Medina man sentenced to 4 years in prison for drug crime
ALBION – A Medina resident was sentenced to four years in state prison on Monday. Russell E. Sargent, 52, admitted in a previous court appearance to having cocaine with the intention of selling it on May 18.
He was sentenced for attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. He could have faced up to 5 ½ years in prison, but as part of a plea deal the sentence was capped at 4 years.
“He acknowledges what he did is foolish,” Public Defender Joanne Best told Sara Sheldon, interim County Court judge. “This all dates back to the seriousness of the the drug use he has engaged in the last few years.”
Sargent apologized to the court, his friends and family.
“You’re getting too old for this,” Sheldon told Sargent. “What a crappy way to live your life.”
Her sentence included the option for Sargent to go to the Willard drug treatment program through the state correctional system.
He also has to pay $230 restitution to the Orleans County Major Felony Crime Task Force.
In other cases:
• Some of the charges have been dismissed for a Ridgeway man who allegedly held a woman against her will for several weeks, while physically and sexually assaulting her.
The woman couldn’t provide specific dates for all of the alleged crimes. Gerardo Quiros, 31, was facing 36 counts but some of those were dismissed because the District Attorney’s Office couldn’t provide the exact dates. However, the victim was able to provide specifics for many of the alleged crimes. Quiros is now facing 24 counts, including seven counts of first-degree rape, 10 counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of third-degree assault, one count of both criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third and fifth degrees, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, criminal mischief in the fourth degree, and unlawful possession of marijuana.
Quiros remains in the county jail after his bail was revoked in January by Judge Sheldon. The judge said she wouldn’t consider releasing him from jail.
He is scheduled to go to trial on June 18.
• A Holley woman was sentenced to four months of weekends in jail plus five years of probation after getting her third charge for driving while intoxicated in the past 10 years.
Katherine Christ, 29, was charged on June 20 with a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal limit.
The judge took her driver’s license. Christ has to pay a $520 court surcharge and will have to have an interlock ignition device that measures her BAC when she resumes driving.
• Corey Goebel, 27, of Sparling Drive in Rochester pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary and faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail and five years probation when he is sentenced on June 25.
He admitted he entered a garage on June 21, 2017, intending to a commit a crime in Clarendon on Monroe-Orleans Countyline Road.
Goebel faces a similar charge in Monroe County. Judge Sheldon said she would have given Goebel more time in jail but Monroe County already agreed to a plea deal of six months in jail, and five years of probation.
“I’m not happy with this, but Monroe County went first,” she said.
• Judge Sheldon, a Niagara County judge, is reducing some of the cases she has in Orleans County. She has been filling in since James Punch retired last July 29. Sanford Church was elected in November and is assuming more of the workload. Charles Zambito, a judge from Genesee County, also is handling some of the court cases.
Sheldon told some of the people in a judicial diversion program that Monday was her last time seeing them. Those cases will be shifted to Zambito, who has court on Thursday mornings.
One of the local residents in the diversion program thanked Sheldon for giving him a second chance. If he completes drug treatment and doesn’t commit any additional crimes, his felony drug charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor.
“You’re welcome,” Judge Sheldon told the man. “I want to see you strong and sober.”
