batavia

Workers were on Swan Street in Batavia today knocking away loose bricks from the facade of the old Wiard Plow factory office building. Property co-owner Todd Audsley said the goal was to remove loose bricks before high winds hit the area tonight.

Long-term, the owners are working on a restoration project for the building. The facade will eventually be restored to look as much like the original as possible.

There is a high-wind warning in place starting at midnight through 10 p.m., Saturday.

Winds of 35 to 40 mph are expected with gusts up to 70 mph.

Shane Scott, 17, of Forestville, Pa., William Gorton, 17, of 92 Lake St., Le Roy and a 15-year-old boy are accused of participating in a burglary. Shane and William are charged with burglary, 3rd, and attempted burglary, 2nd. They are accused of entering an apartment building Thursday on Bacon Street, Le Roy, and attempting to steal property from the apartment. The 15-year-old will be referred to Family Court. They were arraigned and released under supervision of the probation department. William was also charged with burglary, 2nd, in connection with an alleged break-in Feb. 19 on Myrtle Street. Additional arrests in the case are pending.

Katie L. Orlando, 19, of 24 Craigie St., Le Roy, is charged with coercion, 1st. Orlando is accused of going into the apartment of a person and threatening that person. Orlando allegedly later called that person on the phone and issued a threat. The alleged threats came after the victim reportedly called 9-1-1 the night before and were allegedly intended to intimidate the victim from calling 9-1-1 in the future. Orlando was jailed on $2,500 bail.

Steven Carnell McKnight, 18, of 14th Street, Buffalo, is charged with burglary, 2nd, and criminal mischief, 2nd. McKnight allegedly forced his way into a residence on Gabbey Road in Pembroke on Feb. 14 in order to steal property from the residence.

Willie F. Irvin II, 29, 12 Elm St., Batavia, is charged with criminal mischief, 4th, and reckless endangerment of property, and Randy Johnson, 24, of 110 Walnut St., Batavia, is charged with reckless endangerment of property. Irvin and Johnson are accused of fighting in a bar in Batavia and in the process damaging a video game and glass display case.

Casey Willowbear, 52, of Sanford Street, Rochester, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Willowbear was stopped for allegedly speeding at 9:12 p.m., Wednesday, on West Main Street Road by Deputy Matthew Fleming. She was allegedly found in possession of a glass pipe containing burnt marijuana inside her vehicle.

A 17-year-old of Judge Road, Alabama, is charged with petit larceny. An employee at Wilson Farms, 25 Main St., Oakfield, observed the youth allegedly trying to leave the store with merchandise concealed under her shirt.

The Genesee County Economic Development Center Board approved the following two projects for tax-abatement assistance:

University Eye/Lassiter Properties, 217 Summit St., Batavia. Planned 1,961-square-foot expansion, six new jobs, total capital investment of $755,000. Sales tax exemption on building materials and supplies of $26,000 and a PILOT tax exemption on the increased value of the property of $52,500 over 10 years.

R & D Electronics, 5272 Clinton St. Road, Stafford. Planned 10,800-square-foot expansion, six new jobs. The company will construct a warehouse facility and move its current electronics repair business into the new space. The company will use its existing space to expand its Ebay sales business selling refurbished and factory returned products. Total capital investment of $312,000. Sales tax exemption on building materials and supplies of $10,800, mortgage tax exemption of $2,500, PILOT tax exemption based on $76,700 of increased property value.

The Batavia Business Improvement District and Shop Batavia are now working together to help promote downtown businesses.

In a special arrangement for BID members, extra features and discounts are now available through Shop Batavia and participating BID members will be part of an association page, helping customers more easily find downtown businesses on the site.

BID members will be able to more effectively use Shop Batavia to promote their businesses and sell merchandise online with the enhanced features.

Details available in this PDF.

A registered sex offender who was also recently arrested on a burglary charge in Oakfield entered a guilty plea in Genesee County Court today and faces up to six years in prison.

Steven Mullen admitted to failure to register as a sex offender and burglary, 3rd.

He waived indictment on both charges and also waived his right to appeal.

The plea deal would mean one-and-a-third to four years in state prison on the failure to register charge and the burglary charge has a penalty of three to six years.

The sentences would be served concurrently.

In 2004, Mullen was convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree and served two-and-a-half years in prison.

Mullen remains in Genesee County Jail on $100,000 bail.

A Rochester man accused of dealing cocaine in Batavia has a chance at avoiding prision if he can just stay out of trouble while awaiting his sentence.

In Genesee County Court today, Edward J. Fuller (aka "Taz"), 21, of 1906 Parsells St., Rochester, entered a guilty plea to attempted possession of a controlled substance, 3rd.

The plea arrangement will mean what's known as "shock probation" (an intermittent jail sentence and five years probation) if he can do things such as obey his 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and stay in contact with Genesee Justice between now and his sentencing.

Fuller was arrested in Batavia on July 12 following an investigation by the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force. He was accused of possessing more than an ounce of cocaine and $3,000 in cash.

All other pending charges against Fuller were dropped as part of the plea deal.

A Genesee County jury today found a home-care nurse from Bergen guilty of filing false reports with her employer, generating compensation she hadn't earned.

Michele Ann Case, 46, of 7100 N. Bergen Road, Bergen, was convicted of grand larceny in the third degree.

To be found guilty, the jury needed to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Case stole at least $3,000 from her former employer.

She was accused of stealing more than $14,000 over a two-and-a-half year period.

District Attorney Lawrence Friedman, in his closing argument, said Case filed 230 false claims with her employer.

"How could she not be aware of what she was doing?" Friedman said.

Friedman said testimony and documents showed that Case claimed 69 times that she made "call outs" -- totaling more than $5,000 in extra billing to her employer -- that she did not make.

She would make "call out" claims, he said, during hours when she was already working, when she had training or when she stayed in the office late filling out paperwork.

Case was also accused of filing false mileage reports, and Friedman said the false mileage reports were wildly inflated -- one report had her driving 30 miles, he said, when the trip was only 7/10ths of a mile.

Friedman said the evidence showed that in all but her first mileage claim Case filed inflated mileage reports, for a total of 33 times.

"She didn't offer any explanation for the inflated milage claims because there aren't any," Friedman said.

William Tedford from the Public Defender's Office made the closing statement for the defense and said that Case did not receive any compensation she did not believe she was legally entitled to receive.

"What we see here is a wide discrepancy between practice and policy," Tedford said.

The problem, according to Tedford, is that how nurses actually completed their paperwork and computer reports and what they were allowed to claim wasn't necessarily in line with policy.

"The people are trying to convict my client of violating policy," Tedford said.

He used as an example a practice change allowing nurses to claim "call outs" that came after 4 p.m. rather than 4:30 p.m., but Friedman said "there is no massive change in policy."

The district attorney said that was the only item brought up in testimony about any conflict between policy and practice.

Tedford criticized the prosecution for not presenting paper copies of charts and the policy, and for not getting a search warrant for Case's computer. But Friedman said the reason there were no paper charts in evidence was because none exist. And a search warrant wasn't needed for the computer because, first, all of Case's files were downloaded daily to her employer's server and, second, the employer owned the computer, so a search warrant wasn't required.

When Det. Charles Dudek interviewed Case, Friedman said, Case admitted to financial difficulties. She said the father of her children was more than $70,000 behind in child-support payments.

"I can't make ends meet," Case reportedly told Dudek.

She also reportedly told Dudek that she took a big pay cut when she left a job in Monroe County, but as Dudek questioned her further, Friedman said, it turned out she hadn't quit her job. She hadn't successfully completed, according to Friedman, her probationary period on the job.

"She didn't take a pay cut," Friedman said. "She was unemployed when she went to work for (her former employer). It's just another example of her trying to con the detective."

Tedford also argued that if Case was filing obviously false reports, why did it take her employer two-and-a-half years to bring it to anybody's attention?

Friedman said her supervisors simply weren't on the alert for wrongdoing.

"You heard (her supervisor) testify," Friedman said. "She assumed she was honest. She said, 'she's a licensed nurse, a professional, I expected her to be honest.' "

Case remains out of jail pending sentencing at 1:30 p.m., May 22.

Grand larceny in the third degree is a Class D felony and punishable by up to seven years in state prison.

After the verdict, Case walked into the gallery and was embraced by her mother and she sobbed.

When she left, Case's mother approached a reporter and said, "If you put anything in The Batavian that's not true, I'm going to sue you. What those people (pointing to the representatives from Case's former employer) said isn't true."

Previously: RN accused of creating inflated call claims to steal more than $14,000

The U.S Attorney for Western New York was in Batavia today to speak to the Kiwanis Club about the three broad areas of crime he said his office spends much of its time prosecuting: crimes against your kids, your money and your identity.

William Hochul spent much of his time talking about the two things he said that most put kids in danger -- sexual predators and drugs.

It used to be, he said, parents told their children to run from strangers and not take candy from people they didn't know. Now sexual predators often find their victims on the Internet.

He told the story of a high-school teacher in Erie County who identified lonely, vulnerable boys and then pretended to be a girl contacting them online. Eventually, he would lure them into sending sexually explicit pictures.

"Once they did," Hochul said. "He had them." 

From that point, Hochul explained, the teacher blackmailed them into sending increasingly explicit pictures of themselves.

"He will spend 35 years in jail," Hochul said.

Recently, Hochul said his office has taken an interest in so-called synthetic drugs. While many of the compounds used in the drugs are not yet banned in New York, they are being added to the banned substances list by the federal government.

Another big drug problem, he said, is kids getting ahold of prescription drugs, which he said is a growing problem.

"My message to you," Hochul said is, "lock up your prescriptions."

Another growing problem in WNY, Hochul said, is con artists. Most typically, these criminals use various techniques to steal your identity and then steal your money.

"You can't believe how sophisticated some of these scams have become," Hochul said.

One scam he described involved people calling WNY residents claiming they were from a credit agency and that the targets owed them money. The caller would tell the targets that if they didn't pay immediately the police would be right over to arrest them.  The caller would then say the police had arrived and then describe the target's house -- with the description coming from a picture off Google Maps.

If the person agreed to pay, the caller would pretend he told the police to leave and then take a credit card payment.

"Now you might say to yourself, 'well, I would never fall for that,' but we prosecuted two men who got $6 million from 124 victims," Hochul said.

Prior to the Hochul speaking, the club received an award for being a "Distinguished Club" in 2011, primarily because of its long-term project -- raising funds for a new building for the Child Advocacy Center.

Photo below, Kiwanis Genesee Division Lt. Governor Ron Pollack, left, Batavia Immediate Past President Larry Friedman and Kiwanis Genesee Division Immediate Past Lt. Governor Bob Reusch.

Disclosure: Howard Owens is a member of the Batavia Kiwanis Club.

Individual game tickets for the seven Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees games will go on sale for the first time on Monday, March 5, when the Dwyer Stadium Box Office opens at 9 a.m.

These seven Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees games will be the first time Dwyer Stadium will host Triple-A baseball.  
 
The Yankees will play at Dwyer Stadium on the following dates and game times:

Friday, April 20, vs. Norfolk (Baltimore Orioles Affiliate) at 7:05 p.m.

Saturday, April 21, vs. Norfolk at 1:05 p.m.

Sunday, April 22, vs. Norfolk at 1:05 p.m.

Monday, April 23, vs. Norfolk at 12:05 p.m.

Saturday, May 5, vs. Pawtucket (Boston Red Sox Affiliate) at 7:05 p.m.

Sunday, May 6, vs. Pawtucket at 1:05 p.m.

Tuesday, June 12, vs. Louisville (Cincinnati Reds Affiliate) at 11:05 a.m.

Individual game ticket prices for those games will be as follows:

Box Seats -- $9
General Admission (Adult) -- $8
General Admission (JR/SR) -- $7

The Muckdogs are also offering a ticket package that will allow fans to see all seven Yankees games at Dwyer Stadium this coming season. Those prices are as follows:

Yankees Ticket Package Box Seats -- $50
General Admission Package Seats -- $43

Currently, box seats for the Yankees are becoming very limited so fans are encouraged to call or stop into the box office as early as possible.

Season tickets, coupon books, and ticket packages for Muckdogs games are also on sale. Muckdogs coupon books will not be redeemable for the seven Yankees games at Dwyer Stadium.

All packages are currently on sale and can be purchased by calling 343-5454, or in person at Dwyer Stadium from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A former Batavia resident convicted of three felonies in Wyoming County who got married, changed his name and then fought extradiction from West Virginia is back in jail awaiting sentencing April 5.

Eric J. Motzer, 25, now goes by the name Eric J. Disalvo after getting married Sept. 21 in front of a Genesee County Justice of the Peace.

He was convicted by a jury in Wyoming County Sept. 14 of criminal sale of marijuana, 2nd, rape, 2nd, criminal sexual act, 2nd, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Up until Sept. 22, when he was scheduled for sentencing Motzer/Disalvo, who was out of jail on $5,000 bail, had made all of his court appearances.

He didn't show up that day and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Clay County Sheriff's deputies apprehended Motzer/Disalvo on Oct. 5.

He fought extradition on the grounds that his name was Eric J. Disalvo, not Eric J. Motzer, according to a Wyoming County Sheriff's Office press release.

According to the release, on Feb. 22, after numerous hearings and a governor's warrant being issued, Motzer -- still stating his name was Disalvo -- waived extradition.

Wyoming County officers drove to West Virginia yesterday, picked up Motzer/Disalvo and transported him back to New York.

Motzer/Disalvo is now being held in Wyoming County Jail without bail.

A state audit of the East Pembroke Fire District's financial records found problems with accounting procedures, but did not uncover any missing funds or improper expenditures.

The NYS Comptroller's Office released the audit this past week and was critical of the district for:

• Not auditing treasurer's records and reports;
• The treasurer has not completed and filed annual financial reports with state since 2005;
• There's no evidence the board reviewed claims before they were paid;
• Bank statements were not reconciled monthly.

The apparent problems with the bookkeeping required auditors to go through expenses check-by-check -- 75 checks in all totaling $21,875 -- from May 1 through Oct. 30, as well as all bank account transfers, deposits and withdrawals.

The financial activity was properly recorded and disbursements appeared for district purposes, but claims lacked proper approvals.

The audit period was Jan. 1, 2010 through Nov. 29, 2011.

The district has an annual budget of $158,000.

Press release:

The 2nd Public Information Meeting for the reconstruction of Cedar Street will be held from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7, at Batavia City Hall in the Council Board Room (2nd Floor).

Erdman Anthony, the engineering firm retained by the city, will present the Draft Design Report and discuss different design alternatives under consideration. The design alternatives were developed after the current road conditions were assessed, input from the residents and businesses along the corridor was considered, traffic studies were analyzed and surveying and mapping was completed.

The reconstruction of Cedar Street from Main Street (Rt.5) to Ellicott Street (Rt. 63) is a Locally Administered Federal – Aid Project that is scheduled for construction in 2013-2014.

A copy of the Draft Design Report is available to review at city hall in the Department of Public Works; Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. – 4:30 pm.

For years, Jim Vo would see residents from Genesee County go to Rochester and Buffalo to sell their gold and silver and knew that while many retailers in the big cities were reputable, some of them were clearly a little shady.

After looking around Batavia a bit, he decided it would be a good place to start a business, which became Batavia Gold Rush, at 4152 W. Main St.

With a family background in jewelry -- his parents started in the business while still in Vietnam -- and some experience buying and selling gold and silver, he said he saw an opportunity.

"I love it in Batavia," said Vo, who will soon marry and is looking for a place to live in Batavia. It’s clean. It’s quiet. The people are very friendly."

Vo wants to be known as a precious metals buyer people can trust. A customer in his store is just as likely to get a lesson on how to value items as they are to get cash.

"You gave me respect to come into my store, so I'm going to show you respect," Vo said.

When he markets his business he doesn't advertise "the highest price paid." He said customers will figure that out after they get bids from other stores.

"Usually customers who don't sell to me come back later that same day because they found I did offer the highest bid," Vo said.

His personal motto is, "give me a chance to prove we pay the highest price and we will."

Vo said he's hoping to attract business that is currently being siphoned off from Genesee County and going to Buffalo and Rochester.

Some of his recent print advertising has even emphasized that fact.

"People should shop local," he said. "We want to keep the dollars in Batavia."

While some antique and coin dealers might buy items for resale, Vo said he doesn't want to hold inventory for resale. It just means he has to pay a lower price because the item will sit on a shelf for a while before he gets his investment back on it. By sending out all the gold and silver he buys to refineries, he can pay the best possible price, he said.

"My goal is to try and make money, and at the same time, get the customers the deal they deserve," Vo said.