A judge in Onondaga County Court denied a motion to reconsider the felony case for former Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio Friday, setting the stage for her trial to start in April.

Astacio's case was moved to Onondaga County after a state Supreme Court decision ruled she was unlikely to receive a fair trial in Monroe County due to ample media coverage of her drunken driving conviction and the loss of her judgeship, her attorney, Mark Foti, successfully argued.

Astacio was indicted by a grand jury in September on the charge of attempted criminal purchase or disposal of a weapon, a felony. She was arrested and charged in April 2018 after being accused of trying to purchase a shotgun at Dick's Sporting Goods in Henrietta.

Acting state Supreme Court Judge Gordon J. Cuffy denied Foti's motion to reargue to dismiss the indictment. The hearing took place Friday morning in downtown Syracuse.

A final pre-trial hearing is set for March 28. Astacio's trial is set to begin on April 1 in Syracuse.

Prosecutors contend that the attempted weapon purchase violated Astacio's probation mandates. The Seneca County District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case. Special prosecutor Mark Sinkiewicz declined comment after the hearing.

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Astacio's defense

Foti previously argued that insufficient evidence was presented to the grand jury and that the section of the penal code under which she was charged is vague and an unconstitutional violation of her Second Amendment right to bear arms.

"For this case to go forward, the court has relied on certain law that we don’t think is applicable to this case," Foti said Friday. He was hoping to revisit the issue of her indictment.

"We wanted the court to reconsider, and the court has declined to do so, which means we have to go to trial, and obviously we hope and expect that there won’t be a conviction," he said. If there is, there's always the option to appeal, he said.

Probation continues

Cuffy denied the defense motion to reargue in a two-paragraph decision. "Two paragraphs obviously doesn't contain any substantive analysis," Foti said. "That's the judge's prerogative here to render this decision as he feels as appropriate. We're disappointed by that."

The former city court judge remains on probation following her drunken driving conviction, which stems from a February 2016 incident on Interstate 490 in Rochester. The terms of Astacio's probation prohibit her from "possessing a firearm, dangerous weapon, or noxious substance."

Foti said during an earlier court appearance that he did not expect Astacio would entertain a plea agreement.

Astacio allegedly tried to purchase a shotgun on April 2, 2018, but was turned away by store employees, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Todd Baxter said Astacio tried to buy a shotgun at Dick's Sporting Goods at The Mall at Greece Ridge before going to Henrietta. Deputies responded to the store at 305 Miracle Mile Drive at The Marketplace Mall for the "third-party report of a person believed to be Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio" as she was trying to buy a shotgun.

"Store personnel made the decision not to sell the gun to Ms. Astacio based on store policy," the Monroe County Sheriff's Department stated in a news release.

Dick's company policy states that employees reserve the right to refuse to sell a gun to anyone. If a denial is issued, that extends to all Dick's stores.

Removed from bench

In a unanimous decision in October, the Court of Appeals removed Astacio from the bench. The state's judicial watchdog agency, the Commission on Judicial Conduct, in April 2018 recommended that Astacio be stripped of her judgeship.

Astacio appealed the commission's decision to the state Court of Appeals, New York's highest court. But, in a stinging decision in October, the Court of Appeals ruled that she did not seem to grasp the "gravity and impact of her behavior" and how it tainted the public perception of "her fitness to perform her duties," and the overall perspective of the judiciary.

WCLEVELAND@Gannett.com