New York judge found guilty, ordered to stay jailed

David Andreatta | Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption Lawyers react to Astacio guilty verdict in violating her DWI sentence Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio, who has been jailed since Monday and took the stand in her own defense, was found guilty of the violation and ordered held without bail until her next court date, scheduled for July 6.

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the violation of Leticia Astacio's conditional sentence.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A Rochester City Court judge remained in jail Thursday after a hearing and could spend at least the next four weeks as an inmate.

Did Judge Leticia Astacio know the judge overseeing her drunk-driving case had ordered her to submit to a urinalysis to test for alcohol consumption? And if she did, when did she know it?

The action that caused Judge Stephen Aronson of Canandaigua City Court, who is overseeing her case, to order the test occurred April 29 when the ignition interlock device on her car registered a blood-alcohol-content reading of 0.0651% as someone tried to start it. Astacio said her daughter blew into the car breathalyzer; other people are allowed to drive cars outfitted with such equipment.

But Astacio left the city May 2 for Thailand without telling the court or her lawyer. Aronson didn't order the test until after that date.



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"I didn't have the ability to communicate with anyone by telephone or text message" for about 20 days from May 7 to 27 because of spotty and expensive cellphone coverage, she said in court. "I was able to communicate with my family through social media."

She first learned of the court order to take the urinalysis May 27 when she received email from her lawyer, she said. So crux of Thursday's proceedings turned on whether Astacio was notified of her obligation to take the test in a timely manner and whether she could have complied but didn't.

She had not been prohibited from traveling as part of her conditional discharge Aug. 22 for a Feb. 13, 2016, drunken-driving arrest on her way to work. But she was required to submit to random court-ordered drug tests and abstain from alcohol.

"I was trying to de-stress and get away from all of this," she said.

On May 1, Astacio bought a one-way ticket to Thailand and was on a plane to Bangkok the next day, prosecutor Zach Maurer said. She later told her lawyer, Ed Fiandach, that she planned to stay until sometime in August.

At one point, she instructed Fiandach to tell reporters she was living in a temple with monks in the mountains, but photos of her touring the Thai capital surfaced on Instagram at the same time she claimed to be in the monastery.

That Instagram account was changed from public to private Wednesday afternoon after the Democrat and Chronicle reported on the discovery.

When Astacio missed a May 30 court date, Aronson issued a bench warrant for her arrest. She was taken into custody Monday after being summoned for a 9 a.m. ET meeting with her boss, Justice Craig Doran of the New York State Supreme Court, in the Monroe County Hall of Justice.

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"I don't think anyone can fault her for leaving approximately after eight months on her conditional discharge when she had never before been asked to submit to EtG (ethyl glucuronide) testing," Fiandach said. The urine test can detect alcohol consumed up to 80 hours beforehand.

Aronson did fault her, finding her guilty of violating the conditions of her drunk-driving sentence because she did not take the urinalysis and ordering her held without bail until her sentencing date, July 6.

Astacio, who still retains her title as judge and has been receiving her $173,700 annual salary even though she has not presided over cases since last summer, now faces the penalties she would have been subject to upon her original conviction, which include up to a year in jail.

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Fiandach said he planned to appeal.

Aronson's decision immediately drew cries of, "Racist!" and "Racist cracker!" from the standing-room only gallery.

In her red jailhouse scrubs, Astacio turned to them and said: "I'm fine. I'm totally fine."

Follow David Andreatta on Twitter: @david_andreatta