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Pediatrician blasts state flu shot rules

January 24, 2013, 6:55 pm
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LOCKPORT – The president of the Niagara County Board of Health blasted state policies on flu vaccine distribution during Thursday’s board meeting.

Dr. Jerome Ulatowski II of Lewiston, a pediatrician, said he has 1,000 doses of flu vaccine in his office that he can’t use because state rules restrict its use to children in low-income families.

The vaccine came through the Vaccine for Children program, but Ulatowski said that doesn’t seem to mean all children.

“The people who work, pay taxes, can’t get the vaccine they’re paying for,” Ulatowski said. “What will happen at the end of the flu season when I still have vaccine? … I can’t give it to people who are, unfortunately, employed.”

Ulatowski took a shot at Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who said he took action during the flu outbreak to remove all barriers to vaccine distribution.

“I tried to redistribute vaccine for children vaccines and was turned down,” the pediatrician said. “To me, that’s a barrier that was not pulled out.”

Public Health Director Daniel J. Stapleton said it’s not always easy to get vaccine to the poor, either. He said the state turned down the county’s suggestion to offer flu shots at a soup kitchen, even though Stapleton said the county has done things like that before.

“That’s a problem if we’re supposed to serve the most vulnerable,” Stapleton said. “We had to send [the vaccine] back.”

Ulatowski said, “It’s unfair distribution of resources in a city or a state. We’re restricting it based on income. It’s wrong.”

Kathleen Cavagnaro, county director of nursing services, said the county still has some flu shots left in the wake of a special clinic Thursday. She said some adult vaccine for those who have insurance or can pay on their own is still available, along with some Vaccine for Children shots.

Appointments may be made by calling 278-1903, Cavagnaro said.

Four children have died in New York State from the flu this winter, she said.

On another topic, Stapleton reported that the county successfully transferred all its home care patients to the Catholic Health System before the end-of-the-year deadline. “We met that deadline by one day,” he said.

The County Legislature voted last year to sell the county’s home health care license to Catholic Health for $2.65 million.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Probation violator sent to Niagara County Jail

January 24, 2013, 6:57 pm
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LOCKPORT – Probation on a 2007 drug possession charge was going well for Nicholas J. Koch of Lockport – until he lost his job last year.

Koch, 25, of Passaic Avenue, Lockport, started drinking and stopped going to probation, Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas said Thursday. That led to a probation violation and the one-year County Jail sentence Farkas imposed Thursday.

“Obviously, the [drug] treatment didn’t stick,” the judge said.
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Copper thief pleads guilty, headed for drug treatment

January 24, 2013, 6:59 pm
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LOCKPORT – William A. Robinson, 51, of Phelps Street, Lockport, admitted in Niagara County Court Thursday that he stole copper pipes from a house on Grand Street in Lockport and sold the metal to get money to buy drugs.

Robinson admitted to third-degree burglary and was assigned by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III to the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment.

If Robinson succeeds in the program, he will receive a misdemeanor and a probation sentence, but if not, he could spent as long as seven years in state prison.

The burglary occurred Nov. 26. Thirty pounds of copper was sold at Lock City Metals on West Avenue, Assistant District Attorney Claudette S. Caldwell said. Robinson was ordered to pay $1,100 in restitution to the homeowner.
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Woman sentenced for burlarizing dead neighbor’s house

January 24, 2013, 7:02 pm
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LOCKPORT – Kristen L. Wallace, who was caught in a deceased neighbor’s house Nov. 30 stealing crackers and a bottle of laundry detergent, was admitted to the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment Thursday after pleading guilty to third-degree burglary.

“You should consider this as your last chance,” Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III told Wallace, 31, of Bristol Avenue, Lockport. If she fails in treatment, she faces up to seven years in prison.

Wallace said she was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the burglary. “I intended to see what I could possibly take,” she said.

Assistant District Attorney Ryan K. Parisi said the resident of the home had just died, and her niece caught Wallace when she came to the home to find some clothes in which her aunt could be buried.
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Head of Housing Authority criticized by state comptroller

January 24, 2013, 8:50 pm
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The executive director of the Niagara Falls Housing Authority has come under sharp criticism in an audit by the office of State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli that was released Thursday.

Auditors said that director Stephanie W. Cowart received $6,400 in improper stipends and sold back more unused vacation time than her contract allowed. They also reported that a number of other payments to Cowart were not supported with documentation and failed to comply with terms of her contract.
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$75,000 in grants awarded to 11 nonprofit groups

January 24, 2013, 8:55 pm
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Grants totaling more than $75,000 were awarded to 11 nonprofit organizations last year by the Niagara Area Foundation, an affiliate of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

The grants, ranging up to $10,000, support the health, human services, arts, civic needs, community development, education and environmental needs of Niagara County.

Recipients of the latest grants in Niagara County are Kids Escaping Drugs; Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Niagara County; Cornell Cooperative Extension of Niagara County; Family & Children’s Services of Niagara; Literacy Volunteers of Western New York; St. James United Methodist Church Little Wonders Early Childhood Development Center; Niagara County Historical Society; Old Fort Niagara Association; People and Possibilities; Planned Parenthood of Western New York; and the Salvation Army of Lockport.
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Last phase of capital project ready to go out for bids

January 24, 2013, 8:58 pm
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The final phase of the $11.9 million capital project for the Tonawanda City School District is ready to go out for bidding. Officials hope to take advantage of the building season to complete a new Clint Small Stadium by fall.

Representatives from the Pike Co. and Wendel Architects gave the Tonawanda Board of Education an update on the project during its regular meeting this week. Peter Buckley of Pike reported lots of interest from contractors, and officials hope to approve a bid for construction by the end of February.

Construction would begin in the spring, with the majority of work being completed during the summer.

The capital project would revamp the Tonawanda High/Middle School athletic campus, centered around the new stadium, which would be located next to a district building for the first time. A revised parking lot and bus loop also are expected to be completed this summer, with a new wing for music classrooms in the secondary building to be finished in the first month of the 2013-14 school year.
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Molestation defendant still missing as alleged victim testifies

January 24, 2013, 9:14 pm
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LOCKPORT – As the search continued for runaway sex-crime defendant Paul S. Turley, one of his alleged victims offered graphic testimony Thursday about Turley repeatedly molesting her when she was between the ages of 5 and 7, and again when she was 12.

Turley, 47, whose last known address was on Lincoln Avenue in Dunkirk, was living in North Tonawanda when he allegedly molested two girls between 1996 and 1998.

Wednesday, Turley, who could face up to 39 years in prison if convicted on all charges, left the Niagara County Courthouse during the lunch break in the trial and did not reappear.

Thursday morning, Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth R. Donatello told County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas that Turley’s wife, Diane G. Turley, also could not be located. A call to her place of employment resulted in word that she was absent.

Donatello told Farkas that jails and hospitals in the region have been checked, with no sign of Turley.

Defense attorney D. Daniel Stevanovic told the judge that he tried to reach his client by phone Wednesday night and Thursday morning without success. He also tried to contact the defendant through Turley’s mother, who posted a $50,000 bail bond for her son after his arrest Jan. 4, 2012.

Donatello requested that Farkas order the bail forfeited, but the judge demurred. She told Stevanovic that she would give Turley’s mother 24 hours to get her son to court. “If she can produce him, she won’t lose her money,” Farkas said.

Meanwhile, the trial continued after Farkas and the attorneys spent an hour in the judge’s chambers, questioning the jurors individually about whether they had read or heard any media reports about Turley’s flight. The answer apparently was no, as the trial continued with no jurors missing. However, Farkas imposed a gag order on the attorneys.

On the witness stand, one of the alleged victims, now 21, talked about how Turley would get her alone and fondle her during visits to his home between 1996 and 1998. When Assistant District Attorney Cheryl L. Nichols asked her to describe her relationship with Turley, the woman replied, “I tried my best not to have one. … I wasn’t comfortable around him.”

She said the Turley family moved to Wisconsin in 1998, which ended the abuse, but the Turleys returned to North Tonawanda in 2002 and resumed a relationship with the victim’s family. That eventually led to a further fondling incident on Christmas Day 2003, the woman testified. She said she never reported the incidents until the other alleged victim decided to tell police in November 2011. “It was the right thing, and I wanted to support [her],” the woman testified.

The woman said she has nightmares about being chased through woods by a man who always turns out to be Turley.

“I get very emotional if someone sits next to me,” the woman said. “I get very uncomfortable if I’m alone with an older man I don’t know.”

The other victim’s stepsister testified Thursday that this victim confided in her about the abuse in July 2007 but that the stepsister didn’t report it.

“It was no longer occurring. I didn’t think it was my secret to tell,” the stepsister told the jury. She said she didn’t learn about the other case until November 2011.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Town of Lockport may try to seize GM land

January 24, 2013, 11:17 pm
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LOCKPORT – General Motors’ effort to impose restrictions on future use of 91 acres of land caused the Town of Lockport to seek to take the land through the use of eminent domain power, town officials said at a public hearing Thursday.

GM officials who attended the hearing said the restrictions are standard for the automaker’s real estate transactions and have not impeded development of former GM land in other states.

The town Industrial Development Agency must vote within 90 days if it intends to pull the trigger on the seizure of land to expand the town’s industrial park, IDA Chairman Thomas Sy said at the hearing.

Environmental concerns also have been a sticking point, Town Economic Development Director David R. Kinyon said.

He said the town is not trying to acquire one corner of GM’s vacant parcel, because “we know this is a spoils area.”

An affidavit from Marilyn Dedyne, program manager for remediation and brownfield development at GM, said the deed restrictions include a requirement that the town assume all responsibility for environmental management on the land.

The 201-acre industrial park is down to 56 acres available for sale, Kinyon said. Of those, six acres are set aside for McGuire Development Group’s planned business incubator, and 10 more acres are being sought by a prospective buyer he did not disclose.

Thus, the attempt to acquire 91 acres bordering the industrial park on the south, with 1,750 feet of frontage on Junction Road. The vacant land lies west of the GM Components plant.

Kinyon said GM approached the IDA in September 2010 about selling the land. Both sides said they reached an agreement on price, although they wouldn’t say what it would have been.

“We are fully prepared to sell the property, but we were never able to finalize that,” said John Blanchard, director of local government relations for GM.

“GM was unwilling to remove unacceptable covenants,” Kinyon said during the hearing.

The company’s deed would have restricted the town’s future use and resale of the land. “The only reason the IDA acquires land is to resell it,” Kinyon said.

Town Supervisor Marc R. Smith said, “We’ve had numerous inquiries, and we don’t have the land to offer them.”

Brody Smith, a Syracuse attorney representing GM, said that’s just not true. He handed in an affidavit from Robert Schell, president of Pyramid Brokerage Co. of Buffalo, attesting to the alleged lack of a market for industrial and commercial property in Lockport.

That lack, Brody Smith said, means a seizure of the property would not meet a public interest.

Kinyon, meanwhile, posted a slide listing 42 inquiries for land in the town in recent years.

Blanchard said the deed restrictions are negotiable.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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King, Dobbs seek re-election to Falls school board

January 24, 2013, 11:20 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – Two long-serving members of the School Board said Thursday that they will seek re-election when their present terms expire at the end of the current school year.

They are: Don J. King, the longest-serving board member, who is in his seventh five-year term; and Kevin Dobbs, who is in his 16th year as a board member.

The seats held by King and Dobbs are the only ones among the nine-member board to be filled in the May 21 elections. The terms of the other board members expire in staggered years.

King and Dobbs’ current terms will end June 30, and new terms will begin July 1. Board Clerk Ruthel D. Dumas said that nominating petitions for potential candidates will be available at the School District Administration Office, 630 66th St., late next month. Potential candidates will have about two months to collect the 100 signatures necessary to get their names on the election ballot for the unpaid positions.

King announced his candidacy in a statement in which he said his “passion, stamina, desire, balance and experience should be a positive factor in addressing the change processes that will be occurring in the education arena.”

During the next five years, King said, the board may select a new superintendent, continue to address social media concerns and complex teacher evaluations, and deal with challenging fiscal situations.

King, a retired retail business owner, is president of the King Art Gallery.

The contract of the superintendent, Cynthia A. Bianco, will expire at the end of the 2014-15 school year.

Dobbs made no formal announcement, but he told The Buffalo News that he will be a candidate for re-election.

Before serving on the board, Dobbs was chairman of the district’s Magnet School Advisory Committee for three years and was appointed by the state education commissioner to the state Parent Partnership Advisory Council. He is a member of the Niagara Ministerial Council and is pastor of Christ Redemption Tabernacle Church.

In 2001, he received the Civil Rights Achievement Award at the community’s annual celebration in memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He first was appointed to the board to fill a vacancy in an unexpired term, and then was elected to three consecutive full terms.

Dobbs is a graduate of the former Trott Vocational High School and is a retired process supervisor for Occidental Chemical Co.

In other business, the board agreed to allocate up to $11 million from its Greenway funds to the improvement of athletic fields, mainly through the installation of synthetic turf, and to the construction of a field house. Those projects are part of a bond issue for improvements or expansion of all of the district’s school buildings, but the athletic fields and field house are not eligible for financial reimbursement from the state government, so the district administration wants to use Greenway money for those purposes.



email: rbaldwin@buffnews.com
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For women, no more limit in war

January 25, 2013, 7:13 am
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Uncle Sam has, at last, officially acknowledged reality.

When Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Thursday lifted the ban on women serving in combat units, he was just affirming what already happens, many veterans and their families said.

“When I was in Iraq serving in mortuary affairs, as a woman, I would get into the Humvees and go in convoys to pick up remains from combat situations, and we came under fire every day,” said former Marine Jessica L. Goodell, of Bemus Point. “We are already in there, and maybe now officially we’ll be recognized.”

It has been impossible not to notice the increasing role that women play in America’s battles.

About 800 women have been wounded and 152 killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere over the last the decade by an enemy who shies away from front lines and finds cover mingling in the civilian populations. And two women have already earned the Silver Star, the third-highest medal for heroic action in combat.

“Every person in today’s military has made a solemn commitment to fight and, if necessary, to die for our nation’s defense,” Panetta said in announcing that the ban is being lifted. “We owe it to them to allow them to pursue every avenue of military service for which they are fully prepared and qualified.”

But don’t expect women to officially open fire on the enemy any time soon.

Military brass has until 2016 to make arguments on whether some combat unit positions, such as in Special Forces, should be off-limits to women.

The rigorous qualification process for combat roles, including infantry and armored units, will remain. Some women may not be able to cut it, Panetta acknowledged, “but everyone is entitled to a chance.”

That chance will likely lead to far more women in higher-ranked positions in the military, given that promotions to the very highest levels typically require combat experience.

“This decision finally opens the door for more qualified women to excel in our military and advance their careers, and obtain all of the benefits they have earned,” said Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., long one of the leading advocates of women in combat.

But not everyone is thrilled over the expanded role for women.

Air Force veteran Natalie M. Ficarra, a former Niagara County resident who served three tours of duty in the Persian Gulf region during the Iraq War, wonders whether women fighting side by side with men might complicate combat missions.

“Say, a woman is injured on the front lines and a male soldier may want to come to her rescue, which may compromise the mission. I believe men instinctively want to help women in danger,” Ficarra, who grew up in Wilson, said in recalling that she never let gender obstacles get in her way during her four years of service. “However, with proper training, those situations can be addressed appropriately.

“If a woman is physically and mentally capable of doing that job and doing it well, then she should not be prohibited from doing it based on her gender. Men will have to treat her as another human being, not according to her gender role.”

Goodell said the forces of human nature cut both ways across the sexes.

“A male soldier could be wounded and a women’s instinct would be to nurse and care for the wounded soldier,” she said.

Marlene L. Roll, a former director of military services for Erie County who helped launch what is believed to be the country’s first female-focused Veterans of Foreign Wars post – Dorothy Kubik/Katherine Galloway Post 12097 – said anyone who argues that society lacks the stomach for women paying the ultimate price in war needs to get acquainted with current affairs.

“My military thought is, men and women should serve equally, and I know that there’s a touchy-feely part of this that the populace gets very upset about women coming home in body bags. But they already are,” Roll said.

She said she wants to see a little more detail on the issue but is in favor of opening up more opportunities for women who want to serve in combat.

“My thought is women are already in combat. They are already there, because there is no more front line. They are going house-to-house and things like that,” Roll said.

“If they want to be a Navy SEAL or in Special Forces and can pass the test and training to make it, let them. If they can’t get through the course, they don’t belong there. “They need to be able to do what the guys do,” Roll added, “because they have to do certain things above and beyond the average soldier’s requirements. Opening it up to allow them to apply, why not?”

Jody Hackemer, a Army National Guard recruiter for the last 10 years and a former Marine, offered reasons for why not.

“Personally, I feel it is a distraction to the men who are in combat armed units. I am a recruiter, and I’ve never run into a female who has said she wants to be in a combat unit, but I guess there are some out there,” said Hackemer, whose brother Army Sgt. James T. Hackemer lost his legs in Iraq and then in July 2011 was thrown to his death from a Darien Lake roller coaster.

“I don’t understand why they are trying to change something that is not broken.”

Derby resident Tracy R. Kinn, a former Marine who suffered a broken back while preparing to deploy to the Persian Gulf War, is dead set against women in combat roles.

“My opinion is that females do not belong in combat. We belong in support roles to combat,” Kinn said.

“The way that America is, females are to be protected, not to be the protector. I personally feel that my male combat counterparts would be more concerned about my welfare than the mission.

“I think it is a very volatile situation if they open it up to women being infantrymen.”

Buffalo native Debbera M. Ransom, a Cold War veteran who served in Germany, said that while she does not object to women serving in combat, not every woman wants to be in direct combat.

“People assume that because women are serving in the military that we want to be a man,” Ransom said. “When I was in the military, I remember when I had my combat boots on and my fatigues on, and when my shift was over, I couldn’t wait to rush back to the barracks, take a shower and put on high heels.”

Men with strong local links to the military also weighed in on the change.

“We look at the way America has changed. We are moving in the right direction,” said Sergio R. Rodriguez, coordinator of the Office of Veterans and Military Affairs at Medaille College.

“Women are just as passionate and capable as their male counterparts. When I was in the Marines, I worked beside female Marines, and they were just as capable and prepared. I’m personally very proud to see the Pentagon has lifted the ban.”

Pendleton resident Phil Basinski, husband of National Guard Maj. Judy Izard, a pharmacist who served in Afghanistan, said his wife faced plenty of danger, even though technically she was not in a combat role – often traveling with convoys to remote Afghan villages to set up health clinics.

“My opinion is, if a person is qualified for it regardless of their age, gender or ethnic background, if they’re willing to go, well God bless them,” Basinski said.

When asked whether he would mind if his wife sought combat duty, he said, “If that’s what she wanted to do, I wouldn’t hold her back.”



Women in the military:

283,000 female service members have been deployed worldwide

800 have been wounded

152 have died in Iraq, Afghanistan, elsewhere

20,000 have served or are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan

2 have earned the Silver Star for valor

Source: Congressional Research Service;

numbers are from the last 10 years



News Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski contributed to this report. email: dswilliams@buffnews.com and lmichel@buffnews.com
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Short warm-up of weather on the way

January 25, 2013, 8:06 am
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It might not have felt like it this morning when the mercury dropped to a meager 1 degree – but it’s going to start warming up today.

The 1 degree mark recorded this morning marked the coldest temperature of the month so far, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Kelly.

Throughout the day, the temperatures will climb to about 20 degrees. The Buffalo area may get up to an inch of snow in the afternoon and likely another inch over night.

Over the weekend, it will get up into the mid-20s. Monday may start with a little bit of snow, but that will turn into rain as the temperatures rise up into about 40, Kelly said.

“Tuesday might actually be low to mid-50s,” Kelly said. There may be some rain Tuesday as well.

But that will likely be the end of the warm speel as temperatures start dropping again on Wednesday when the rain will turn over to snow.



email: mbecker@buffnews.com
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Case of runaway sex suspect headed for jury

January 25, 2013, 8:30 am
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LOCKPORT – A Niagara County Court jury will deliberate Monday on the fate of runaway sex crime defendant Paul S. Turley.

Testimony wrapped up Friday afternoon in the case of Turley, 47, of Lincoln Avenue, Dunkirk, who is accused of molesting two girls in North Tonawanda between August 1996 and June 1998, when they were between 5 and 7 years old. One of the girls allegedly was molested one more time, on Christmas Day 2003.

Earlier Friday Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas ordered the forfeiture of the $50,000 bail bond posted by Turley’s mother about a week after her son’s arrest Jan. 4, 2012.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth R. Donatello said Turley’s mother was asked to cooperate in the search for Turley and his wife, Diane.

Turley left the County Courthouse in Lockport at Wednesday’s lunch break in his trial on charges of molesting two girls, then ages 5 to 7, in North Tonawanda from 1996 to 1998.

Donatello said the mother “would not help. She would not assist. It appears his mother has no fear of forfeiture.”

Farkas said, “The people have to go through a procedure with the bail bondsman. Maybe he can start looking for him, too.”

Defense attorney D. Daniel Stevanovic said he hasn’t heard from Turley since Wednesday. “He hasn’t checked in with me or his sister,” Stevanovic said.

He did tell Farkas that Turley’s mother entered her son’s home and found paperwork on a table, but the couple’s dogs were gone.

“The wife may have taken them out,” Stevanovic said. “There’s no indication my client came home.”

Although Diane Turley also cannot be located, Stevanovic said, “There’s no evidence they’re together.”

Donatello said the prosecution did not present a police witness to discuss the manhunt for Turley, because his mug shot is in evidence. No announcement has been made to the jury about why Turley isn’t in court.

Farkas proposed to tell the jury in her final charge that they had probably noticed the defendant’s absence and that they shouldn’t draw any conclusions about his guilt from that fact. However, Stevanovic said he would prefer that Farkas not bring up the topic at all, and the judge agreed not to.

Turley is charged with first- and second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and first-degree sexual abuse. He faces a maximum of 39 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

The second of the two alleged victims to take the stand testified Friday about her abuse by Turley. She said, “He would say if I told someone, they would take him away.”

The woman, now 21 and married, told the jury that when she turned 18, Turley told her, “Thank you for not telling the police.”

She didn’t report the abuse until November 2011, when she called North Tonawanda police. “We would wait until I was ready. It was my choice,” the woman said. “I had to protect other people.”



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Wilson man sent to prison for baseball bat assault

January 25, 2013, 5:01 pm
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LOCKPORT – Keith E. Blose was sentenced to two to four years in state prison by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III Friday for breaking a woman’s jaw with a baseball bat.

Blose, 28, had pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted second-degree assault for the July 1 attack in the Dorwood Park mobile home community in Wilson. Prison time was mandatory because of Blose’s record as a repeat felon.



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Man imprisoned for Lockport gas station robbery

January 25, 2013, 5:03 pm
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LOCKPORT – One of the defendants in the Sept. 15 robbery of the Gulf gas station at Walnut and Washburn streets in Lockport was sent to state prison Friday by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr.

James McClendon, 50, of 21st Street, Niagara Falls, was sentenced to 1½ to three years on his guilty plea to attempted third-degree robbery.

Two other defendants have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in Lockport City Court. Chelsee Williams, 18, admitted to third-degree assault. Jessica A. Burgess, 28, pleaded guilty to attempted fourth-degree conspiracy. Both are awaiting sentencing by City Judge William J. Watson.

Assistant District Attorney Ryan K. Parisi said the case against the fourth defendant, Ashley Bivins, 21, is pending before Kloch. All three women are from Niagara Falls.

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Alleged shooter of 2-year-old girl arraigned

January 25, 2013, 5:06 pm
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LOCKPORT – The man who allegedly shot a 2-year-old Niagara Falls girl in the face Nov. 27 was arraigned Friday in Niagara County Court.

Judge Matthew J. Murphy III set bail at $200,000 for Willie R. Scott Jr., 32, of LaSalle Avenue in the Falls. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and first-degree criminal use of a firearm.

Police have said they believe the girl was shot accidentally while sitting in a car with a man whom they believe was the real target. The shooting occurred in front of the Hometown Market on Pierce Avenue.

Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said there is still a fragment from a .357-caliber bullet in the left cheek of the girl, who turned 3 earlier this month. Another fragment struck her in front of the right ear. Hoffmann said three rounds were fired at the car.

She sought to have defense attorney Angelo Musitano disqualified from the case because he had once represented the victim’s mother, in a misdemeanor case in Niagara Falls. The mother is a witness in the shooting.

Musitano said he had represented the mother, but that shouldn’t be enough to disqualify him. Murphy said he will decide the question Feb. 21.
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NT man pleads guilty to cocaine possession

January 25, 2013, 5:08 pm
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LOCKPORT – Jeffrey M. Tretter, 20, of Eddy Drive, North Tonawanda, pleaded guilty Friday in Niagara County Court to fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He had about one-quarter ounce of cocaine May 15 as he sat in a car outside an apartment on Pine Street in Lockport, which police were raiding.

County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III assigned Tretter to the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment. Tretter faces a maximum of 5½ years in prison if he fails at the program, but if he succeeds, he will be placed on probation after his charge is reduced to a misdemeanor.

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One sentenced, one pleads guilty in Niagara DWIs

January 25, 2013, 5:10 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Cambria drunken driver was sentenced Friday by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas to months of weekends in jail, five years’ probation and fines and fees totaling $5,520.

Donald J. Rolfe, 43, of North Ridge Road, had pleaded guilty to felony driving while intoxicated in the wake of his April 29 arrest on Youngstown-Wilson Road, where his blood alcohol content was measured at 0.20 percent.

In another case Friday, Melvin M. Early Jr., 39, of Norfolk Avenue, Buffalo, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI and was scheduled for sentencing by Farkas on May 3. Early was pulled over Aug. 12 in Niagara Falls and originally was charged with a felony.

Deputy District Attorney Theodore A. Brenner told Farkas he was offering a misdemeanor plea because Early is awaiting sentencing on a DWI felony in Erie County Court March 14.
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Woman avoids jail in dumping of overdose victim

January 25, 2013, 5:13 pm
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LOCKPORT – A woman who helped dispose of the body of a man who died of a drug overdose in a North Tonawanda apartment was placed on six months of interim probation Friday by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas.

Heather A. Fuller, 23, of Seventh Street, Niagara Falls, had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of attempted tampering with physical evidence. The maximum sentence is a year in jail, which she faces if she violates probation. Fuller has a 2-month-old son.

David C. Brandl, 22, of Lockport, died from a combination of heroin and cocaine on the night of April 26-27 in the apartment of Miguel E. Febres, 33, of Zimmerman Street, North Tonawanda. Fuller was there, and she and Febres called Alix Devereaux, 27, of the Town of Lockport. The three hauled the body more than a mile to Mayor’s Park and left it to be discovered by a National Grid crew the next day.

Devereaux pleaded guilty to the same charge as Fuller. Febres pleaded guilty to a felony count of evidence tampering and was sentenced by Farkas to one to three years in prison.

“I’m inclined to order incarceration in this case. I’m going to try interim probation. I’m not optimistic,” Farkas told Fuller. “In some fashion, you participated in disposing of [Brandl’s] body like a piece of garbage.”
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Federal mediator to join talks at Falls hospital

January 25, 2013, 5:17 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – A federal mediator will join contract talks on Monday between Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and Local 1199, Service Employees International Union, United Healthcare Workers East.

The union represents 650 employees, including registered and licensed practical nurses, therapists, social workers and dietary, housekeeping and maintenance staff. SEIU said Friday that talks began in September and the contract, which was to have expired Dec. 8, has been extended several times by mutual consent and now runs until Feb. 15.

Issues in the talks include wages and benefits, staffing levels and the union’s attempt to preserve as many full-time jobs as possible.

Hospital spokesman Patrick J. Bradley said, “We’re going to move forward and work with the folks at 1199 SEIU in a collaborative fashion to reach an agreement we all can live with.”
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