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This is Rochester
 
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  More from 2019

Arrest made in fatal August shooting

Oct. 21, 2019 -- Rochester police arrested Marzell Miller, 36, in connection with an August homicide on 4th Street.

Miller, of Rochester, was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession. He's accused of fatally shooting Shaniece Taylor, 26, on Aug. 15. Miller was identified as a suspect the following day.

Former judge Astacio arraigned on new charges

Oct. 21. 2019 -- Former Rochester City Court judge Leticia Astacio was arraigned in City Court on new charges that she violated her probation for DWI, with prosecutors alleging the misuse of the interlock device on her vehicle and a failure to report to the probation department.

Astacio was convicted of DWI in 2016 and removed from the bench last year. In its decision, the New York State Court of Appeals wrote Astacio sought preferred treatment from police during that incident, and that she ignored the conditions of her sentence. The court also cited decisions and comments she made on the bench that it said violated judicial rules.

In April 2019, she was acquitted by a Syracuse jury of a felony weapons charge. Prosecutors had accused her of trying to purchase a shotgun at two Dick's Sporting Goods locations in 2017, which would have violated her probation. The defense argued an unloaded shotgun is not a dangerous weapon. She ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the Rochester City Council Northwest District earlier this year.

Stabbing suspect pleaded guilty after prior incident

Oct. 17, 2019 -- The man accused last week of stabbing two people, one of them fatally, pleaded guilty to a knife-related crime in June but was out of jail because his case had been diverted to drug and mental health courts despite a long history of felony convictions.

Black Jewelz, 34, is charged with second-degree murder and assaulting another man. He was released from state prison in October 2018 after serving nine years for robbery, grand larceny and selling drugs, and prosecutors say he his recond includes six felony convictions.

In the past year he had been arrested three times, including once for menacing another person with a knife on North Clinton Avenue. Though the crime is punishable by up to a year in jail, yet he wasn't incarcerated following his guilty plea in June. Instead, the case was diverted to drug and mental health court, which allow certain defendants to get treatment for addiction or mental health problems.

One dead after pair of downtown stabbings

Oct. 11, 2019 -- A Rochester man stabbed two people, killing one, during an evening rampage near St. Paul Street in downtown Rochester.

Black Jewelz, 34, was arrested on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree assault.

The dead man was identified as David Oquendo, 24, of Rochester, who was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital, where he died.

While still on the scene, officers located a second man, also stabbed in the upper torso, at 100 St. Paul Street. Neville Brown, 28, of Rochester, sustained a non-life threatening injury ad was released from a hospital following treatment.

With a police presence continuing in the area later in the evening, police made an unreleated arrest of a man outside of the RTS downtown Transit Center and an RPD officer later took a woman into custody after she was seen going after a man with a large butcher knife. The officer disarmed her without incident.

Police said the two arrests were unrelated to the earlier stabbings.

Webster police investigating second homicide of 2019

Oct., 11, 2019 -- Police are investigating a woman's death as a homicide after she was found dead inside a home at 270 Oakdale Drive in Webster.

Police were called to the home to check the welfare of a resident and found her body, determining at the time that the death was suspicious. She was identified as Cathy O'Brien, 56, who lived at the home.

In July, Timothy Manley, Jr., 29, was found outside a home on Hollywood Boulevard, less than two miles away in Webster. No one has been arrested in that homicide investigation, and police have said the two slayings are considered isolated incidents.

Former Brighton coach accused of abuse

Oct. 11, 2019 -- A once-prominent youth sports coach in Brighton has been accused in lawsuits of sexually abusing two teenage gymnasts more than four decades ago.

Two women say they were sexually assaulted and abused by Duncan Ververs, then the coach of the Brighton town recreation department's gymnastics squad and a physical education teacher in a Brighton elementary school.

The suits, filed under provisions of the Child Victims Act, alleged that hundreds of criminal acts of abuse occurred while the accusers were members of the gymnastics team. The acts began when the women were 12 and 13 years old, and continued in each case for about six years, the lawsuit says.

Ververs, 74, could not be reached for comment. The town and the school district issued statements in which they declined to comment on the lawsuits.

Ververs founded a gymnastics school in 1970. By 1975, the program had attracted more than 300 young people, most of them girls, according to a story in the Democrat and Chronicle at the time.

He worked as a gym teacher at Council Rock elementary school, and coached girls soccer, boys baseball and gymnastics at Brighton High. Ververs also ran the town rec department gymnastics squad.

The two women who filed suit said in their legal papers that they joined the town squad in 1971. The abusive acts allegedly took place in Council Rock school, on Brighton Central school buses, in Verver's home and car, at a strip club and in hotel rooms during out-of-town gymnastics trips.

McFadden pleads guilty to bilking non-profit agency

Oct. 9, 2019 -- Former City Councilman Adam McFadden pleaded guilty to felony wire fruad for bilking Quad A For Kids for more than $131,000 while serving as the non-profit agency's executive director. McFadden, 48, admitted submitting phony invoices from 2012 through 2018 items that were never delivered.

Quad A For Kids provides after-school programs to 500 area children in five city schools. McFadden led the organization for most of the past 15 years. A special audit of its operations focused on McFadden's tenure uncovered the fraud.

Federal sentencing guidelines recommend a prison term of between 15 and 21 months, plus fines, restitution and supervised probation.

McFadden is also awaiting sentencing on federal charges of wire fraud and filing a false tax return to which he pleaded guilty in April. That plea arrangement covered acts that garnered him more than $134,000 through a housing non-profit and three years of personal tax returns on which he claimed illegitimate business deductions.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney James Kennedy said McFadden "diverted funds away from those in need in our community and into his own pocket. That he would do so while serving as a Rochester City Councilman is particularly egregious, as such behavior is more consistent with that of a public parasite than it is of a public servant."

McFadden is scheduled to be sentenced in February on both matters.

Rochester teen accused of muder in Massachusetts

Oct. 7, 2019 -- A 15-year-old Rochester girls is accused of stabbing a woman to death in Massachusetts.

Fall River (Mass.) Police responded to an apartment for a reported medical emergency. They found Ana Vazquez, 68, suffering from multiple stab wounds. Vazquez was rushed to an area hospital, where she was later pronounced deceased.

Heavenly Arroyo, 15, who had been living in the residence with the victim and her grandson for about two weeks, was charged with murder.

Guilty plea in multi-million dollar fraud

Oct. 7, 2019 -- Perry Santillo pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to launder money as part of scheme bilking a thousand investors in a $100 million Ponzi scheme that stretched across at least 12 other states.

Some of his victims including a Victor that lost $214,258.67 and a man in Webster who lost $94,341.89. Both said the money constituted theirlife savings. Santillo has pleaded guilty in New York and Pennsylvania and is also named in a separate Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

The guilty pleas carry a maximum 20 year sentence in each of the two states. Santillo also faces a $500,000 fine in New York. Santillo is scheduled to be sentenced March 6, 2020.

Santillo, 39, ran the firm Lucian Development out of an office building on West Main Street in Rochester between January 2008 and June 2018. Early investors were paid with money from new investors until the pyramid scheme collapsed. Authorities say he took in $155.5 million between 2012 and 2018 and eventually lost 70.7 million.

The scheme went undetected for so long in part because Santillo and a partner identified only as "CP" bought out the businesses of 15 investment advisers in 11 states.

RPD officer stabbed during call for domestic violence incident

Oct. 4, 2019 -- A Rochester police officer was stabbed in the face multiple times during a call for a domestic incident at Peck Street.

Deputy Chief Mark Mura said Officer Denny Wright, a 23-year veteran of the Rochester Police Department, responded to call for a "family trouble" around 11:45 a.m. Wright was attacked and stabbed in the face by a suspect about 35 minutes later.

Wright was taken to Rochester General Hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition following surgery.

Keith Williams, 28, was charged with attempted aggravated murder and aggravated assault of a police officer stemming from the assault. Williams is also a suspect in a shooting earlier this month and faces charges of assault and menacing. Back in June, Williams was arrested after a standoff with police.

Wright fired one round from his weapon, but Williams was not hit. The suspect was tased, Mura said, and bystanders then intervened to assit Wright.

"Today’s news reminds us of the bravery and dedication of the men and women of our Rochester Police Department," Mayor Lovely Warren said in a statement. "I ask all those of faith to pray for the Officer’s recovery and well-being. The residents who intervened deserve our gratitude and their actions speak to the true spirit of our city."



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