COURTS: Suspended Falls police officer to stay behind bars while case proceeds

Courts

December 31, 2008

By Rick Pfeiffer<br><a href="mailto:pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Rick</a> The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Wed Dec 31, 2008, 12:10 AM EST

BUFFALO — Suspended Falls police officer Ryan Warme will start the New Year in exactly the same place he ended 2008.

Locked up in a cell at the Steuben County jail.

After an hour and a half of arguments and testimony and a half hour of deliberation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh Scott denied a request by Warme’s defense attorney to have him released from custody into house arrest at his parents’ Grand Island home. The ruling was a victory for federal prosecutors who had argued Warme should remain behind bars while his case works its way through court.

“The court finds by clear and convincing proof that the defendant poses a risk of danger to the community,” Scott wrote in his decision, “and that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure against the risk he poses to witnesses and the community.”

Warme will return to court Jan. 23 for a status conference on his case. It is possible that by that time, a federal grand jury that has been hearing testimony and reviewing evidence in the case may have returned an indictment against Warme.

If he is indicted, prosecutors have indicated that Warme will face a significant number of additional charges besides those in the criminal complaint that led to his arrest on Dec. 2.

The three-year veteran of the Falls police force currently faces charges that include cocaine trafficking, violating the civil rights of two women and using his police issued a firearm while committing those crimes. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and could face the death penalty for the civil rights violations, though a potential life in prison sentence is considered more likely, should he be convicted at a trial.

At the conclusion of the hearing Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Bruce told Scott, “I understand from Mr. Daniels this will be a trial case.”

In arguing that Warme should not be released from custody, Bruce told Scott that Daniels admitted in a court filing that Warme had sex with one victim and oral sex with another victim and the encounters “occurred while he was on duty as a Niagara Falls police officer.”

Daniels fired back by telling Scott that Warme doesn’t deny having sex with two women but that what happened wasn’t a crime, but consensual acts without violence or force.

Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer at 282-2311, ext. 2252.

Text Only

Courts

Former NFTA cop sentenced
A former Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police officer will spend six years on probation for sending a sexually explicit photo to a teenage girl, a girl he later had a sexual encounter with.
In addition, John W. Ingham will spend 25 weekends in the service of the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office Work Program. Ingham was sentenced Thursday by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch, Sr. Ingham will also register as a sex offender.

February 3, 2012
Rapist gets 15 years
A Middleport man will serve 15 years behind bars for raping a Lockport woman at knifepoint in March.
Harold G. Case, 50, 3470 Carmen Road, was sentenced Thursday in Niagara County Court for first-degree attempted rape, a class C violent felony. Upon completion of the sentence, Case will have 15 years of post release supervision.

January 5, 2012
Plea reached in stabbing case
Hans S. Diefenbach could be looking at 10 years in state prison, after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter Thursday in Niagara County Court.
Diefenbach 47, 70 Genesee St., admitted to stabbing 66-year-old Norma Confer several times with a pair of knives on April 21, leaving one of them in her back. She died in May after being in a coma for
five weeks. Diefenbach was originally charged with first-degree murder.

December 9, 2011
Court actions published Sept. 7, 2011
Schumacher DWI case adjourned to October
A Gasport woman accused of hitting two teens on Dysinger Road on May 26 will return in the beginning of October to Lockport Town Court, after having her case adjourned Tuesday night.
Amy J. Schumacher, 36, 8472 Chestnut Ridge Road, has been charged with Class E felony aggravated vehicular assault and driving while intoxicated.
On May 26, Schumacher was driving on Dysinger Road when she swerved off the road and struck two boys who were walking on the shoulder, according to the report from the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office. According to sheriff’s deputies, Schumacher registered a 0.12 percent blood alcohol content.

September 6, 2011
Two drug dealers are sentenced
September 1, 2011
Police blotter items published August 17, 2011
City of Lockport
HARASSMENT: Matthew J. Brown, 30, 79 Grove Ave., upper apartment, was charged with second-degree harassment Tuesday at police headquarters. Brown is accused of slapping a woman’s face and causing her to fall to the ground Aug. 7, according to the police report. Brown was held in policy custody pending arraignment today in City Court.

August 17, 2011
Pedestrians hit on Dysinger suing town
August 11, 2011
Schumacher due in court Aug. 9
A Gasport woman accused of hitting two teens on Dysinger Road in May will return Aug. 9 to Lockport Town Court.
Amy J. Schumacher, 36, 8472 Chestnut Ridge Road, has been charged with Class E felony aggravated vehicular assault on top of driving while intoxicated.

July 13, 2011
Man pleads not guilty in ring of burglaries
A Wrights Corners man the Niagara County Sheriff referred to as a “one man crime spree” pleaded not guilty Friday afternoon in Niagara County Court.

June 17, 2011
Court actions published June 2, 2011
Alleged drunk driver also texting
The Gasport woman accused of hitting two teen boys on Dysinger Road while she was driving intoxicated last week, was also found to be texting during the time of the accident, according to the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office.

June 1, 2011
More Courts Headlines

Courts

Search Results

COURTS: Suspended Falls police officer to stay behind bars while case proceeds

Site Map

Contact Us