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Drug dealer, expecting release, gets 18 more months in prison

January 15, 2013, 4:55 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Lockport man described by a Niagara County Drug Task Force officer as “a heavy drug dealer” was sentenced to an additional 18 months in state prison Tuesday.

Kurtis R. Washington, 22, of Cottage Street, had pleaded guilty in November to fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance for selling cocaine Dec. 5, 2011, on Elmwood Avenue in Lockport.

The decision by County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III came as Washington was expecting to be released from a six-month state prison “shock incarceration” program next week on his previous conviction for attempted fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He had crack cocaine in Lockport Dec. 17, 2011.
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Niagara County pot grower criticizes law as he is jailed

January 15, 2013, 4:58 pm
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LOCKPORT – A man who grew marijuana outside his former home in Porter last summer said Tuesday that he disagrees with the laws against the practice.

“I think the laws need to be changed. Yes, I do,” Jeffery R. Thomas, 48, told Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III.

Thomas said he thinks there is substantial public support for altering marijuana laws.

“You don’t have any inclination to follow the laws,” Murphy said, and gave Thomas six months in jail for second-degree criminal possession of marijuana.

The county Drug Task Force raided the Youngstown-Lockport Road residence Aug. 15 and seized 12.57 pounds of marijuana.

“I realized I was taking a tremendous chance in doing what I was doing,” said Thomas, who moved to Webb Street in Lockport after his arrest.
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Reardon promoted to CEO of Niagara Cerebral Palsy

January 15, 2013, 8:20 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – Niagara Cerebral Palsy announced this week that John J.M. Reardon, its chief financial officer since 2001, has been promoted to executive director and chief executive officer, succeeding Joseph Mineo.

Also, Salvatore M. Passanese, biology professor at Niagara County Community College, was elected chairman of the organization’s board of directors. Passanese is chairman of the NCCC’s Science, Health and Mathematics Division.

Reardon, long a prominent figure in local health circles, was executive director of the Niagara County Speech, Hearing and Language Center for 21 years before joining Niagara Cerebral Palsy. In his new role, Reardon will be responsible for managing a 350-employee, 25-site non-profit agency.

He is a member of the county Board of Health and chairman of the Cambria Zoning Board of Appeals.
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DEC opens comment period on Covanta plan

January 15, 2013, 8:20 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced Tuesday that a 45-day public comment period will begin today regarding Covanta Niagara’s brownfield cleanup plan for 15 acres of land on which the company intends to construct a new rail station to accept garbage to be hauled in from New York City.

It’s part of a $30 million expansion of the garbage incinerator’s operations, for which it was handed a 15-year property tax break last week by the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency.

The rail transfer station is to be constructed on land off 47th Street that Covanta is buying from Praxair. The DEC says radioactive slag, underground storage tanks and various contaminated sediments are to be removed or paved over.

The site was developed a century ago by the metals division of Union Carbide Corp., and later became its Linde Division. Praxair is Linde’s corporate successor. The location includes a 13,700-square-foot abandoned building once used to service locomotives.

Information on the projects and how to submit written comments is available on the DEC website.

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Legislature OKs funding for emergency radio towers

January 15, 2013, 8:27 pm
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LOCKPORT – The Niagara County Legislature voted Tuesday to borrow $6.8 million to construct new emergency radio towers.

It’s part of a $10 million package that also includes new portable radios for every first responder in the county.

The county will erect new towers at Terry’s Corners Fire Company in Royalton, the City of Lockport composting plant, the county voting machine storage site in Newfane, and at North Tonawanda Fire Department headquarters, where a backup communications center will be installed in the basement.

Existing antennas will be renovated at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital and Upper Mountain Fire Company in Lewiston. The county hopes to complete all construction by the end of this year.
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Basil Volkswagen driving into Lockport

January 15, 2013, 7:36 pm
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A new Volkswagen dealership is rolling into the region.

Basil Volkswagen of Lockport plans to open this summer in the vacant former home of Basil Toyota on South Transit Road, said Michael Basil, the dealership principal. Basil Toyota previously moved into a refurbished location next door.

This will be the fourth Volkswagen dealership in Buffalo Niagara, but the only one in Niagara County.

“We’ve been chasing this thing well over a year,” Basil said. “There was some extreme competition for this [dealership].”

About $4 million will be poured into the former Toyota location, at 6179 South Transit Road, to create the Volkswagen dealership, Basil said. About half of the old facility will be torn down, and another 20 percent of the existing space will be gutted, as the facility is remodeled.

“We really, really like Volkswagen,” Basil said. “We like the reputation, we like the quality, we like the direction the company is going with their new products.”

Last year, Volkswagen’s U.S. sales increased 35 percent, and it more than doubled its 2009 volume. Germany-based Volkswagen Group has set ambitious goals, such as selling 1 million vehicles (counting both Volkswagen and Audi brand vehicles) in the U.S. by 2018, compared with about 577,000 last year. It also aims to be the leader in global sales by 2018; Volkswagen was No. 3 last year, behind Toyota and General Motors.

A Volkswagen spokesman could not be reached to comment Tuesday.

Buffalo Niagara’s three Volkswagen dealers sold 1,594 new units in 2012, up 20.5 percent from 2011, according to the Niagara Frontier Automobile Dealers Association. The three are: Northtown in Amherst, Schmitt’s in Bowmansville and Volkswagen of Orchard Park.

Basil Volkswagen projects sales of 500 new vehicles and 400 used vehicles in its first year of business. The dealership will start with about 25 employees and expects that number will grow to about 50 in five years.

The new dealership, which Basil hopes will debut in August, will add to the “automotive row” that has developed in Lockport. Basil said the town has proved to be a good place to do business. “It’s a very good community with great people, and they like to support the businesses that are in town.”

Basil in 2001 acquired the Toyota dealership in Lockport and continues to own it. He said he believes that dealership’s track record helped him prevail in the competition for the new Volkswagen dealership.

The Toyota and Volkswagen brands complement each other, he said, with Volkswagen promoting clean-burning diesel cars and Toyota emphasizing hybrid technology.

The new Volkswagen dealership will feature the automaker’s new “White Frame” design, which gives cars prominent spots at the front of the showroom. “Volkswagen is extremely exacting on how the dealerships are built and laid out,” Basil said.

email: mglynn@buffnews.com
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3 to receive awards at program in King’s memory

January 15, 2013, 11:07 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – W. Lee Whitaker, a member of the Niagara Falls Human Rights Commission and the NFC Corp., the city’s lending arm, will be given a civil rights achievement award at this year’s community celebration of the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., sponsored by the city school district.

The gathering starts at 6 p.m. Thursday in Niagara Falls High School, 4455 Porter Road.

Whitaker’s award is one of three that will be presented during the program honoring King, the civil rights leader slain April 4, 1968, by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tenn., where he had gone to lead a peaceful march in support of striking sanitation workers.

A Spirit of Dr. King Award will be presented to Joanne Lorenzo and the Magdalene Project, and a youth civil rights achievement award will be given to LaSharee Wallace, a Niagara Falls High School senior who was chosen from among nominees suggested by the school community.

Whitaker is a certified public housing manager, occupancy specialist and domestic violence prevention instructor. She has been a member of the Niagara Falls Chapter of The Links Inc. for several years, implementing numerous educational and cultural enrichment programs as chairwoman of the Links’ Youth Committee.

Lorenzo is the founder of the Magdalene Project, a faith-based outreach ministry serving people whose lives have been damaged by drugs, alcohol, domestic abuse or prostitution. The project includes street, children’s and prison ministries, as well as back-to-school and holiday help for those in need.

Wallace has volunteered at Community Missions and the Schoellkopf Nursing Home. She teaches Spanish to young students and organized a community event at the Doris W. Jones Family Resource Center in connection with the death of Zenobia Williams, 76, who was killed in December when she was struck by a hit-and-run vehicle on Niagara Falls Boulevard.

The Rev. Craig Pridgen – pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church and son of Buffalo Common Council member and Pastor Darius Pridgen – will be keynote speaker at Thursday’s program.

Music will be provided by the Niagara Falls Housing Authority Youth Choir under the direction of Diana M. Reeves, and by Reign, a popular musical guest. Ren Feagin, a graphic artist, will display photo collages with images of King.

The program, called “Building Friendships for Today and Tomorrow,” is free and open to the public. It is sponsored annually by the district and several co-sponsors.



email: rbaldwin@buffnews.com
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Niagara County plans renewed effort to share services

January 15, 2013, 11:07 pm
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LOCKPORT – Increased sharing of public works equipment and manpower will be the initial focus of a new shared services effort launched at a news conference before Tuesday’s Niagara County Legislature meeting.

Legislator John Syracuse, R-Newfane, will head a committee of legislators and town supervisors that will study the concept.

He said highway superintendents and business people will be consulted for ideas.

“Cost containment and cost cutting will be our touchstone,” Syracuse said.

The county and town highway departments already share each other’s paving equipment during the summer, and in the winter, towns handle snowplowing on 173 miles of county roads. The county plows only 110 miles of roads itself, said Michael F. Tracy, county deputy public works commissioner for highways.

Legislature Vice Chairman Clyde L. Burmaster, R-Ransomville, who just stepped down as Public Works Committee chairman, said he can’t envision a time in which the county would not plow any of its own roads.

“You’ve got to study it and see if it’s possible,” Burmaster said. “It’s a very complex subject.”

The county has had shared services committees before with limited results, but Legislator Paul B. Wojtaszek, R-North Tonawanda, said the difference this time is “necessity.”

He said the county has had success with shared services, such as taking over North Tonawanda’s police and fire dispatching.

“Change is hard,” said Wilson Supervisor Joseph M. Jastrzemski. “Six years ago in the Town of Wilson, we entered into shared services with the City of Niagara Falls in our assessor’s office … It saved the taxpayers of Wilson $400,000 so far.”

On another topic, resolutions asking the state to direct welfare recipients’ shelter allowances directly to landlords were referred to the Community Services Committee, whose next meeting has yet to be scheduled.

The resolutions were introduced by the Legislature’s Democratic majority at the request of Niagara Falls landlords who claim they are often stiffed on rent by welfare recipients.

Elizabeth White, a Niagara Falls attorney who assists welfare clients, spoke out against the proposals.

“The only remedy a tenant has if the conditions are substandard is to withhold the rent,” she said.

“If that is taken away from them, it’s going to take away their ability to advocate for themselves.”

Landlord Lou Rizzo of the Falls said, “Investors travel the world in search of properties where they can make a profit. … When they come here, within three to five years, they’re in bankruptcy. It’s what I call the ‘X Factor’: the quality of tenants.”

“When tenants do not pay their rents,” said I. Kenneth Hamilton of the Falls, “landlords can’t make improvements. If you can’t make improvements, your properties go down. If your properties go down, your tax base goes down.”

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Newfane burglar sent to drug treatment facility

January 16, 2013, 4:13 am
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LOCKPORT – Drug-addicted Newfane burglar Sasha N. Botting was ordered into an inpatient drug treatment facility by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. Tuesday, after she failed a drug test conducted in the court’s restroom.

“I cannot let you slide downhill. You’re worth fighting for. I’m going to fight for you,” Kloch told Botting, 23, of Hatter Road. “It would hurt me if I read in the paper you were dead from drugs.”

He ordered Botting taken to jail to await a bed at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital’s Clearview Treatment Services in Lewiston, where she will undergo a 28-day rehabilitation program. Botting, who is on interim probation for now, will return to court Feb. 26.

She and boyfriend Travis J. Watts, 28, burglarized a neighbor’s home Aug. 2. Each pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary. Watts was admitted to the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment in December.
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Man killed in Lewiston crash

January 16, 2013, 7:17 am
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TUSCARORA RESERVATION – A 35-year-old Lewiston man was killed just before 6 a.m. today when his 1997 Ford four-door sedan went off the road and hit two trees in a front yard at a home on Mount Hope Road.

The man who has not been identified pending notification of family. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Coroner Kenneth Lederhouse.

According to Lewiston Police, speed was a factor in the crash, but alcohol has not been ruled out and still remains under investigation.

Investigators from Lewiston and the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department determined that the driver was traveling at a high rate of speed when he left Mount Hope Road near Green Road, veered across Mount Hope then went off of the road, hitting a tree and then a second tree in the yard.



email: nfischer@buffnews.com
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MLK events slated throughout the city

January 16, 2013, 9:25 am
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The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday will be marked by a variety of observances throughout Western New York over the next few days, including an annual celebration in Kleinhans Music Hall hosted by the Concerned Citizens Following the Dream committee.

“Fulfilling the Dream Moving FORWARD” will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday in Kleinhans. Gospel music, speakers and performing artists will be featured, including dancers from the African-American Cultural Center, the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and the Hutchinson-Central Technical High School Band, said committee Chairwoman Bessie Patterson.

Award recipients at the event include: Theodore Kirkland, community activist; Maria Rivera, Hispanic community service; Lana Benatovich, community leadership; the Rev. William A. Bunton, interfaith; Bishop Michael A. Badger, interfaith; Christine Demetria Wing, education; Mary H. Gresham, education; and Carl Scanlon and Candice Titus-Fuller, community service.

Also, 17 local high school students will be presented certificates encouraging them to pursue higher education. They are Checolathiwot Teraga, Nataija Lewis, Adra Tigg, Carlos Siragusa, Jasheka Carson, Le’Andrea Beecher, Brandi Kriegeaum, Mark Oliver, Diamond Hayes and Quamaine Austin, all from McKinley High School; Winnie Prude of Emerson High School; Rita Prude, of International Prep; Deja and Dzare Triplette and Leah Harris of Charter School for Applied Technologies; and Anyurisa Soto and Serena Rodriguez, both of Riverside High School.

The keynote speaker will be Da’Lonce Blackman, a senior at Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts.

Mayor Byron W. Brown and Buffalo School Superintendent Pamela Brown are scheduled to offer remarks.

Other MLK programs in the area include:

• “Better Health Care for All: The Third Annual Community Gathering to Celebrate the Life & Times of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” The program is hosted by the African-American Roswell Employee Network at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. It begins at noon Thursday in the Dr. David C. Hohn Lecture Hall at Carlton and Elm streets. The Rev. Kinzer Pointer, pastor of Agape Fellowship Baptist Church, will recite excerpts from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The Futures Academy School 37 Chorus and the Martin Luther King Multicultural Institute School 39 Drum Quartet will perform. Remarks will be given by Brian C. Springer, executive vice president at Roswell Park. Also, two Roswell Park employees will receive the “Capturing the Dream” recognition awards. Keynote addresses will be given by the Rev. James Lewis III, pastor of Miracle Missions Full Gospel Church and director of pastoral care at Erie County Medical Center. A reception will follow the celebration.

• The 35th annual celebration of King’s life at noon Thursday in the Central Library auditorium. Music, poetry and dance will be featured. Scheduled participants include Betty Jean Grant, majority leader of the Erie County Legislature; former Buffalo Common Council Member Clifford Bell; Eva Doyle, columnist, historian and retired Buffalo Public Schools teacher; Library Director Mary Jean Jakubowski; Ellen E. Grant, Buffalo deputy mayor; storytellers Sharon Holley and Yvonne Harris; members of the Colored Musicians Club; and dancer Aminata Mitchell.

• A ceremony hosted by the Veterans Administration Western New York Healthcare System at noon Friday in Freedom Hall at the hospital, 3495 Bailey Ave. The Rev. Benita Keith of Greater Refuge Temple of Christ will provide the keynote address. Violinist Jalilyah Linton and singer Jacob Fabry will perform.

• “Seize the Opportunity: Strategies for Small Business Start-Ups” from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Diefendorf Hall, University at Buffalo South Campus on Main Street. Hosted by Alpha Kappa Apha Sorority, Gamma Phi Omega and Gamma Iota chapters, the seminar will feature information on turning hobbies, talents and interests into small-business opportunities.

Each event is free and open to the public.



email: dswilliams@buffnews.com
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Falls man gets 22-month sentence for lying in drug case

January 16, 2013, 5:31 pm
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A Niagara Falls man whose false testimony caused dismissal of a drug case in federal court has been sentenced to 22 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara, U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. reported Wednesday. The charge carried a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

Maurice M. Ubiles, 26, was convicted of obstructing justice. Prosecutors said that he gave false information to narcotics officers about a controlled drug purchase he allegedly made from a suspected dealer. The suspected dealer was arrested and charged in federal court, but charges were dropped after it was learned that Ubiles had lied about the purchase. Police records show that Ubiles had been arrested on drug charges three times since 2009.
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Man avoids prison in copper caper

January 16, 2013, 5:59 pm
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LOCKPORT – A North Tonawanda man, already on probation for a burglary in Amherst, was placed on five years’ probation Wednesday by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas for the theft of copper from a vacant store in Lockport.

Thomas G. Seeger III, 34, of Klaum Avenue, had pleaded guilty to attempted third-degree burglary for the Sept. 22, 2011, theft of an electrical box containing copper plates from a store in the Office Max Plaza on South Transit Road. He also attempted to cut out copper pipes there.

Seeger was ordered to pay $2,500 restitution to Gator Management, owners of the plaza.
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Falls man admits to theft from Lockport B&B

January 16, 2013, 6:01 pm
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LOCKPORT – A man who stole property from a Town of Lockport home where a bed-and-breakfast was to open last year pleaded guilty Wednesday before Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas, who scheduled sentencing for March 20.

Alexander S. Wisby, 23 of Spruce Avenue, Niagara Falls, admitted to a reduced charge of attempted third-degree grand larceny, and agreed to pay $3,742 in restitution for the June 20 theft from a Lake Avenue home.

Assistant District Attorney Theresa L. Prezioso said the stolen items included a TV, stereo and home theater systems and a computer game unit. The house on Lake Avenue, owned by Colleen Graff, was approved in February 2012 as the town’s first bed-and-breakfast.
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Man sentenced to time served in jail fight

January 16, 2013, 6:03 pm
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LOCKPORT – Jason W. Lewis, who assaulted a fellow Niagara County Jail inmate in 2011, was sentenced to time served Wednesday in Niagara County Court.

Defense Attorney E. Earl Key said Lewis, 39, of Isherwood Drive, Town of Niagara, already had served 15 months on the charge, which was the minimum state prison sentence County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III could have imposed.

Lewis pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree assault for punching another inmate Aug. 10, 2011.

“I know you thought you had provocation, but you shouldn’t have done what you did,” Murphy told Lewis.
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West Seneca man indicted on predatory sex charges

January 16, 2013, 6:06 pm
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LOCKPORT – A West Seneca man faces a potential sentence of life in prison if convicted as charged in a sex crime indictment unsealed Wednesday in Niagara County Court.

Justin C. Wheeler, 20, of Westminster Road, pleaded not guilty to predatory sexual assault against a child, first-degree rape, second-degree sexual abuse and second-degree kidnapping as a sexually motivated felony.

Wheeler is accused of communicating with a 12-year-old girl, picking her up in North Tonawanda Nov. 18 and driving her around the area that day. At some point in their travels, the two allegedly had sex, according to Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth R. Donatello, who said the first-degree rape charge stemmed from the ages of Wheeler and the girl, not from a forcible act.

County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas set bail for Wheeler at $10,000.
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State funding to localities lags behind inflation rate

January 16, 2013, 7:01 pm
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ALBANY – New York State’s payments to localities – much of it for mandated health, welfare and other services – has grown by less than half the inflation rate during the last decade, the state’s chief fiscal watchdog said Wednesday.

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said the slow pace of state, as well as federal, funding to localities has forced them to rely more heavily on local sales taxes and higher property taxes to bring in revenues.

The report comes as a growing number of local governments are facing mounting fiscal pressures.

The comptroller said state payments to local governments grew by $412 million from 2001 to 2011, which is about 1.2 percent annually or less than half the 2.4 percent rate of inflation.

Most of the growth in revenues went primarily to cities through the Aid and Incentives for Municipalities program. He noted, though, that the AIM program has seen reduced or flat funding since 2009, with projections to remain flat through 2016.

But revenues that localities have raised through property taxes during the 10-year period have risen by 4.2 percent on an average annual basis, and sales taxes have grown 5.9 percent annually.

When state and federal aid is included, the growth in payments has increased by an average of 2.2 percent annually, still below the inflation rate.

The federal number is skewed, DiNapoli said, by the one-shot, temporary bailout in the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

“Federal and state aid have slowed at a time of rising local costs,” DiNapoli warned. “What’s more troublesome, however, is that New York’s municipalities and school districts have been forced to rely largely on sales taxes and property taxes to make ends meet.

These revenue sources can swing widely, depending on the economy. When this model breaks down, it causes financial shortfalls and hits the pockets of local taxpayers.”

The comptroller said that 65 percent of state payments to localities are for reimbursements for payments the local governments have made or services for an assortment of social and health care services.

DiNapoli’s office has created a “fiscal monitoring system” to make public the financial pressures for every local unit of government across the state.

The comptroller’s fiscal warnings about state and federal aid levels for localities should be a wake-up call for counties, school districts and municipalities to include long-term fiscal planning as part of their annual budget process, said E.J. McMahon, senior fellow at the Empire Center for New York State Policy.

The group issued its own report Wednesday, noting that most localities in the state do not craft their annual fiscal plans looking more than a year ahead, and said long-term revenue and spending forecasts should be embraced now more than ever.

The group called for localities to plan their spending and revenue estimates for four years into the future, and said there are plenty of sources, including guidelines by the State Comptroller’s Office, to help with the forecasting.

The report found that only five of the state’s largest local governments issue budgets with forecasts for future revenues and spending more than a year into the future.

One of those exceptions is the City of Buffalo, which began four-year planning in 2003 when its finances were overseen by a state-appointed control board.

“While Buffalo is by no means free of fiscal pressures, it is in far better shape than it was earlier in the decade. And in contrast to other fiscally troubled cities, Buffalo has clearly defined future challenges in dollars-and-cents terms,” the conservative think tank said in its report.

The New York State Association of Counties said DiNapoli’s warnings of state and local aid to localities comes as the state also has been increasing the number of mandates that it imposes on counties for various services.

“In nearly every major category of spending, counties are receiving less reimbursement than they did five years ago, while costs and caseloads have risen. New York’s county governments cannot continue to carry the state’s obligations at the local government level,” said Stephen J. Acquario, executive director of the association.

The group used the DiNapoli report to urge Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers to enact meaningful mandate relief in 2013 to help localities deal with slowing state and federal aid payments and the state’s new property tax cap.



email: tprecious@buffnews.com
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A number of burglaries and robberies are being investigated in Niagara County

January 16, 2013, 7:09 pm
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Police are investigating a number of unrelated burglaries and robberies in Niagara County – most of them in Niagara Falls, including an armed robbery Wednesday at a 7-Eleven.

A 7-Eleven in the 1500 block of Pine Avenue was hit by an armed robber at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The clerk told police that a man wearing all black clothing, black gloves and a black bandana covering his face threatened the clerk with a small knife. The robber made off with $45, all in dollar bills.

In another case, in the 1100 block of Pierce Avenue in the Falls, a 39-year-old man said that just before 11 p.m. Tuesday, two men jumped him, punched him several times and took $290 from his pocket.

The victim, who was described as intoxicated, had minor scratches and was unable to identify the men, Niagara Falls police reported.

Also in the Falls, at 9 p.m. Monday in the 2000 block of 18th Street, a 27-year-old woman said she was robbed by two women after she left an 18th Street store. The victim, who reported the crime to police on Tuesday, said the two women pushed her and punched her, and fled after taking her bookbag, which contained the narcotic Suboxone, an unknown amount of cash, her driver’s license, Social Security card and other personal papers.

Several burglaries also were reported this week. Among them:

• A 48-year-old 70th Street man told Niagara Falls police Tuesday that a book of First Niagara Bank checks was taken from his house and $600 was withdrawn from his account.

• A Niagara Falls visitor told police that her backpack was stolen Tuesday morning after she accidentally left it behind on the sidewalk while loading items into a taxi. She said she was on the Main Street side of the Comfort Inn when she boarded the taxi to leave for the airport. She said she called police to check the location, but that the backpack was no longer there. The black Kenneth Cole backpack contained a Macbook, Macbook Pro, checkbook and memory stick.

• In the 700 block of 20th Street in Niagara Falls, a woman told police Tuesday night that she allowed a male friend to stay overnight at her residence and she left him alone for several hours. When she returned, her 52-inch television, a laptop and a coffee maker were gone.

• In Gasport, the owner of the Canalside Inn, 4331 Main St., told Niagara County sheriff’s deputies Tuesday that sometime tried to break into the building over the weekend.

• In Wheatfield, a 79-year-old Brookhaven Drive woman told deputies on Wednesday that she was notified by Key Bank that her debit card was used unlawfully in India, with two transactions of $1,065 and $600.



email: nfischer@buffnews.com
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Third man pleads guilty in shooting of Falls man

January 16, 2013, 7:26 pm
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LOCKPORT – Jacob J. Taggart pleaded guilty Wednesday in connection with the April 25 shooting of an 18-year-old man on a Niagara Falls street corner.

It was the third guilty plea in the shooting of Anthony McDougald, but the answer to the question of who actually shot him, leaving the victim with a bullet lodged near his heart, remains as obscure as ever.

Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said, “I believe Mr. Taggart was the shooter.” She said an eyewitness gave a statement that included a description of the gunman that closely matched Taggart.

But Taggart’s attorney, Frank L. LoTempio, disagreed. “I’ve talked to the eyewitness. The witness described a Hispanic male.”

LoTempio said he thought the description came closest to matching Marlyn M. Rubin, 20, of Niagara Street in the Falls. Rubin pleaded guilty last Thursday, saying that he didn’t see the shots but that he had seen Taggart with a gun in a car he drove to the crime scene at 12th and Niagara streets.

And on Jan. 3, a third defendant, Paul E. Buck Jr., 21, of Niagara Falls Boulevard, pleaded guilty, saying he shot McDougald himself.

“I think Mr. Buck was making an attempt to take the fall for everyone else,” Hoffmann said.

Taggart, 23, of Niagara Avenue, admitted to a reduced charge of attempted second-degree gang assault. Like the others, who pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, he faces a maximum of seven years in prison when he is sentenced March 21.

All three were charged under the accomplice liability law, meaning it doesn’t matter who pulled the trigger if all were out to harm McDougald.

Rubin said he and Buck wanted to have a fistfight with McDougald, and Taggart said Wednesday that he drove them to 12th and Niagara for that purpose.

Like the others, Taggart faced a maximum 25-year prison sentence if convicted at trial. “It was too much of a gamble for him,” LoTempio said of why his client took the plea offer.

Unlike the others, Taggart faces mandatory state prison time, because he has a previous felony conviction for drug possession.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Lockport drops plans for police to perform evictions

January 16, 2013, 7:31 pm
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LOCKPORT – The city has given up on plans to have the Police Department begin carrying out evictions, but the city attorney insisted Wednesday that the decision was financial, not legal.

“It wasn’t the moneymaker it appeared to be,” Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano said, adding that he still disagrees with the contention by the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office that the city’s move violated state law.

He said the city wouldn’t be making any money on evictions once the cost of personnel, training and clerical time was calculated.

Police Chief Lawrence M. Eggert suggested evictions as a way of bolstering the city’s budget. Landlords are charged $105 per evicted person, plus mileage, when the Civil Division of the Sheriff’s Office kicks out deadbeat tenants.

The city intended to charge the same and hoped to match the Sheriff’s Office proceeds. In 2012, deputies evicted 126 people in Lockport and collected $16,584 from landlords.

“Administratively, it’s a lot more work” than was thought, Ottaviano said. “In the long run, with the $13,000 or $16,000, we’d probably break even.”

Two weeks ago, Mayor Michael W. Tucker appointed Eggert to an additional position – the long-vacant job of city marshal – to give the chief and any officers he chose the authority to perform evictions.

The Sheriff’s Office struck back, with Chief Deputy Thomas C. Beatty stating that advice from attorneys for the State Sheriffs Association was that if a city had no city marshal to carry out evictions as of June 30, 1988 – and Lockport didn’t – it was prohibited from filling the post thereafter.

Ottaviano said the City Charter predated the 1988 state law and included the city marshal position. But the sheriff’s views on the issue had an impact on his recommendation to Tucker to cancel Eggert’s appointment as marshal, which the mayor did Wednesday.

“The public debate as to the city’s authority in the press didn’t help. The first time an eviction order was served, the tenant, if they read the local news, would challenge it,” Ottaviano said.

Such challenges were predicted by Beatty in a Buffalo News article Jan. 6.

Sheriff James C. Voutour said the city hadn’t informed him of its decision before a reporter told him of it. Voutour said, “We will continue to serve the citizens of the City of Lockport as we always have.”

His department handles all evictions in the county outside Niagara Falls, which has a city marshal.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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