership at 3:30 a.m., so they stopped and questioned the driver.
The driver, Kenneth R. Hamilton, 51, of Kline Road, who was accompanied by his son, was found to be carrying large bolt cutters, a screwdriver, work gloves, black hats and ski masks.
Hamilton, who has a lengthy arrest record, according to deputies, told them he was at the dealership with his son to look at cars.
Hamilton was charged with driving without a license and was additionally charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance after deputies said they found a crack pipe in the vehicle which contained a suspected cocaine.