Darien

Brian P. Griffin, 24, of Batavia, is charged with grand theft and endangering the welfare of a child after he allegedly forced his way into the car of an ex-girlfriend, climbed over her children and grabbed a cell phone from her hand. The alleged incident took place Saturday around 7:20 p.m.  Griffin is being held without bail.

John C. Townley, 33, of Alexander, is charged with criminal mischief. Townley allegedly got involved in a verbal argument with another patron at MY Saloon early Saturday morning. Because of the disturbance, an employee reportedly asked Townley to leave the bar. Once outside, Townley reportedly punched a window of the building and broke it.

Cory J. Rigdon, 22, of Holley, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .18 or higher and unlicensed operation of a vehicle. Rigdon was arrested after reportedly driving off the end of Hessenthaler Road in Byron on Sunday evening. Upon further investigation, deputies found he had a prior DWI conviction.

John Tullar, 30, of Batavia, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana following a traffic stop on Pratt Road.

Jeffery S. Leonard, 22, of Tonawanda, is charged with DWI, a BAC of .08 or greater and ticked for failure to stop at a stop sign. He was cited early Sunday morning on Pearl Street in Batavia.

Commodity traders pushed down the price of hogs yesterday and the trend continues so far today, which has Charlie Miller, owner of Willow Ridge Farms in Darien, just a little worried.

Miller's operation sells 200 to 250 hogs every week, and the worldwide recession had already sent prices down from 80 cents per pound two months ago to around 70 cents. Yesterday, prices dropped to 66 cents.

The reason? Panic over Swine Flu.

Never mind that health officials state flat out that the disease cannot be transmitted from eating food. Commodity traders -- who place bets on the anticipated future price of items -- believe the flu scare will deepen a trend of over supply in pork.

Miller said as of this morning, the cash market, the current price of hog meat, had not yet been effected.

"We have six families involved in ownership and operations of the farm," Miller said. "When things don't go well in the market, it impacts more people beyond just individual needs. And it also impacts everybody we do business with."

The National Pork Producers Council reiterated points made by the National Center for Disease Control that eating pork cannot transmit the disease to humans. Further, there is no evidence that the current strain was contracted by humans from pigs.

Miller noted that the current outbreak shouldn't even be called Swine Flu because it is a different strain with more in common with Avian Flu. "It should be called North American Flu," he said.

The World Health Organization has identified only 79 cases worldwide, and the only reported deaths have been in Mexico, according to ABC Radio News.

"Often times things like this happen and people get worried and emotional," Miller said. "I encourage people to use the information from groups such as the Center for Disease Control to make their food-buying decisions."

Photo Illustration courtesy Flickr member The Pug Father.

Two sisters, age 16 and 17, were killed instantly when their vehicle was broadsided by a pick-up truck hauling a car on a trailer at the intersection Sumner Road and Route 77 in Darien, the Sheriff's office reports.

Sarah M. Protulipac, the older sister, was driving a 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier west on Sumner when she reportedly failed to stop at the intersection.  Gretchen Ann Protulipac was a pasenger in the car.

The accident occurred at 12:35 p.m. Genesee County Coroner Jack Taylor pronounced the girls dead at the scene.

The truck was driven by Robert J. Pool III, 28, of Lockport. His passenger was Trina L. Vekich, 40, of Lockport. Neither Pool nor Vekich were injured.

Deputy Lonnie Nati, Sgt. James Meir, Investigator William Ferrando and Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble along with members fo the Crash Management Team investigated the accident.

A 60-year old Darien Center man has been charged with one count of committing a criminal sexual act in the third degree as well as one count of official misconduct after an investigation into an incident at Albion Correctional Facility.

Samuel E. Williams is receiving the charge after the State Police and Department of Corrections investigated an allegation made by a female inmate in the fall of last year, stating the civilian employee made inappropriate sexual contact.

Williams is scheduled to appear in Albion court on March 24.

It might be obvious to most, but you should probably stick to logging in to your own Internet accounts. In fact,  you can get in trouble for logging in to another person's Web site accounts and making changes. 

A Darien teenager is learning that lesson right now as 17-year old Brittany N. Barto was issued a ticket to appear in Darien Town Court on March 24 after logging into somebody else's account, where she made unspecified changes.

According to The Buffalo News, it caused the victim "a substantial inconvenience." 

While we were out covering the mobile home fire in East Bethany earlier this afternoon, we received reports of a two-car crash out in the town of Darien. Fortunately, nobody was injured, but one of the cars had apparently run into a tree. So, already on the road, we drove out to take a photograph. Here's the car and the tree:

Not exactly what we had expected.

While we were on the scene, however, we got to talking with a fellow who told us that this corner (County Line Road and Sumner Road) is a frequent site of accidents. What might the county do to make the roads safer here?

The Buffalo News reports that John E. Stocking, 48, of Pembroke was fatally shoot while hunting pheasant in Darien Lake State Park.

The shooting occured around 3 p.m. yesterday.

Authorities are investigating.

Party supporters packed into the Democratic headquarters last night in the Genesee Country Mall. They came for signs. They came for cider. They came to meet their candidates.

I was there to meet some of the candidates, too, though I was mostly hoping to run into Alice Kryzan. Unfortunately, the congressional candidate wasn't expected to arrive until sometime around 6:30pm due to a plane delay—the event started at 5:00pm—and I had to head out before then.

No matter. I had a chance to chat with a couple other candidates.

Larry Stabell is running to keep his seat as judge for the town of Darien. Stabell told me that his work with the department of corrections made him interested in the position and capable of doing it well.

We soon got to talking about what's going on out in Darien. Stabell told me that the town is currently facing a problem with its school districts: it's got four of them, none of which are in Darien. All the school kids are going in different directions, he said. This in a town where the population is maybe 3,200.

Darien used to be a farming community, he said. But it has since become "somewhat of a bedroom community for Rochester and Buffalo." The town has about 10 to 15 new homes going up every year, and is down to maybe eight or nine full-time farmers.

Of course, they've got Darien Lake Theme Park, which means that at any given time, you could have ten times the population of the town packed in there, and those folks "come out to have a good time," he said. That's the prime reason why the judge in Darien never wants for work, in the summer months especially.

I also had a few minutes to chat with Le Roy Councilman Tom Stella, who is also running to keep his seat. Stella told me that things have been pretty quiet in Le Roy over the past few months. Most of the major projects have gone through, including the Walgreen's and the Wal-Mart. What they'll be looking at next is something called the Farmland Protection Program, which would allow landowners—farmers in particular, but not exclusively—to get their land placed on a protection list that would say it could only be used for farming, never for development.

Should be interesting to see how that plays out.

30-year-old Jonathan J. Connolly, of Darien, was sent to Genesee County Jail last night pending $1,000 cash bail and facing three charges and potentially more.

Conolly was accused of throwing a beer bottle at an on-coming vehicle on Sumner Road, causing damage. He was charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree criminal mischief and two violations: consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle and throwing refuse on the highway.

Genesee County sheriff's deputies said that more charges may be pending.