GENEVA \u2014 Councilor-at-Large Ahmad J. Whitfield, who is facing felony drug charges, rejected a plea offer Monday from the Ontario County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Bianca D\u2019Angelo confirmed that news outside an Ontario County courtroom.<\/p>\n
Whitfield was expected to plead guilty to unspecified charges. D\u2019Angelo, who was filling in for the prosecutor in the case, Robin Catalano, said it\u2019s possible the case will now go to grand jury, adding that no new court date was set before Judge Gregory McCaffrey.<\/p>\n
Whitfield was at the courthouse, but did not appear in court with his attorney, Joseph Lobosco, a criminal defense attorney from Rochester.<\/p>\n
An email to Lobosco requesting comment had not been returned when the Times went to press.<\/p>\n
Whitfield, of North Main Street, was arrested by State Police Jan. 7, accused of selling cocaine\/fentanyl. He was charged with second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a class A-II felony, and two counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a class B felony.<\/p>\n
State Police said at the time of his arrest that its Violent Gangs and Narcotics Enforcement Team, in coordination with the Geneva Police Department, the Ontario County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and the Seneca County Sheriff\u2019s Office, was conducting a narcotics trafficking investigation in the Geneva area that resulted in Whitfield\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
Whitfield, who was reelected to a four-year term on City Council in November, has not attended a meeting since his arrest, nor participated in any communications with fellow members, Mayor Jim Cecere told the Times last week.<\/p>\n
A day after Whitfield\u2019s arrest, Cecere announced he was urging him to consider resigning his position.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Jason MacBride\u2019s office has been in plea discussions with Whitfield\u2019s attorney since the case was waived to grand jury, although no grand jury has heard the case.<\/p>\n
Last week, Cecere urged Whitfield to fulfill his duties as a councilor, given his decision not to resign. He continues to receive a paycheck from the city for his position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 Councilor-at-Large Ahmad J. Whitfield, who is facing felony drug charges, rejected a plea offer Monday from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[4553,1655,3277,10322,10321,13949,9003,4396,28998,4440,65,48791,68,10320,10323,48792,13480,4425,2521,13611,13943,72],"class_list":["post-98403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-arrest","tag-crime","tag-crimes","tag-criminal-justice","tag-criminal-law","tag-criminal-procedure","tag-d","tag-drug","tag-drug-prohibition","tag-felony","tag-geneva","tag-illegal-drug-trade","tag-justice","tag-law-enforcement","tag-legal-action","tag-massachusetts-state-police","tag-misconduct","tag-national-security","tag-new-york","tag-organized-crime","tag-plea","tag-police"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116874494816407754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}