National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse: Leticia Astacio found not guilty of felony gun charge

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Leticia Astacio found not guilty of felony gun charge

Defense attorney Mark Foti called it a "satisfying result" after his client, Leticia Astacio, was acquitted on a felony weapons charge Friday. Meaghan M. McDermott

An Onondaga County jury found former Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio not guilty of attempted criminal purchase or disposal of a weapon, a felony.

Astacio was arrested and charged in April 2018 after being accused of trying to purchase a shotgun at Dick's Sporting Goods in Henrietta.

The jury began its deliberations Thursday and reached a verdict Friday afternoon.

Prosecutors said her probation terms prohibited her from trying to purchase a weapon. Her attorney, Mark Foti, argued that "dangerous weapon" is a highly ambiguous phrase. He asked the jury to use critical thinking and common sense when determining if an unloaded shotgun can be a dangerous weapon.

The law required evidence that Astacio got close to purchasing the gun, Foti said. He argued that she never reached that point, because she never submitted or signed paperwork and she never started payment.

The jury was made up of 10 men and two women.

Astacio began to sob as the jury was polled individually for their verdicts. She declined comment leaving court, but Foti said having this case pending for the past year "has been an extraordinary weight and what you saw was that weight being lifted off her shoulders."

In both his opening statement and closing argument, Foti called the case one of governmental overreach. "What they were trying to do was prosecute somebody who didn't even fill out paperwork," he said.

Foti always contended that his client would be cleared.

"From the very beginning, we insisted that ultimately those charges would be dismissed one way or another, whether it was by a judge or a jury," Foti said Friday. "The jury did the right thing. This is a satisfying result."

He said Astacio intends to continue her bid for a seat on City Council and to continue her legal career. If convicted, Astacio would have lost her license to practice law in New York.

Both Foti and special prosecutor Mark Sinkiewicz, interim district attorney in Seneca County, said Astacio received a fair trial.

"The citizens of Monroe County are entitled to closure," Sinkiewicz said. "This provides that, not in the way we anticipated. The court of public opinion is obviously vastly different than the court of law. ... I feel like we presented every ounce of evidence available to us."

The jury submitted additional questions to acting state Supreme Court Justice Gordon Cuffy Friday afternoon. He told them that they wound need to determine if, beyond a reasonable doubt, Astacio had been "dangerously close to" or "very near completion" of purchasing the shotgun at the Dick's in Henrietta.

On Thursday, Cuffy dismissed one juror, and replaced him with an alternate. The juror appeared to be falling asleep during the attorneys' summations; this was the second time this week he was accused of sleeping.

Another juror was dismissed Tuesday after acknowledging that she had watched a brief segment on television news about the Astacio trial.

The criminal case of Astacio, who last year was removed from the Rochester City Court bench, was moved to Onondaga County after appellate judges determined the ample local media coverage made a fair trial unlikely in Monroe County.

Astacio remains on probation following her drunken driving conviction, which stems from a February 2016 incident on Interstate 490 in Rochester. That criminal conviction, coupled with allegations that she tried to influence police during the arrest and did not abide by her post-arrest mandates, were key to the decision of state officials and judges to remove her from the bench.

According to state law, a lawyer convicted of a felony is automatically disbarred. Her political career could have been in jeopardy. On Monday, Astacio filed paperwork to run for a City Council seat representing the northwest side of Rochester.

She submitted petitions to be included on the ballot in the Democratic primary on June 25. Those signatures could still be challenged.