Inmate gets more prison time for assaulting CO
ALBION – A former inmate at the Albion Correctional Facility was sentenced to another 1 ½ to 3 years in state prison for second-degree assault.
Aniah Ferguson, 21, admitted to striking a corrections officer with a closed fist several times on Feb. 15, 2019.
Ferguson was taken to the emergency room at Medina Memorial Hospital on Feb. 15. While in the bathroom, her mechanical restraints were removed from one wrist. When a female correction officer tried to put the restraint back on, Ferguson punched her several times with her free hand, causing injuries to the CO’s head, including a bloody nose, and contusions to her eye, face and head.
Ferguson has since been transferred to Bedford Hills. Ferguson is in prison after an incident in 2015 when she led an attack on a 16-year-old girl at a McDonald’s in Brooklyn. When she was at Rikers Island, Ferguson assaulted a captain at the New York City jail.
In other cases in Orleans County Court on Thursday:
• Kevin Cowley, 51, of Albion was sentenced to 8 weekends in the county jail plus three years of probation for petit larceny.
Cowley allegedly stole cans of a computer spray from the Albion Walmart. He was banned from entering the store when he took the items on June 20.
Cowley’s attorney, Nathan Pace, said Cowley suffers from PTSD. He is seeking treatment.
Cowley didn’t deny he took the items from Walmart.
“I made a mistake,” he said.
Judge Sanford Church said Cowley isn’t to go to Walmart again as part of the sentence.
• An Albion man pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted burglary in the third degree, for his role in two break-ins. He will be screened for a drug diversion court. If he is accepted and completes the program, the felonies will be dismissed and he will instead be charged with misdemeanors.
Alexander Rotoli, 19, was with two codefendants on Aug. 19. He said he served as the lookout while the two others broke into a can redemption center on Hamilton Street. They stole a cash register. Rotoli said he received $150.
The trio also broke into a used car dealership on Ridge Road in Ridgeway, taking cash and computer equipment, Rotoli said he received $300-$400 from that break-in.
He is to soon start a treatment program at the Genesee-Orleans Council on Alcohol and Substance Abuse.
• Jacob Harbaugh, 29, of Niagara Falls was arraigned on burglary in the third degree, grand larceny in the third degree, and two counts of criminal mischief in the fourth degree.
He and two codefendants stealing three dirt bikes from a Ridgeway garage on Oct. 16, 2018.
One codefendant, Carlton Cook-Mckee, has already been sentenced to 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison for burglary and grand larceny.
Another codefendant, Michael Dubuc, last month pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the fourth-degree.
