I was recently selected to be the focus of Super Lawyers Q&A feature for their 2015 Upstate New York issue. Super Lawyers' feature focuses on my Scientific Misconduct practice. You can read the entire article by clicking here.
Rapper DMX is back in jail in Western New York. This time, he’s been sentenced to spend six months in the Erie County Holding Center for failing to comply with a court order to pay child support for a daughter born to a Buffalo resident. In 2001, he was jailed at the Erie County Correctional Facility after being convicted of speeding on the Kensington Expressway, driving without a license, and marijuana possession. WGRZ asked me to comment on DMX’s recent sentencing and other aspects of the current case. Click on the image above for the full interview.
A fatal motorcycle crash that took two lives in the Town of Amherst in 2012 may lead to safety changes for the area—and a settlement offer for the family of one of the victims. The women who died in the crash were walking along a town bike path with their families when a drunk motorcyclist veered off Tonawanda Creek Road and struck several people, including the two who were killed. The family of one of the victims sued the town, claiming it failed to properly design the section of the bike path where the accident took place. WGRZ asked me to comment on the crash and lawsuit. Click on the image above for the full interview.
Richard Matt, the City of Tonawanda native who broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Dannemora, NY, has a history of breaking out of jail. In this most recent escape, Matt and another inmate, David Sweat, used power tools to break out of their cells, wound their way through the guts of the massive prison, and came out a manhole. WGRZ asked me what Matt is likely to do now that he’s out. Click on the image above for the interview.
WGRZ’s 2 on Your Side news team reports on the ongoing investigation into the accident the caused the death of three-year-old Maksym Sugorovskiy in Delaware Park on May 30. The driver, who caused the accident when his car veered off the Scajaquada Expressway and onto the park’s Ring Road, where Maksym and his mother and sister were walking, has not been charged. WGRZ asked for my comments on this aspect of the case and on the Amherst Police Department joining the investigation. Click on the video above.
WGRZ reports that an arrest warrant was issued for Carlos Fuqua, who left his two young children padlocked in a room while he and the children’s mother left the house, leaving the kids alone and unsupervised. The warrant was issued after the father failed to show up in city court for a hearing on charges of endangering the welfare of the children. WGRZ asked for my comments on the missed court date and how the father might be found. Click on the video above.
The Niagara County District Attorneys office completely dismissed tax fraud and related charges against my client, Gail Villani, the owner of seven Gui’s Lumber locations in Western New York. Those charges were filed by the New York State Tax Department in September of 2014. Those charges alleged that Ms. Villani and Gui's Lumber intentionally withheld $589,000 in state sales tax revenue. Ms. Villani faced up to 15 years in prison. Read the full article at the Buffalo News's website.
WGRZ also covered the New York State’s Tax Department’s false accusation that my client Gail Villani failed to pay half a million dollars in sales taxes owed by her Gui’s Lumber stores. As I noted in the post above, after an investigation by the tax department found she did not owe money and in fact had overpaid, the charges were dropped. But the charges against Ms. Villani did not come without a price. As I told WGRZ, “To have this hanging over her head, felony charges, she had banking institutions that cutoff her line of credit, she had friends and family members that did not understand how she could be under felony criminal charges." See the video above for the full interview.
WGRZ reports Myweh Harris, who is accused of setting fire to a house on Buffalo’s East Side, may have untreated mental illness. This is according to her father, Huey Hornsby, who told WGRZ, "I have been trying to get help for this young lady for the last year. I'm stressed out about this young lady because she's my daughter. I love her, but I can't do anything to help her because she's an adult." Ms. Harris’s family told WGRZ she has refused medical assistance in the past. Asked for my comments, I told WGRZ, "If the adult does not want to have mental health treatment, it's very difficult to get that treatment and to get some type of crisis intervention to get them evaluated. Two experts have to sign off and say that the adult individual is an immediate threat to themselves or others." According to her family, this determination has...
Read MoreBuffalo, NY’s WGRZ reports newly released records suggest the Erie County Sheriff’s Office obtained little judicial oversight for its controversial cell phone spying program. This information contradicts public statements made by Sheriff Tim Howard, who reported that deputies received court orders prior to using the surveillance devices, commonly referred to as Stingray technology, in criminal matters. A judge required that the records be released to the New York Civil Liberties Union. The Sheriff’s Office tried for months to block the documents’ release. I told WGRZ I find these developments disturbing. "No one wants to shut the program down, not even us defense lawyers. All we want, though, is for the sheriff to comply with the U.S. and state constitutions and New York State laws and go before a judge—unless there's not enough time—and get a judicial warrant."
