batavia

UPDATED, 3:56 p.m.

A NYS Supreme Court Justice has stayed the five-year prison term of Jacquetta Simmons pending an appeal of her sentence. The 27-year-old Batavia woman was convicted of punching a 70-year-old Walmart cashier a year ago Christmas Eve.

Simmons can be released from prison on either $50,000 cash bail or $50,000 bond or other security.

District Attorney Lawrence Friedman and ADA Melissa Cianfrini appeared in the chambers of Associate Justice Rose Sconiers, Appellent Division, 4th Department, this afternoon to argue against defense motions in the case.

Friedman said Sconiers isn't required to offer a reason for issuing the stay, but the argument that seem persuasive to her was the defense contention that Simmons' sentence was overly harsh.

Three attorneys represented Simmons, Friedman said, and argued that no other first-time felony offender convicted of second-degree assault in Genesee County since 2006 has received a prison term.

Two of the attorneys for Simmons said this afternoon that there were several reasons they believe the sentence was overly harsh, including all of the arguments raised by Attorney Ann Nichols in her statement to Judge Robert C. Noonan at the sentencing.

Among the factors -- she said she believes Noonan should have given more weight to Simmons' lack of documented encounters with the law, her college education, her steady employment, her volunteer work in the community and the broad range of support from "people who actually know her."

Attorney Earl Key added, "There are lots of things in our report that were raised at sentencing, but we put the law behind them and really detailed the law on what harsh and excessive is."

The defense team is also pursuing an appeal on the conviction of Simmons, and still believe they can get the conviction overturned, but Key said they led off today with the issue of the sentence.

Friedman said he and Cianfrini could have argued the case over the phone, but went to Buffalo to represent the people of Genesee County and the victim, Grace Suozzi, in person, rather than let only the defense appear in chambers.

The defense has until May 31 to finalize its motion and present its legal briefs.  Assuming Simmons makes bail, she could be out of prison until a ruling on the motion is issued.

Key said the actual order by Sconiers hasn't been signed yet, and until he has it in hand, he declined to discuss the process by which Simmons might be released from prison.

It's "all about the Beef" Saturday, Dec. 1, at Batavia Downs where there will be a benefit for popular and beloved youth sports coach James "Beef" Soggs.

He is ill and needs assistance with his medical bills.

Admission to the event, to be held in the Paddock Room, is $20 and you get $10 in free casino play upon entry.

Time is 7 to 11 p.m. and music will be provided by Unruly and venue DJs.

Attendees will get a chance to win an overnight stay at the Clarion Hotel in Batavia, a buffet meal for two at the clubhouse, and $25 in free casino play. There will also be basket raffles.

Food will include pizza and wings, pasta and meatballs, and salad.

Donations are most welcome!

The eighth race will be dedicated to Beef and a family picture will be taken.

Batavia Downs is located at 8315 Park Road in Batavia.

A Batavia resident was stopped by members of the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force while driving in Alabama on Thursday evening and allegedly found in possession of heroin and cocaine.

Joe C. Wind, 42, of Horseshoe Lake Road, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, and criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument.

Investigators allegedly found a needle with suspected heroin residue, a bag containing suspected heroin, a bag containing suspected cocaine and a glass pipe containing suspected cocaine residue.

Wind was issued an appearance ticket and released.

Uniformed deputies assisted in the traffic stop.

Raymond Lee Leach Jr., 55, of Montclaire Avenue, Batavia, is charged with aggravated sexual abuse 3rd. Leach is accused of jamming a toothbrush into the rectum of another Genesee County inmate while that person was sleeping. Bail on the new charge was set at $10,000.

John Thomas Jaccoud, 40, of Hutchins Street, Batavia, is charged with petit larceny. Jaccoud is accused of stealing from Darien Lake Theme Park while employed at the park.

Brad C. Doward, 23, of 10 Hall St., Batavia, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Doward is accused of violating a stay-away order of protection. Doward allegedly went to the residence of the protected party and called that person on the telephone.

Melissa G. Betances, 31, of 189 1/2 Pearl St., Batavia, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Betances is accused of violation an order of protection by contacting the protected party via text message.

Nicole E. Reilly, 19, of 10483 Bethany Center Road, Bethany, and Jennifer L. Judkins, 18, of Albion, are charged with petit larceny. Reilly and Judkins allegedly stole merchandise from Dollar General on East Main Street, Batavia.

Of course you can find great gifts in locally owned stores, and at prices you can afford.

Above, Rich Mortellaro and Doug Barnard of R&D Outlet Center.

Guy Clark, Cedar Street Sales and Rentals.

Barbara Rumsey and Jeanne Walton, the Artisan Shop @ The YWCA (Barbara is one of the local artisans whose work is available for purchase at the store).

A woman at Walmart says a car ran over her foot while she was in the parking lot.

Initially, she refused an ambulance response, but her father, at another location with a police officer, insisted that an ambulance respond to Walmart.

The suspect vehicle has apparently been located on Route 63.

A small grass fire was reported in Kibbe Park and city firefighters are on scene. It was seen behind the pavilion. A fire chief requested police to respond. The park is located at the end of Kibbe Avenue, off Oakland Avenue.

Last night, another fire like this was reported in Kibbe Park, not far from today's blaze.

Batavia PD is seeking assistance in identifying the man in this photo. He is a possible suspect in Tuesday's robbery of the Dollar General on East Main Street.

The suspect is described as a light-skinned black male, approximately 6-feet tall, wearing blue jeans and a dark Carhartt-style coat.

Anyone with information can contact the Batavia PD, Det. Todd Crossett at 345-6353, or 345-6350.

Margaret Brisbane told Trumbull Cary some time prior to 1817, if you're going to marry me, you're going to build me a mansion.

So the man who founded the Bank of Genesee and served as a NYS Senator and Batavia's first treasurer, built a mansion.

And it stood for nearly 150 years as one of Batavia's grandest structures, until the board of St. Jerome's on only about 30-days notice in 1964 tore the building down, stealing from Batavia another piece of its heritage.

Today, the once-handsome mansion and the man who built it were commemorated with a plaque on the former mansion site. The marker was paid for by the William C. Pomeroy Foundation.

Sallie Fogarty, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Trumbull and Margaret Cary was in Batavia for the dedication of the market (pictured above with City Historian Larry Barnes).

Prior to the dedication, Barnes told the assembled audience in the Go Art! building (the former Batavia Club and first permanent home of the Bank of Genesee) about Cary and his mansion.

Cary, born in 1787 in Mansfield, Conn., moved to Batavia in 1805 at age 18 to seek his fortune. He went to work for the post office, served as clerk for James Brisbane, and eventually became Batavia's postmaster.

Later, he became a local merchant and began to build his fortune.

He helped found St. James Episcopal Church.

In 1833, he helped finance the Tonawanda Railroad, the first rail line to serve Batavia.

The Carys -- Trumbull died in 1869 and Margaret in 1863 and both are buried in Batavia Cemetery --  had one child who survived into adulthood. His grandson was the last Cary to live in the mansion.

Fogarty traces her family tree back to this second Trumbull Cary, who died in 1913, and his first wife, Grace Truscott, who died in 1882.

Harry E. Turner (H.E. Turner Funeral Home) purchased the mansion in 1922.

On the demands of George Cary, brother of the second Trumbull Cary and a prominent architect in Buffalo, Turner sold it back to the Cary family. 

George Cary was determined to turn the mansion into a tourist destination owned by the city. He paid for restoration and set up a board to oversee its operation and then deeded the property to the city. After the operations ran into some financial trouble two years later, the city established a commission to determine what should be done with the mansion. The commission determined it could be run profitably, but the city council voted to give the property back to George Cary in 1936.

The property was rented by various businesses over the years and ownership passed from George Cary to his daughter Allithea Lango, Boston, Erie County.  Local businesses that had space in the mansion included Pontillo's and Valle Jewelers.

Lango sold the mansion to St. Jerome's in 1959. The hospital began building a nursing school on the back of the property and then with very little notice decided to tear down the mansion to expand the nursing school.

The board said the building was in a "dangerous" condition and had be demolished immediately. Batavia residents were given no time to weigh in on the demolition.

The nursing school closed in 1982. The building is now called Cary Hall and is owned by UMMC.

Last year, UMMC acquired the neighboring property, the former location and of the Elks Lodge building, and with little notice to the community, tore that building down.

Town of Batavia crews are still working to repair a water main break on Ellicott Street Road at Shepard Road.

The break was discovered around 5:30 a.m. when a worker noticed gauges at the water plant were giving unsatisfactory readings. He went for a drive and found a bulge in the ground at the location of the leak.

There is no ETA for the repair to be completed.

Some residents in the area are without water and others have low water pressure.UP

UPDATE: Water service is restored.

GCEDC released this notice today:

For several months it has been widely reported that a mushroom growing farm, involving a $20 million investment and up 100 new jobs to the region, is being planned in the Batavia Agri-Business Park. As this initial first phase of this project continues to move forward, we are now actively pursuing Phase 2, which seeks to purchase a minimum of 5 acres to 10 acres of vacant land for the development of a composting facility.

Besides the 5-10 acre size, other features that we are seeking are as follows:

• Zoned for Agriculture -- it may be possible that commercial or industrial zoned land can work as well;
• Water and electric service to the site;
• Topography: flat and cleared is ideal but anything reasonably close will be considered;
• Topsoil -- active farm land with topsoil is "not" required, therefore, if you can use or derive additional value by using/selling this topsoil then please do;
• Preferred location is on the west side of Batavia in zip codes 14020 / 14036 /14013 / 14005 but areas anywhere within a 5-mile radius around the Agri-Business Park will be considered;
• Landowners be assured that the buyer is a well-qualified cash purchaser.

Should this opportunity be of interest to you please contact Steve Blake at (716) 362-8707 or e-mail at : steve.blake@cbre.com

Press release:

The first public open house to introduce the Batavia Opportunity Areas (BOA) will be held at the city’s Council Board Room at City Hall, One Batavia City Centre, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 5. An interactive forum will be facilitated by ELAN, an award-winning firm specializing in community revitalization. 

Those in attendance will be provided with information on the program, given an opportunity to meet the project team, and review information about the program. Members of the community will also have an opportunity to ask questions and provide input.

The meeting will be conducted in conjunction with the City of Batavia Opportunity Area Steering Committee, which includes members from the City of Batavia, Batavia Development Corporation, Batavia Business Improvement District, Chamber of Commerce and Genesee County Planning Department.

The purpose of the Batavia Opportunity Area program is to advance the redevelopment of under-utilized, vacant, abandoned, or contaminated commercial and industrial sites within the city. The focus areas include Downtown Batavia, the industrial corridor between Harvester Avenue and Liberty Street, and the Evans Street corridor.

This effort builds upon existing plans, including the city’s recently completed Community Improvement Plan, to advance redevelopment of strategic sites and areas within the city. The outcome of the BOA program will help the city as well as businesses and property owners in the area with obtaining grants and financial incentives for redevelopment.

For more information on the Batavia Opportunity Area program, visit the city’s Web site at www.batavianewyork.com.

Here's your challenge for your next holiday shopping excursion: Stop into at least three locally owned businesses and see what they have to offer.

Local business owners are your family members, friends, neighbors and biggest boosters of our community. When you support them, you're really supporting yourself.

You can also find great gifts, affordable prices and get great service to boot.

Above, Sherry Valvo of Floral Fantasies. Below, Greg Gluck of Alberty's and Kurt Fisher of Fisher Sports.

BTW: I had an interesting conversation with Fisher last night. He pretty much exploded the myth that chains are less expensive than locally owned stores. He said his prices are consistently lower than chain sporting goods stores in the area, especially for coaches looking to outfit teams, but even on licensed products such as Bills and Sabres jerseys.

A Batavia man accused in September of causing a brain injury to a baby entered a guilty plea today to a single count of reckless assault of a child.

Twenty-four-year-old Randy Johnson faces up to seven years in prison on the conviction. The Class D felony carries no mandatory prison sentence, however, so the full range of sentencing options will be available to Judge Robert C. Noonan on Jan. 25, when Johnson is back in court.

Johnson entered his plea under what known as an Alford basis. The written charge contained a factual allegation that Johnson hit the baby's head on a hard surface. Johnson did not want to admit to that allegation as a fact.

The Alford plea allows Johnson to plead guilty on the assumption he would be convicted by a jury, but without admitting to any specific facts related to the charged crime.

In a written statement, and a spoken one he made today after his guilty plea, Johnson admitted to actions that led to the baby's injuries.

"I should have watched my actions," Johnson added after he said he was guilty on the charge.

In a written statement obtained by police Sept. 20, Johnson said that four weeks prior the baby he injured was crying and woke him up early in the morning. He said he was irritated and snatched the baby from its crib.

"When I snatched him, his head snapped back real fast, like a whiplash, then it went forward," he wrote.

On other occasions, Johnson wrote, he would play with the baby by throwing it in the air. At first, this made the baby laugh, but later it made the baby cry, and in the statement he admits that throwing the baby in the air and causing him to turn in the air, could have caused the baby's injuries.

According to Noonan, the baby's injuries consisted of subdermal and retinal hemorrhaging.

Johnson was arrested Sept. 25 and charged with three counts of reckless assault of a child. The plea satisfies all three counts.

On Aug. 24, Johnson took the stand in the Jacquetta Simmons case as a defense witness. District Attorney Lawrence Friedman attacked Johnson's credibility relentlessly while he was on the stand, indicating that Johnson had changed his story from his earlier interviews and what he testified to in court.

Johnson, as Friedman claim in court, has reportedly had numerous prior contacts with law enforcement. In 2009, he was charged with criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He was arrested in December 2010 on a harassment charge. In March 2012, he was charged with reckless endangerment of property.

Police are looking for a white male wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jacket and riding a bicycle in the area of the Dollar General store on East Main Street in Batavia. He reportedly "threw product" at a female customer inside the store after "becoming irate" following some sort of exchange. He was last seen leaving on the bike behind the store, which is located at 412 E. Main St., #3. Batavia PD is on scene.

In recognition of Power Ball reaching a $500 million prize pool, the New York State Lottery has provided Southside Deli with two tickets to this Sunday's Buffalo Bill's game at Ralph Wilson Stadium as a prize for a raffle drawing.

To enter the raffle, you most drop off a losing scratcher at the deli. Write your name and phone number on the back of the ticket. The winner will be selected Friday night in a drawing from all of those losing tickets. (If you don't have a losing ticket, go to Southside, buy some scratchers and leave a loser behind with your name and number on it for the drawing.)

Southside Deli is located at the corner of Ellicott and Liberty streets, Batavia.

The winner of the drawing gets both tickets. There is only one prize.

The future of professional baseball in Batavia seems, for the time being, inexorably tied to the future of baseball in Binghamton and Ottawa, Canada.

Now it seems, contrary to a prior report, the Binghamton Mets will not be moving to Ottawa, which means the Muckdogs won't be moving to Binghamton.

Baseball America reported the move, relying on unnamed sources, and then ESPN reported the deal fell through.

The response from Michael Urda, president of the Binghamton Mets?

Urda, who said he was “tired of answering the same questions every two weeks,” insisted no one from the ownership group or the organization had talked to Silver. He called the idea that “city officials” inquired about acquiring Batavia “ridiculous,” saying, “Who are ‘city officials?’ ”

Urda added that the idea that city officials would pursue a team also does not make sense because the B-Mets ownership group signed a four-year extension on their player development contract (PDC) with the New York Mets in August, and a five-year extension with the city on the lease for NYSEG Stadium prior to last season.

The article points out, however, that those deals would not necessarily be an obstacle to moving the franchise.

On the other hand, the investment group in Ottawa seems to be distancing itself from the Binghamton rumor.

Richard Billings, chief operating officer of Beacon Sports Capitol, told the Ottawa Sun on Tuesday that ESPN’s report was “inaccurate. ... We’re not there yet with a deal, and hopefully we’ll have something announced soon.”

The bottom line: Go ahead and buy those 2013 season tickets, get your outfield sign for your business. Your team still needs you.

A robbery just occurred at the Dollar General store on East Main Street in Batavia. The suspect fled on foot, heading east of the store toward Harvester Avenue. The suspect is described as a black male, 6-feet tall, about 240 pounds, wearing a camel-colored jacket. Multiple police units are responding to the store and the area. The suspect "pointed a pocket at (the clerk), indicating he had a gun."

UPDATE 6:53 p.m.: The suspect is further described as having a mustache, a small Afro hairstyle, and also wearing jeans.

UPDATE 7:55 p.m. (by Howard): On the scene, Sgt. John Peck said the suspect is described as a possible Hispanic male, medium skin tone, probably in his 20s, wearing a hooded Carhartt-type jacket.

The suspect handed the clerk a note "threatening harm" and pointed to his hip indicating a gun possibly in his jacket pocket or under his coat.

The clerk complied with the demands of the note and opened the drawer. The man reached in and grabbed all of the cash out of the drawer.

Peck said detectives are reviewing video footage from the store's surveillance cameras.

It's possible the suspect has been in the store before.

The suspect was last seen running toward Pizza Hut.

"As far as we know it was just him," Peck said.

Local law enforcement responded quickly after the robbery was reported, Peck said. Besides three Batavia PD patrols, the State Police and the Sheriff's Office had cars in the area.

"By sheer luck, we were very, very near," Peck said. "We don't think any vehicle was involved. We saturated the area and turned up nothing so far."

Press release:

As part of the City of Batavia’s Strategic Plan the city is redeveloping its Web site and is looking for community members to submit their pictures.

Anyone that would like to submit their picture(s) for consideration to be used on the city’s Web site should e-mail the pictures, preferably as a JPEG, to jfreese@batavianewyork.com.

Pictures will be accepted at any point throughout the year; however, to kick off the development of the new site, the first round of pictures should be received by Monday, December 17th.

The photographer of any picture selected for use on the city’s Web site will be identified on the Web site and will be asked to complete a release for the city to use the picture(s).

Possible subjects to consider would be seasonal pictures throughout the community, landmarks, fireworks at Dwyer Stadium, Muckdogs, sporting events, community events, parks, and any other subjects that represent Batavia and will highlight its attributes.

Please call 345-6333 with any questions.

'Tis the season to support your local business owners ...

Today we feature Cory Richenberg, Hardcor Audio, Mike Barrett, Barrett's Batavia Marine, and Phil Pies, Max Pies Furniture.