Northern New York Newspapers
Watertown Daily Times
The Journal
Daily Courier-Observer
NNY Ads
NNY Business
NNY Living
Malone Telegram
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Serving the community of Ogdensburg, New York
Related Stories

Judge stays Linsky sentencing

ARTICLE OPTIONS
A A
print this article
e-mail this article

CANTON— The planned July 17 sentencing of Zachary D. Linsky, 19, Norwood, was stayed Wednesday by Judge Kathleen Rogers.

The question of whether Mr. Linsky’s June 6 plea to a reduced misdemeanor drug possession charge should be vacated, and the original felony charge reinstated, will be taken up at the hearing scheduled for July 19.

Mr. Linsky’s case, and the several legal actions since, all stem from a June 2 Potsdam traffic stop and a subsequent June 6 preliminary hearing.

Mr. Linsky was one of two men pulled over and accused of possessing 250 Ecstasy pills and a small amount of marijuana in early June.

Both Mr. Linsky and Lamarion J. Blanks Jr., 18, of Brooklyn, were charged with second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony.

Complications arose when, just before their preliminary hearing on June 6, Potsdam Village Justice Nicholas Pignone scheduled separate hearings for the two men.

At Mr. Blanks’s hearing, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Botts presented evidence that the pills weighed 74 grams, and the felony charge was upheld.

At Mr. Linsky’s hearing, however, Mr. Ballan raised an objection just as the weight was about to be announced, seeking clarification about the type of scale used when measuring. According to the meeting’s transcript, questions about the scales were then answered, but the question of weight was never revisited.

As a result, Judge Pignone reduced Mr. Linsky’s charge to seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor. Mr. Linsky pleaded guilty to that charge, as well as unlawful possession of marijuana and two traffic crimes, later that day.

Within the prosecution’s petition signed by Judge Rogers, Assistant District Attorney Jonathan L. Becker alleges that Judge Pignone severed the cases without the authority to do so, and thus the subsequent complications regarding the pills’ weight should be rendered null.

Within his lawsuit, Mr. Linsky alleges that additional charges he found himself facing days after his guilty plea — second-degree conspiracy and second-degree attempted sale of a controlled substance — should have been precluded by double jeopardy, as they referred to the same crime.

St. Lawrence County District Attorney Nicole M. Duvé scheduled another grand jury proceeding, seeking to re-charge Mr. Linsky, for June 28. After Mr. Linsky’s lawsuit was filed, that proceeding was postponed.

Connect with Us
OGD on Facebook
NNY Deals
Reader Rewards
Reader Rewards