David Andreatta, and Gary Craig

Democrat and Chronicle





Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio walked into a courtroom Friday for the first time in over two months to answer an allegation that she violated her drunken driving sentence. She wound up facing two more new allegations and losing her driver’s license.

The extent of the allegations caused so much confusion for lawyers and Judge Stephen Aronson that he closed the courtroom for 30 minutes so the clerk could make copies of the appropriate paperwork and the prosecution and defense could get it all straight.

In the end, Astacio faced three so-called declarations of delinquency.

The first one, which Astacio had originally come to court to answer, alleged that she drank alcohol in violation of the conditions of her sentence on two occasions in November.

The other two declarations alleged that she twice attempted to circumvent the interlock alcohol detecting device on her car by having someone else blow into the sensor while she then proceeded to get behind the wheel after having been drinking. The interlock device prevents the car from starting if it detects alcohol on the breath of the driver.

Prosecutors alleged that Astacio had an unknown woman blow into the device for her at 11:26 a.m. Jan. 12. Twenty minutes later, after the car had started and while it was being driven, the device demanded another check from the driver. Subsequent checks are known as "rolling re-tests." That time, according to the prosecution, Astacio blew and registered a .051 blood-alcohol content reading.

Photos of the unknown woman were filed as an exhibit to the declaration, which was not immediately available to the public.

Astacio allegedly had an unknown passenger blow into the device for her at 7:13 a.m. Jan. 30. According to the allegation, which was recounted by the judge, Astacio blew into the device at 7:31 a.m. during a rolling re-test. The judge did not state what Astacio's alleged blood-alcohol content level was that time.

Her attorney, Ed Fiandach, denied the allegations and a hearing was scheduled for 1;30 p.m. March 3. The prosecutor, Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Eaggleston, said he would ask that Astacio be placed on probation. She is currently serving a sentence of a conditional discharge.

After ordering Astacio to return to court, Aronson temporarily suspended her driver’s license and ordered her to surrender it to the clerk.

"I have some concerns," Aronson told her, "and the concerns are the multitude of violations."

The original violation for which Astacio went to court Friday alleged she was drinking at a restaurant at The Marketplace Mall in Henrietta on Nov. 20. She was judged to be intoxicated by a security guard who testified that he recognized Astacio to be among a group of women who refused to leave a restroom reserved for employees at the Papaya Asian Kitchen and Bar.

The security guard said in a deposition to police that he was asked by staff to remove the women and deployed his pepper spray after they denied him entry.

"That's when one of the females stated, 'You can't spray me, I'm a judge,' " the security guard, Alan Pimm, told police, according to his deposition. "At that point I could tell she was intoxicated, due to her slurred speech and lack of balance."

Drunken judge nearly pepper sprayed in bathroom, court papers allege

The same violation accused her of drinking at a party in November. Photos of that party later surfaced on Facebook.

Fiandach has said Astacio "adamantly denies" drinking at those incidents. He did not address the new allegations Friday other than denying them in open court.

Outside the courtroom, Astacio engaged in some back-and-forth with reporters, but denied any wrongdoing. She declined to answer a direct question of whether she was battling alcoholism.

The new allegations mark the fourth and fifth times Astacio, who is no longer hearing cases, has been accused of breaching the conditions of her August 2016 drunken driving conviction.

She admitted in November to attempting to start her car after drinking — an attempt thwarted by the interlock device on the vehicle. That admission also resolved a second allegation that she had tried to start her car after drinking.

After that admission, supervising judges stripped Astacio of all her duties and barred her from non-public areas of the courthouse. She still collects her $173,700 salary, however, because she was elected to her post.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which can recommend that the Court of Appeals remove a judge from the bench, is likely investigating Astacio's misconduct. The commission does not discuss ongoing investigations.

DANDREATTA@Gannett.com

GCRAIG@Gannett.com