pembroke

Officers were out at the scene today searching for the murder weapon in the death of Joseph Benaquist, Genesee County Sheriff Gary Maha said. Scott Doll is currently in custody on the charge of second-degree murder for allegedly beating Benaquist to death two nights ago.

Maha informed us that investigators were "searching the area" around Benaquist's home at 683 Knapp Road in Pembroke to "see if (the weapon) had been discarded by Mr. Doll." No weapon has yet been found. Investigators also have yet to determine a motive for the alleged homicide. Benaquist and Doll both served as corrections officers, and they were in an auto sales business together. Maha stressed, however, that a motive "does not need to be established."

The case against Doll is being prepared for a grand jury hearing tomorrow. District Attorney Lawrence Friedman will present the case for indictment. If the jury decides to indict, Doll will then be arraigned in county court.

We haven't yet connected with Friedman for more details on the grand jury appointment tomorrow.

We received the following statement from Corfu Mayor Todd Skeet by e-mail late last night. In full:

I would like to extend the sympathy and prayers of the entire community to the families affected by the recent tragedy in the Town of Pembroke.  We are a tightly knit community.  Now is the time to put their needs foremost in our hearts, minds and prayers.  We ask that everyone show the greatest respect for their privacy in the difficult days ahead.



Any requests for further official statements should be directed to the Genesee County Sheriff's office.  We ask that everyone be considerate and allow us all time to heal.

Murder suspect Scott F. Doll was recently endorsed by Republicans to run on their ticket for mayor in the village of Corfu.

Doll was arraigned earlier today on a felony count of second-degree murder in the death of his business associate and former colleague, Joseph E. Benaquist, who was found bludgeoned to death in his driveway early this morning.

Please see our initial post for the full details.

Corfu Village Clerk Sandra Thomas informed us that Doll had only recently moved back to the village and had no prior experience in the government there. He was endorsed by the Corfu Republicans during a caucus that was held on January 26. Elections for the village are scheduled for March 17.

We left a message for Mayor Todd Skeet. We have not yet heard back. We also tried to contact Andrea Vogler, who was listed as the chair of the Corfu Republicans on the caucus information that was supplied to the county.

Doll's family has been prominent in the Corfu community, where they owned "Doll's Super Duper grocery store" for 40 years, as Scott DeSmit reports for the Daily News.

Officials have yet to release any more information on the business ties between the two men. They have only said that the two were "in business together," and that they picked up used cars at an auction at Clarence which they then sold to customers in the area.

A check at the Genesee County Clerk's Office yielded no significant results when we searched for business information related to Doll and Benaquist. Doll was, however, listed on a financing statement for a loan from Automotive Financing Corp., along with the business SF Enterprizes, which had a listed address of 3 Corfu Plaza.

View Larger Map

This is a look into that plaza from Route 33. We drove through and did not see any signs for a business by the name of SF Enterprizes.

Investigators were absent from the scene of the alleged murder this afternoon at the home of Joseph Benaquist in Pembroke. A lone dog was to be found at the house, chained up out front of the garage.

PEMBROKE, N.Y. — Genesee County Sheriff Gary Maha held a press conference this morning on the murder of Joseph E. Benaquist in Pembroke last night. Maha announced the imminent arrest of Scott F. Doll, who is in the process of being charged with second-degree murder.

Please see our earlier post for the full details.

PEMBROKE, N.Y. — A Corfu man who was found walking along North Lake Road in Pembroke soaked in "fresh blood" will be charged with the murder of a Pembroke man who was found bludgeoned to death in the driveway of his home early this morning, Genesee County Sheriff Gary Maha said.

Scott F. Doll, 46, of 31 E. Main St., Corfu, will be charged with a felony count of second-degree murder in the death of Joseph E. Benaquist, 66, of 683 Knapp Road, Pembroke.

Deputies received a call last night at approximately 8:41 p.m. with reports of a "suspicious person" walking down North Lake Road in Pembroke. The individual, later identified as Doll, was "dressed all in camouflage" and carrying a car jack, a screwdriver and a lug wrench. When deputies arrived, they noticed that Doll's "clothes and sneakers were pretty well stained in what looked like fresh blood," said Maha.

"They asked him what was going on ... and the person was really quite evasive" said Maha. "The officers knew something wasn't right."

Deputies then determined that Doll had parked a van at a gas station on the corner of North Lake Road and Route 5. They found more blood inside the van and a pair of bloody gloves.

"So we had this person who was acting suspicious who had blood on him, so of course, we didn't buy his story, what he was telling us," said Maha. "So we started an investigation."

A relative of Doll's made comments that led officers to the home of Benaquist who was found dead "lying in a pool of blood in his driveway." Benaquist appeared to have suffered blunt trauma to the face and head.

Doll and Benaquist were acquaintances and "in business together" in an auto dealership that Maha believed to be located in Pembroke. The two men would purchase vehicles from an auction in Clarence, fix them up and then sell them, said Maha.

Doll is currently employed as a corrections officer at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, Erie County. Benaquist had retired from the same facility, where he also worked as a corrections officer.

Maha said it is too early in the investigation to believe that the auto dealership was the cause of the homicide. No neighbors had reported a fight between the two men last night. But Benaquist's home is "out in the country," said Maha, at least a hundred yards from its nearest neigbor.

Doll has "at least" two children, plus a sister and a brother who live in the area, said Maha. Doll was sent to Genesee County Jail without bail.

The investigation is ongoing. We will get up video coverage of the press conference within the hour.

View Larger Map

 Watch live coverage of all six Saturday games from the Genesee Region/Niagara-Orleans League Showdown at Genesee Community College in sports.

Here is the Roy-Hart/Lyndonville game.

Here is the Byron-Bergen/Barker game.

Here is the Alexander/CSAT game.

Here is the Attica/Albion game.

Here is the Pembroke/Wilson game.

Here is the Oakfield-Alabama/Akron game.

  As the crowd chanted "just like football", the Oakfield-Alabama basketball team was looking wrap up a huge win and a second straight Genesee Region League Division I title.

The Hornets played some great defense against the Pembroke stars and gave coach Gary Kurkowski - who returned after a long hiatus from coaching varsity - a division title with a 61-39 win over Pembroke Wednesday.

The Elba girls basketball team has  been a second half team all year, with several comebacks on their resume.

You can add another one as the Lancers had a very large fourth quarter to beat rival Notre Dame 53-48 Tuesday. The win wraps up the Genesee Region League Division II title for Elba, which is 13-0 in the league and 16-2 overall.

Notre Dame jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter and had a 24-14 advantage at halftime. The Lancers chipped four points off the deficit with a 20-16 edge in the third quarter.

But as always, Elba's depth and pressure defense helped the squad to come from behind for the win. The Lancers scored 19 points while holding the Fighting Irish to just eight points.

"Our press just takes its toll on people as the game goes on," Elba coach Tom Nowak said. "We just have a lot of players and the ability to keep running them in and out and keep them fresh."

Missy Call hit two 3-pointers in the final period. Those six points were all she scored in the game.

Free throws have been the one weak spot for Elba this season, but the Lancers went 5-of-7 in the fourth quarter. Katie Newton hit a pair late and Rachael Cook put them up by 5 to ice the game with two at the end of the game.

Newton scored six of her eight points in the fourth and were led in scoring by Cassy Engle, who poured in 12. Cook had nine points with Katie Newton scoring eight and Sarah Schwartzmeyer pitching in six.

Jill Marshall led the Fighting Irish (11-2, 14-4) with 15 points, with Nichole Hart adding 12 points. Trisha Pike had 11 points and Liz Geandreau added eight points.

The Lancers also maintain the top seed in the Class DD sectionals. Jasper-Troupsburg is 16-1 and trailed Elba by just two seeding points coming into the game.

The Wildcats host Arkport Wednesday and should win, after thumping that team 67-31 earlier in the season. Elba has games with Lyndonville and Lima Christian remaining on the schedule.

"If we want to end up No. 1 we have to win out the rest of our games," Nowak said. "If we slip in a game, we could certainly fall to No. 2 or No. 3. If we would have lost tonight we would have fallen to third. But it was nice to come out and win the league. We were at that point and we wanted to do that tonight."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Pembroke had the edge in every quarter and dropped visiting Oakfield-Alabama 57-39.

Katie Hackett and Nicole Sharick each had a big game, with Hackett scoring a game-high 18 points with five dimes, three steals and a block. Sharick had seven boards and three assists to go with her 10 points. 

Brynne Perfitt had 10 points with Hillary Bates and Sarah Scarbrough scoring nine points apiece for the Hornets (9-9).

The Dragons are now 10-8.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The Trojans keep holding on to that top seed in Class C with a 57-32 victory over host Attica.

Finnish exchange student Anni Lehtola had a monster game, scoring 24 points with 11 boards and three steals. It was a big rebounding game for Alexander as Katie Kochmanski had 10 rebounds to go with her 10 points and three rebounds.

Chelsea Turcer was also in double figures with 10 points and Anna Dominick was close with nine.

Breanna Hummel had nine points and 10 rebounds to pace the Blue Devils, who fall to 1-18.

Margaret LaFleur pitched in seven points.

Alexander is now 12-4 and maintains a slim lead over Perry in the Class C sectional bracket. The Yellowjackets whipped Mount Morris 68-24 Tuesday.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Holley trailed by a point when Emily Troup dropped in a 3-pointer with about a minute left, giving the Hawks a 51-47 win over Byron-Bergen.

Corrine Vanschoick had a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds and Troup ended the day with 14 points as well.

Julie Brooks had 13 points for the Hawks (6-12).

Rory Partridge had 13 points for the Bees (9-8). Kayleigh Puma had 10 points and Kaylee Amesbury pitched in eight.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Lyndonville disposed of Wheatland-Chili 51-32 as Molly Burgess scored 16 points and Ashley Mahnke had seven points and 13 boards for the Tigers (8-10).

Lauren Drago scored a game-high 18 points for the Wildcats (4-11).

As many people feared, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association cuts that we wrote about earlier in the month were approved.

According to the NYSPHSAA Web site, there are going to be a lot of changes.

The biggest of which is the reduction in the number of regular season games that teams are allowed to play each season. Sports that currently play 24 games, will now only play 20. Sports that play 20 games will be cut to 18 and sports that play 18 games are now only going to play 16. 

The will be cuts in wrestling and football will be reduced from 10 to nine games. That means a team that makes sectionals and loses in the first round will not get a chance to go into Pool Play. 

The only way a football team can play 13 games is to play in the state finals.

The amount of scrimmages teams for all sports are allowed to play have also been reduced.

Centralized sites will be considered for state tournament games if it will save the state money. 

Here is the announcement on the NYSPHSAA Web site:

1. Support the use of telephone conference calls and video conferencing for NYSPHSAA meetings to reduce the travel reimbursements costs for the NYSPHSAA and Sections. APPROVED

2. Support the use of officials from the host Section at all NYSPHSAA regional contests, except when the Sections involved mutually agree to use neutral officials. Effective with the 2009-2010 season and continuing to 2010–2011 school year. APPROVED

3. Support a moratorium on the expansion of existing NYSPHSAA tournaments as it pertains to participation. APPROVED

4. Centralized sites should be considered as part of the bid process for state tournament site selection when it can be proven that cost savings outweighs other criteria. APPROVED

5. Support the reduction of the maximum number of contests permitted during the regular season. Sports with 24 contests will be reduced to 20, sports with 20 contests will be reduced to 18 and sports with 18 contests will be reduced to 16. Wrestling will be reduced to 20 points. Football will be reduced from 10 to 9. The 9th game is permitted, with section approval, for teams who do not qualify for sectional play. For the teams involved in the sectional tournament the maximum number of contests shall be 10. For the sections involved in the state championship three additional games are permitted for a total of 13 games for the season: 1 game for regionals, 1 game for semifinals, and 1 game for championships. Effective for 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. APPROVED

6. Support the reduction of the number of classes and divisions in team and individual NYSPHSAA Championship competition. REFERRED TO CHAMPIONSHIP ADVISORY COMMITTEE

7. Support the reduction of participants in NYSPHSAA Championships in individual and combination (team/individual) sports. REFERRED TO CHAMPIONSHIP ADVISORY COMMITTEE

8. Support the reduction of tournaments (multi-school competition) for team and individual sports.NO ACTION

9. Support the establishment of a maximum number of scrimmages permitted by a team to: Varsity, JV and freshmen – 2 scrimmages and Modified – 1 scrimmage. NO ACTION

10. The Executive Committee will meet three times per year with one meeting at the site of the Central Committee meeting. APPROVED

11. Support the establishment of a team travel restriction for all member schools limiting out of state team travel to competition with bordering states only. NO ACTION

12. Support the establishment of a moratorium eliminating mandated attendance beginning with the 2009-2010 school year at the following NYSPHSAA workshops: Safety, Life of an Athlete, Sportsmanship and Chemical Health workshops. APPROVED

13. Support eliminating participation in the NFHS Student Leadership Conference. DENIED

A collision on Route 5 near the intersection of Indian Falls Road in Pembroke sent three people to the hospital Tuesday, Genesee County sheriff's deputies said. Rachel A. Warren, 18, of 3233 Pratt Road, Batavia, was stopped eastbound on Route 5, waiting to make a turn onto Indian Falls Road. Cameron J. Smith, 18, of 3023 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, was also heading eastbound on Route 5. Smith claims that he took his eyes off the road for just a second and when he looked back saw Warren's car stopped ahead of him and did not have time to stop. Smith's vehicle collided head-on into the rear of Warren's vehicle.

Both drivers were taken to United Memorial Medical Center to be treated for their injuries. A passenger in Warren's vehicle, Ariel S. Bressler, was also taken in for treatment. All three were treated and released Tuesday. No charges were filed against either driver following the crash.

View Larger Map