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Robert Peachey Roy Hooten

A suspected copper thief forgot his wallet at Home Depot, according to State Police, and when he came back for it, employees identified him as a suspect in the theft.

His alleged accomplice was located in the parking lot.

Troopers and deputies then went on a search in Batavia and Oakfield last Saturday night to locate the vehicle with the allegedly stolen copper.

Eventually, the car was found and Roy Hooten, 52, and Robert Peachey, both of Oakfield, were charged with conspiracy, 5th.

In addition, Peachey was charged with grand larceny, 4th, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, and was jailed on $10,000 bail following arraignment in Town of Batavia Court.

Hooten is accused of causing a distraction in Home Depot so Peachey could carry the copper to a vehicle waiting outside.

After the two men left, Peachey apparently discovered he didn't have his wallet. The men reportedly parked the car and walked back to Home Depot. By then, troopers were on location and the men refused to cooperate and reveal the location of the vehicle, according to Trooper Victor Morales, public information officer for Troop A, Batavia Barracks.

Five years ago this month, Hooten was arrested for stealing scrap metal in Oakfield. We don't know the outcome of those cases. He was sentenced to two to four years in state prison on an attempted burglary charge and released from prison Nov. 2. In 2006, he was sentenced to one to four years on an attempted criminal possession of a weapon conviction. He was released on parole in August 2007.

A transformer has blown in the area of 11 Douglas St., Batavia.

Power is out in the area.

National Grid has been notified.

No ETA on repairs nor how many customers are without power.

UPDATE 1:33 p.m.: A dozen customers are without power, according to National Grid. ETA for repair is 4 p.m.

Submitted by Patricia Hawley:

A group of local fiber artists have gathered at Blue Pearl Yoga to show their work. “Mandala Quilts” features 10 pieces based on the Mandala -- a spiritual representing the wholeness of the Universe. The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. The show hangs through mid-November.

ArtCGirlz started about eight years ago when members of the Museum Quilt Guild began a niche group concentrating on Art Quilts. While every quilt tells a story, art quilts differ in that “they are meant to hang on a wall as art,” says member Martha Lorshbaugh. Her quilt, “Zendala Mandala,” incorporates intricate stitching using fushia-colored thread. According to organizer Elaine Ross, “Art quilters rarely follow a strict pattern. We love to change things around.” Many of the quilts contain embellishments like beads, sequins, buttons and embroidery.

The 11-member ArtCGirlz’s meet the second Tuesday of each month; the location varies so check out their blog at ArtCGirlz.blogspot.com. To view the show, visit the gallery at Blue Pearl Yoga, 200 E. Main St., third floor, in  Batavia. The gallery is open during class times; call ahead for details or check their Web site at www.bp-yoga.com or find them on Facebook at Blue Pearl Yoga. Admission is free.

Top photo: Mary Ellen Casey.

Samantha Jane Roberts, 22, of Vine Street, Batavia, is charged with grand larceny. Roberts is accused of stealing $1,072 in cash from registers at Walmart while employed as a cashier.

Adante L. Davis, 23, of 32 Washington Ave., Batavia, is charged with disorderly conduct.  Davis allegedly made obscene gestures and used foul language directed at police officers while the officers were working in the area of West Main Street.

William C. Wurster, 52, 337 Bank Street, Apt. 70, Batavia, is charged with harassment 2nd. During a dispute with a neighbor, Wurster allegedly picked up a 2x4 and swung it around his head in a threatening manner.

Patrick Gilman Kimball, 30, of Tracy Avenue, Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, failure to keep right and failure to dim headlights.  Kimball was stopped at 2:30 a.m., Friday, on Route 5, Pembroke, by Deputy Joseph Corona.

Andrew Charles Webster, 20, of North Street, Leicester, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance 7th. Webster was allegedly found in possession of Tramadol during a traffic stop at 11:47 p.m., Sunday, on Gillate Road, Alexander, by Investigator John Weis.

Curtis Paul Howden, 34, of Redman Road, Brockport, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, unlawful possession of marijuana, drinking in a motor vehicle and failure to keep right. Howden was stopped at 12:35 a.m., Friday, on South Lake Road, Bergen, by Deputy Joseph Corona.

Kasey Ann Woodhouse, 24, of Liberty Street, Batavia, is charged with aggravated harassment 2nd. Woodhouse is accused of sending harassing messages to another person via Facebook after being told not to have contact with that person.

Robert L. Peachey, 30, of Oakfield, is charged with conspiracy 5th and grand larceny 4th, and Roy D. Hooten, 52, of Oakfield, is charged with conspiracy 5th. Peachey and Hooten were arrested by State Police for an alleged incident reported at 10:03 p.m., Saturday. No further details released.

The third annual "Bidding on a Brighter Future" gala and auction was hosted by the Kiwanis club of Batavia on Saturday night at Genesee Community College's forum. Big turn out, lots of auction items -- all signs of a hugely successful event.

Proceeds will go to the Child Advocacy Center/Justice for Children Foundation to provide the CAC with a permenant building for its operations.

No word yet on how much money was raised or the final total of attendees, but it was a full house.

Batavia High School hosted its annual Athletic Hall of Fame dinner Saturday night at Terry Hills.

Pictured above are: Brett Wormley, Julie Redband Varland, Mike Rogers, Wayne Fuller, Lance Cayea, Todd Cayea, Katie Barnard (John Barnard's daughter, representing him at the dinner) and Jim Barnard.

Local broadcasting and announcing legend Wayne Fuller with his guests, Jim Owen, Dan and Debbie Fischer (owners of WBTA), Fuller, Martha Bailey and Anita Strollo (both with WBTA).

A 9-year-old girl from Corfu lost consciousness following an accident this afternoon in Oakfield and was taken by Mercy Flight to Strong Memorial Hospital.

After the girl regained consciousness, Samantha Davis started screaming and was screaming as she was loaded onto the helicopter. First responders took her screaming as a good sign.

Samantha was a passenger in a 2010 sedan driven by her mother, Christine A. Davis, 33, of Pratt Road, Corfu.

According to Sgt. James Meier, Davis was driving south on Lewiston Road and started a left-hand turn onto Maltby Road.

Her car was T-boned by a 2012 Ford pickup truck driven by Jon Doran, 48, of Weber Avenue, Oakfield.

Doran, his wife, Kimberly, 46, and son, Cody, 23, all suffered minor injuries and were transported to UMMC.

Christine Davis was transported by ground ambulance to Strong.

She was cited for alleged right-of-way violation.

The investigation was conducted by Deputy Lonnie Nati.

Oakfield fire and Mercy EMS responded to the scene.

(initial report)

While rain seemed to encourage a few of the ARC 5K walkers to shorten the course today, it didn't slow down Michael Richenberg (second picture), who won the race in Elba for the fifth straight year.

A slow drizzle turned into a bit of a downpour about a minute into the race, but hundreds of runners still completed the course.

Race results are not yet available.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the full race results.

Le Roy looked like a team with barely a weakness during the first half of Friday's 41-14 victory over Letchworth.

The Indians were held to minus two yards of total offense during the half and ran only 19 plays without notching a single first down.

The Oatkan Knights (3-0) had six possession in the half and scored five offensive TDs with a total offense of 248 yards.

The one glitch was a Mike McMullen interception when the Knights seemed to be marching toward another inevitable touchdown. It was McMullen's first interception of the season.

"I thought we played well," Head Coach Brian Moran said. "I though we did a lot of things well tonight. I thought our first team played extremely well. They got off the ball well. We just did a lot good things."

McMullen tossed three touchdown passes and had a total of 118 yards through the air on the night. He was 10-16 passing. Ryan McQuillen caught all three of the TD passes.

Peter Privitera gained 145 yards on 18 carries, scoring twice.

"Peter ran very well today," Moran said. "As you know, he came off the ankle surgery and tonight he showed the Peter of old. He started to get that speed back, and acceleration."

Tom Kelso carried the ball seven times for 42 yards and one TD. Nick Egeling ran for 45 yards on six carries. Kelso also caught three passes for 42 yards.

Jake Henry had six tackles and a sack. Chandler Winling, five tackles, and with four tackles each were Brandon Van Grol, McQuillen and Egeling. Anthony Paladino had two tackles and a sack.

Letchworth came into the game with a 1-1 record, with a 30-26 win over Warsaw and a 33-0 loss to Cal-Mum.

The Indians' only real offense came late in the game with two scoring drives against mainly second-team players. The Indians were also running more stunts and option plays, opening up the offense a bit.

Moran said this week the focus during team practice will be the play of the second team.

"You've got to pay a little more attention in practice and understand what we're trying to do and play a little better," Moran said. "Our expectation is that everybody improves on our team."

Next up for Le Roy, Warsaw, which is off to an 0-3 start on the season. Game time is 7:30 at Le Roy.

For our coverage of the Batavia game, click here.

Also, last night, Pembroke (1-2) lost to Attica (3-0), 41-7. Attica's Matt Perry gained 288 yards on 17 carries, scoring six times. Perry is now the school career leader in TDs with 50 and total yards at 2,866.

Oakfield-Alabama (1-2) beat Finney (0-3) 61-0. Alan Chapp was 12-14 for 252 yards and two touchdowns, adding 72 yards on the ground. Chase Manzella gained 63 yards and scored three times. Chris Nanni added 31 yards on the ground and two TDs.

Today, two undefeated teams, Alexander and Notre Dame, clash at Notre Dame. Game time, 1:30. Elba/Byron-Bergen is at Holley.

To purchase prints of photos, click here.

Toni White

A woman who previously testified in a burglary trial and who joined her spouse in the first same-sex marriage in Genesee County in 2011 was accused today of selling crack cocaine to an undercover agent.

Toni M. White, 32, of West Main Street Road, Batavia, was arrested on a sealed indictment alleging she sold a quantity of crack cocaine to an agent of the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force.

She is charged with three counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, 3rd, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 3rd, both Class B felonies.

White was jailed on $5,000 bail.

In 2010, White testified in the burglary trial of Reginald M. Wilson discussing the day Wilson drove her around in what turned out to be a stolen vehicle.

In September, 2011, White appeared in court with the woman she married the day before, Katrina Drake, when Judge Robert C. Noonan threatened to send Drake to jail on a violation of probation charge.

In the past few years, White has been arrested on charges of disorderly conduct (twice), petit larceny and trespass.

UPDATE 6:40 p.m.: The bail review of Toni M. White was conducted on Sept. 20 and she was released under supervision of Genesee Justice, with a curfew requiring her to be at her residence from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. every day.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley is in the midst of his annual Patriot Trip to Washington, D.C., with a group of residents from his district. He sent us these pictures.

Above, Jack Toth at the World War II Memorial.

Below, a group shot and a shot of some of the travels with Hawley and Rep. Chris Collins.

There's heavy equipment moving a lot of earth around just west of the Partridge Farm on Ellicott Street Road, Town of Batavia.

Crews are building a new roadway, which will provide secondary access to the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. The secondary road is needed to accommodate anticipated growth and expansion of the park.

Area residents are invited to walk through a labyrinth on the property of Tricia Zdep, 6600 Log City Road, Elba, on Sunday as part of a harvest celebration for the Fall Equinox sponsored by Blue Pearl Yoga.

Labyrinths -- a complex series of winding paths that require walkers to follow a serpentine trail -- have been an important spiritual part of many cultures for thousands of years, said Patricia Hawley.

"Walking through one is a powerful meditative and contemplative act," she said.

The word "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night) and signifies a time when night and day are about equal length.

The term can also be used in a broader sense, meaning that the universe is in perfect balance, said Karen Reisdorf, owner of Blue Pearl Yoga

"At this time we concentrate on balancing our spirits, harvesting our dreams, and giving thanks for the beauty and bounties of Mother Earth," Reisdorf said.

The walk is at 1 p.m. and participants are asked to bring a gift from nature (leaf, flower, feather, stone, etc.) and any vegetables or flowers that have been harvested from your garden or from a farmers market. The event includes:

• Blessing of the harvest, offerings of gratitude;
• Yoga practice, planting new intentions;
• Ending meditation;
• Sharing of the harvest.

Leading the event with Reisdorf is Joni Yaskulski.

The labyrinth was made by Zdep and her husband at least five years ago (see it on Google Maps).

Pre-registration is required. Cost is $15. For more information contact Blue Pearl Yoga at 585-230-5430 or email bluepearl.yoga@yahoo.com.

For the first 74 minutes of play Thursday in Pavilion, two teams on the pitch with 3-0 records kept the score knotted at 0-0 and it was starting to seem like a tie was a predictable outcome.

Then Geneseo's Elliott Cannon scooted a ball past senior goalie Collin Sheflin. Another goal two minutes later by Mo Carlon, with only four minutes on the clock, seemed to seal the fate of the Golden Gophers.

"Genesee has been building a great program for years," said Pavilion Head Coach Matt Roth. "They seem to graduate players with another junior right behind who is good. We're working on doing the same thing here, but it takes time. We worked hard tonight. The better team, probably, ended up winning, but they didn't out work us."

Coming into the game, Pavilion had given up only one goal in its first three games. That was in a 2-1 win over Mount Morris. Pavilion has beat Pembroke 6-0 and Avon 3-0.

"Jake Defisher, Heyden Ewell and Stephen Pike work hard on defense," Roth said. "We've only given up three goals and two of them were tonight, so when you have that kind of defense, you're going to be in most games."

Riley Vallance has been working hard, too, Roth said. He's played every position this season and on defense against Pavilion he played a big role in keeping the game close.

Dakota Kegler, a midfielder, has also been working hard this season, he said.

Pavilion is now 3-1-1 on the season and Roth is expecting a good run for the team come time for sectional play.

"Our goal is to build, to be playing our best soccer in October," Roth said. "Right now, we're not where we want to be, but if we get there in mid-October when sectionals come, we're going to be a dangerous team in sectional play."

Pavilion's next game is at home, tomorrow, 1 p.m., against York.

Pavilion's goalie grabbing a shot in the first period.

To purchase prints of photos, click here.

It looks like Batavia is going to get a taco stand on Ellicott Street across from the Pok-A-Dot near Liberty Street. This sign appeared in the window recently. The new owners were not around when I stopped by this morning.

UPDATE: One of the new owners is Derek Geib, co-owner of Bourbon & Burger Co.. Mike Hyland, a partner at B&B, is also partner with Casa Del Taco, along with Dick Long. They're shooting for an Oct. 1 opening.

Genesee County added 200 jobs in August, according to a jobs report released yesterday in which the NYS Department of Labor touted a record number of jobs in the state.

According to the report, there are now 7.6 million jobs in New York, up 22,700 from July to August.

At the same time, the number of employment-eligible workers grew by 24,000, increasing the state's unemployment rate from 7.5 to 7.6 percent.

The number of jobs in Genesee County went up to 23,600, which is 200 over the July figure and the August 2013 number.

The County's unemployment rate has not yet been released.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley is in the midst of leading his annual Patriot Trip to Washington, D.C., but he just sent over this statement regarding the unfunded mandate by the NYS Corrections Commission requiring Genesee County to spend another $1 million on jail guards:

I was apprised by Genesee County officials of yet another $1 million unfunded mandate from Albany about a week ago. We are working closely with county officials to remedy this. When will Albany ever get it?

Devon Bell

A 26-year-old Rochester resident is being held on $50,000 bail after being accused of dealing crack cocaine in Batavia.

Davon Tamer Michael Bell, of Gillette Street, Rochester, is charged with two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, 3rd, and two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, 3rd.

Bell allegedly sold crack cocaine to undercover agents working with the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force.

The investigation into Bell's alleged activities began nine months ago. He was taken into custody Sept. 10 by Rochester PD.

Bell was indicted in a sealed indictment by the Genesee County Grand Jury.