Robert P. Leiser Jr., could be out of jail today, but according to Judge Robert C. Noonan, Leiser couldn't do one simple thing: follow a court order.
Noonan gave Leiser, originally indicted on two counts of assault, 2nd, a chance at a sentence of credit for time served after Leiser entered a guilty plea in the middle of his trial in April to a lesser charge of second degree attempted assault.
It's probably the first time Noonan has ever allowed a plea bargain after a trial has begun, but according to Noonan it was the most bizarre trial he's presided over and it was clear to him, he said, that the main witness against Leiser wasn't telling the truth.
"Mr. Burns (attorney Thomas Burns) saying that this was a dysfunctional relationship between you and the complainant, that's probably the understatement of the decade," Burns said. "This was a relationship that was nothing short of bizarre between two people who share a responsibility for the conduct that brought us here today."
However, Noonan said, the only person with an order of protection in place was Leiser.
Leiser was arrested in August and accused of hitting a woman in the head with a flashlight.
In deciding to sentence Leiser to one-and-a-third to three years in prison, Noonan said he also considered Leiser's criminal record, which includes at least 40 arrests and two stints in prison.
"In 25 years of criminal history, you just get arrested, go to jail, get out, go to prison, get out," Noonan said. "I don't know when you're going to wake up and say, 'I'm a grown man now, I'm in my 40s, and I need to take charge of my life and not go back to prison.' "
Noonan had hoped, he said, that Leiser could prove he was ready for that change after his guilty plea when Noonan released him from jail under supervision (RUS) of Genesee Justice.
Burns argued that Leiser wasn't accused of using drugs while he was on RUS and there is no evidence that he used drugs, but Noonan said Leiser violated his RUS contract in numerous other ways.
