Lockport Union-Sun & Journal —
A Newfane man will spend at least a decade behind bars for numerous attacks on his girlfriend last year.
Benjamin D. Pohl, 49, Coomer Road, was sentenced Thursday to 10-and-a-half to 21 years in state prison. In March a jury convicted Pohl on 10 counts, including four misdemeanor assaults, four felony criminal contempts, attempted second-degree assault and second-degree unlawful imprisonment.
Pohl was found guilty of beating his girlfriend four times in 2011, once on March 23 and three times between Sept. 28 and 29. Each assault violated a restraining order the woman had against Pohl. He is also a second felony offender, having been convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2005.
In one of the September attacks, the victim had said she had broken ribs from a previous attack. Pohl knocked her down and kicked her in the ribs.
"I think you're a bully," State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch said to Pohl. "As a kid, you were the one pulling the wings off of a butterfly. You're violent, so you should spend time with violent people."
Pohl was orginally supposed to be sentenced in May, but his attorney Frank Bogulski filed a pair of motions, which Kloch denied Thursday.
The first motion Bogulski made said Pohl did not have a chance to testify before the grand jury. Kloch denied the motion, citing law that said such a motion has to be made within five days of arraignment.
Bogulski said Pohl had a different attorney at the time who did not advise Pohl of the right to testify. Kloch said he believed Pohl's previous lawyer had been diligent, but any such concern was a matter for appeal.
Bogulski's second motion was jury misconduct, citing some jurors in the two-week March trial were asleep during proceedings. Kloch denied the motion, citing the jury was carefully monitored.
"I thought they were very diligent," Kloch said.
Courts
July 13, 2012
Pohl gets prison for beatings
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