ALBION – An Albion man was sentenced to seven years in state prison today for second-degree rape.

Scott D. Stanley, 33, pleaded guilty to the crime during a July court appearance. He was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl in his apartment at 220 East State St. between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28, 2011.

As part of a plea deal, Stanley faced two to seven years in state prison. Judge James Punch gave him the maximum sentence today. Stanley will be registered as a sex offender and could face civil confinement when his prison time is over.

Stanley is already a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most serious. He was sentenced to 22 years in state prison by a Genesee County Court judge on Aug. 1. Stanley victimized a 14-year-old girl in Albion and then in Pembroke. He also raped the girl’s 11-year-old sister in Pembroke, according to the Orleans District Attorney’s Office.

The sentence from Orleans County will run concurrent with the Genesee sentence, meaning the seven years won’t be added to 22-year sentence.

ALBION – A Medina man was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in state prison for attempted assault in the second degree.

Leo Woodrich Jr., 50, of North Street pleaded guilty to the crime. He hit his wife in the head with a baseball bat on May 30. He is a second felony offender.

He was sentenced today in Orleans County Court by Judge James Punch.

ALBION – An Albion man was sentenced to state prison today for drunk driving and also for selling cocaine in the Albion area.

Felix Onofre-Rojas, 61, of 14691 Zig-Zag Rd., Albion, was charged with DWI on May 4, when he was stopped with a BAC of 0.21 percent. Onofre-Rojas has a prior DWI on June 24, 2008 in Hamlin.

Orleans County Court Judge James Punch sentenced him to 1 to 3 years in prison for the DWI charge. Onofre-Rojas also was arrested on June 20 and charged with two counts of a criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, four counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree.

He pleaded guilty to attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and received 1 ½ years in state prison for the crime, time that will run concurrent with the DWI.

Patricia Nava-Chavez, 44, is married to Onofre-Rojas. She also faced several drug charges. Her attorney, Shirley Gorman, argued in court that Nava-Chavez wasn’t involved in her husband’s drug sales.

Police, however, said she was an accomplice in the activity. She pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree. Judge Punch today sentenced her to time served in jail. She had been in the county lock-up since June 20.

George Brown committed crimes with his children in truck

ALBION – A Medina resident was sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years in state prison on Monday after he stole a truck, threatened a gas station clerk and led police on a multi-county chase.

George Brown, 36, committed the crimes last December while his children were with him.

Orleans County Court Judge James Punch said Brown’s actions in front of his children likely traumatized them. The judge said the crimes were abusive to the children.

“I’m just really sorry for what I’ve done,” Brown said in court during his sentencing.

He broke into the Orleans Ford dealership on Dec. 15, stealing a truck and then threatening a clerk at a gas station. Brown then led Medina Police and state troopers on a multi-county pursuit with his two children. He was stopped after driving over spikes deployed by the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office.

He pleaded guilty in August to third-degree burglary and third-degree attempted robbery. He received 2 1/3 to 7 years for the burglary and 1 1/3 to 4 years for the attempted robbery. The sentences will run concurrently or at the same time.

The judge said Brown had been “snorting bath salts,” but that didn’t excuse his conduct.

“This is a crime that cries out for punishment,” Punch said.

ALBION – An Albion man who broke into a church last January was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in state prison for attempted robbery in the third degree.

Michael G. Andre, 23, of West Park Street broke into the Presbyterian Church in Albion on Jan. 14. He broke a window in a locked church office and stole a laptop.

Andre was ordered to pay restitution over the next 18 months. He has several prior criminal offenses, District Attorney Joe Cardone said during the sentencing on Monday.

“Drugs have ruined your life,” County Court Judge James Punch told Andre. “You’re leaving a trail of victims.”

In another case in Albion, Judge Punch sentenced a woman who violated probation by using cocaine to a year in county jail.

Dawn M. Stachewicz, 41, of Albion pleaded guilty to the crime in August, when she also confessed to possessing drug paraphernalia, which also violated her probation.

ALBION – Robert W. Tetrault received a maximum sentence to 2 to 4 years in state prison today. He didn’t like the punishment.

He turned his back on Orleans County Court Judge James Punch when the sentencing was announced. Then when Tetrault was led out of court he kicked a door open, cracking the glass in a small window in the door. He will likely face criminal mischief charges for that, Punch said.

Tetrault, 32, of Albion was sentenced for attempted second-degree assault and third-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon. He pleaded guilty to the crime on Aug. 19, and faced the possibility of a minimum sentence of 1 ½ to 3 years in state prison.

But Punch opted for the maximum sentence, citing “a random act of violence that makes no sense.”

Tetrault had a knife when he was fighting with his brother Chris Tetrault on May 23. Chris’s wife Wendy attempted to intervene in the fight and suffered “a severe laceration across her hand” from the knife, District Attorney Joe Cardone said in August when Tetrault pleaded guilty.

Tetrault’s attorney Nathan Pace said his client has worked through drug and alcohol counseling and had not been in trouble with the law since 2005.

Punch said the recklessness of the assault and Tetrault’s criminal history prompted the maximum sentence.

“You’re living by the craze year after year,” Punch said during the sentencing.

Punch wants psychiatric evaluation for Rothmund

Rothmund in his July mugshot

ALBION – A Rochester man confessed in court today that he robbed the Bank of America in Albion on July 2, showing up at the bank wearing a mask and threatening a clerk with a bomb that later was discovered to be fake.

Jeremy Rothmund, 30, admitted the crime as part of a plea deal that would reduce his sentence from a maximum of 20 years in state prison to no more than 15 years.

However, County Court Judge James Punch, after listening to Rothmund, said he couldn’t accept the plea without a psychiatric evaluation for Rothmund, who also confessed in court to robbing two banks in the town of Greece.

Rothmund is being held in a psychiatric facility after attempting suicide in the Orleans County Jail earlier this month. Rothmund on Oct. 16 also injured a corrections officer in the county jail. He hasn’t been charged yet with that crime.

Punch told Rothmund a plea deal for the bank robbery wouldn’t include all of Rothmund’s other crimes.

“You’re not getting a blank check for everything you ever did,” Punch told him.

Rothmund hasn’t been diagnosed with mental health issues, nor is he taking any medications, he told Judge Punch in court today. But Rothmund said he feels stress from the “proceedings” – being in jail and facing a lengthy prison sentence.

In court, he said his girlfriend, Elyse A. Hoffer, didn’t know he was robbing banks. Rothmund said he told her to park behind the Freeze-Dry building on Route 31 near the railroad tracks while he went to buy drugs.

Rothmund returned with a bag full of $18,000. He said he told Huffer to drive fast out of town. (The two were later stopped and arrested in Holley after a resident identified them in Albion and called the police.)

Punch questioned Rothmund about the claim that Huffer didn’t know she was driving the getaway car from a robbery. Rothmund told the judge she didn’t know beforehand if he was robbing a bank, but she later realized it.

Punch said the plea offer was made with the premise that Rothmund was unaided in the robberies. But the judge said Huffer clearly assisted Rothmund, even if she was “tricked.”

Punch ordered the psychiatric evaluation for Rothmund, who is due back in court at 2 p.m. on Nov. 18.

ALBION – The attorney for a woman arrested in June on several drug charges told a judge the search warrant used was based on “stale” evidence.

Shirley Gorman, the attorney for Patricia Nava-Chavez, said law enforcement shouldn’t have searched her bedroom back in June when she was arrested along with seven other people, including her husband, Felix Onofre-Rojas. (Click here for a previous article.)

They lived in Albion at 14691 Zig-Zag Rd. Gorman said investigators observed Onofre-Rojas making drug sales from the location in December 2012 and February 2013. Another person also was witnessed making a drug sale from the house in November 2012, Gorman said in court on Monday.

However, by June 2013, when Albion Town Justice Gary Moore approved a search warrant for the entire house, Gorman said there was no probable cause to search Nava-Chavez’s bedroom. Gorman called the warrant “ambiguous.”

District Attorney Joseph Cardone said law enforcement reported there were 13 drug sales from that location. Onofre-Rojas, 61, admitted in court in August to selling cocaine from the site. He is to be sentenced Oct. 28 for a driving while intoxicated charge from May 4. He could face up to four years in state prison for that charge, his second DWI.

Police believe his wife Nava-Chavez, 44, was an accomplice in the drug sales, but Gorman told Judge Punch she wasn’t involved in that activity.

Punch said he would review the grand jury testimony and could schedule a hearing about whether evidence seized during the search of the house will be admissible.

Cardone also said there is surveillance video of the house that shows Nava-Chavez was involved in the drug sales.

Punch set a court date for 3 p.m. Oct. 21 to again discuss whether evidence from the search warrant can be used in court.

MEDINA – Two Medina teen-agers appeared in Orleans County Court for the first time on Monday for arraignments for second-degree assault, first-degree robbery, fourth-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Justin M. Tillinghast and Brian T. Stachewicz, both 18, were committed to the county jail on $5,000 bail. Tillinghast was arraigned on Monday while Stachewicz’s arraignment was pushed back to Thursday until an attorney from the public defender’s office could be assigned to his case. The public defender was assigned to represent Tillinghast.

The two face numerous charges after allegedly firing plastic pellets from an airsoft gun at a victim, injuring that person. The two then allegedly robbed the victim. The alleged incident occurred on Aug. 28.

Tillinghast lives at 167 North St., and Stachewicz resides at 259 Horan Rd. Tillinghast is scheduled to next appear in court on Oct. 21.

If they post bail, County Court Judge James Punch ordered the two to not have any contact with each other.

Botello

ALBION – A Kendall resident accused of attempted murder of a state trooper pleaded not guilty to the crime when he was arraigned in Orleans County Court today by Judge James Punch.

Carlos J. Botello, 42, was charged with second-degree attempted murder of a state trooper following a traffic stop on Sept. 3. Botello was stopped by Trooper Dan Metz. Botello allegedly attempted to back over the trooper. Metz avoided being struck, but Borello smashed into a state police vehicle.

Botello then fled the scene by vehicle. Metz pursued the suspect until Botello entered into a farmer’s field and became disabled, police reported.

Punch said Botello’s bail would continue to be set at $2.5 million. Punch raised the bail from $250,000 to $2.5 million last month.

Punch today assigned Nathan Pace from the Public Defender’s Office to represent Botello, whose next scheduled court date will be 3 p.m. on Oct. 21.

Botello has allegedly twice attempted to harm law enforcement officers. The previous incident occurred in 1994 when Botello fired six rounds into the home of a deputy who lived in Kendall.

ALBION – A Carlton man pleaded guilty in Orleans County Court today to sexual contact with two under-age children and also possession of child pornography.

Timothy Shay, 49, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse in the second-degree. Each charge carries up to a year in jail, plus 10 years of Probation. The charge of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child carries a sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison.

Shay could receive consecutive sentences, which would increase his time behind bars, because he is being sentenced for three different crimes. He will be sentenced on Sept. 29.

In court today, he said had sexual contact with two different under-age girls in 2012. Shay first told Judge James Punch the contact was “accidental,” but then said he did it on purpose for his own gratification.

In other cases today, a Medina man pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in the third degree for an incident on March 15.

In court William Cruz, 41, said he punched a customer outside the VFW in Medina and then took $200 from the victim. He will be sentenced on Dec. 16 and could face up to a year in jail and five years on probation.

Cruz has been in jail on $100,000 bail. He has two prior felonies and nine misdemeanors.

An Albion man was arraigned on robbery. Morris M. Taylor, 23, of 239 East State St. allegedly was armed with a knife and robbed a pizza delivery person outside Mark’s Pizzeria in Albion on Feb. 28.

After the robbery, Taylor allegedly left the area with $300. Surveillance was used by law enforcement to locate Taylor in the town of Batavia, where he was taken into custody on May 28. He is out of jail on $2,000 cash bail.

ALBION – A Medina resident who allegedly stole $20,000 in lottery tickets has rejected a plea deal that would have spared her from state prison. The case against Kim Capstick will now go to trial beginning Nov. 6 and Capstick could face 1 1/3 to 4 years if convicted.

Orleans County Court Judge James Punch asked Capstick several times in court today if she wanted to go to trial and face the possibility of time in state prison. She was offered a plea deal that would have resulted in no more than six months in county jail plus five years of probation.

Capstick and her attorney Thomas Burns declined the plea offer.

Capstick worked at Curvin’s News and Smoke Shop in Medina from February 2011 to June 2012 when the alleged thefts occurred. She has been charged with one count of third-degree grand larceny.

ALBION – A Kendall man who allegedly shot his wife following an argument and then burned down their home would face a maximum of 20 years in state prison, according to a plea offer presented in Orleans County Court today by District Attorney Joseph Cardone.

Dennis Buehler, 64, could face 25 years in state prison for second-degree attempted murder, plus additional time for third-degree arson. As part of the plea, he would face up to 20 years in prison.

Buehler and his attorney, Public Defender Sanford Church, will consider the plea offer. If Buehler accepts it, the offer would still need to be approved by County Court Judge James Punch.

Buehler allegedly shot his wife Linda with a shotgun on March 4. Mrs. Buehler then fled the house, which Buehler then allegedly set on fire. The Buehlers’ house at 923 Peter Smith Rd. was destroyed by the fire. In court today, Cardone said the insurance company is contesting paying the claim for the damages.

Punch said a separate hearing will likely be needed to determine restitution for Mrs. Buehler, who has filed for divorce.

She survived the gunshot wound to her shoulder. Cardone said she and other witnesses are prepared to testify should the case go to trial.

Buehler has been charged of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and third-degree arson.

ALBION A downtown Albion merchant has avoided jail and Probation for stealing from a fellow business owner.

Denise VanWagner, 60, of Medina has paid $7,000 in restitution. She doesn’t have a prior criminal record. Today she was fined $500 by Judge Richard Koch and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service.

Koch handled the case for Judge James Punch. VanWagner pleaded guilty in May to attempted petty larceny. She has told law enforcement officials she doesn’t remember taking money from Fischer’s Newsroom, where police say she stole $28,303.

VanWagner, owner of the Place To Go consignment shop, would go to Fischer’s and watch the store while owner Gary Withey took a bathroom break. Withey became suspicious about the theft and marked $20 bills that VanWagner then allegedly stole. One time he hid behind a door and witnessed her taking the money. He then called the Albion police.

In March, VanWagner was arraigned on charges of third-degree grand larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

VanWagner declined to speak to the court during her sentencing this morning.

“You were caught with your proverbial hand in the cookie jar,” Koch told her. “You took advantage of a friendship with the Witheys.”

Gary and Denise Withey accepted the $7,000 restitution. They wanted to avoid a trial. They may pursue civil litigation to recover more money.

Koch told VanWagner she should admit her crime and apologize to the Witheys.

“The monster you have to confront is yourself,” the judge told her. “Your inability to say I made a mistake is the most troubling part about you.”