David Andreatta

@david_andreatta

Monday wasn't the first time that Daniel DeLaus III was arrested for allegedly attempting to lure children into his car in Penfield.

The first time was July 21, just hours after he was said to have offered candy to two children playing outside residences on Armetale Luster from inside his white Jeep.

DeLaus was taken into custody that night after Monroe County sheriff's deputies collected statements from children and parents who claimed to have encountered him, and procured footage from a home security camera that showed his Jeep circling the neighborhood.

He was taken to Penfield Town Court for arraignment, too. But when DeLaus was presented to Judge John Lomenzo, the judge refused to arraign him.

Man accused of trying to lure kids in Penfield

"The papers they presented were defective," Lomenzo said in a phone interview Tuesday. "They identified the car by the license plate, but they didn't identify who was driving the car. From my standpoint, it could have been the man in the moon."

Deputies had no choice but to let DeLaus go.

That left Maria Cortes, the mother of one of the children allegedly approached by DeLaus and the person who first called police, with no choice but to keep her child mostly indoors.

A social media campaign warning of a man in a white Jeep went viral and parts of Penfield were plastered with fliers depicting photos of the Jeep.

The anxiety lasted 11 days, until DeLaus was arrested and arraigned Monday in East Rochester Town Court on misdemeanor child endangerment and stalking charges, and orders of protection were issued for the children.

The delay and venue of DeLaus's court proceeding has prompted questions from Cortes and other residents in her neighborhood.

Among them: Why did it take so long to get DeLaus to court and to get protection orders? Why did this matter end up in East Rochester?

"I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I have to live worrying about this," Cortes said. "Am I reaching with these questions?"

No. Any parent whose child was approached by a strange man offering candy is entitled to ask such questions. And they are all the more pertinent given the pedigree of the suspect.

Daniel DeLaus Jr., the suspect's father, is an influential man in Monroe County. If you don't know who he is, chances are his work has touched your life.

A lawyer by profession, DeLaus was a key adviser to County Executive Maggie Brooks, first as county attorney and later as deputy county executive.

Today he is the general counsel for the region's public transit agency and chairs the zoning board in Penfield, where he lives with his wife and three children, including 20-year-old Daniel.

DeLaus moves in the tightly-knit Republican circles that run the county and most of its towns. It's hard to imagine that he's not rubbed elbows over the years with Penfield's two town justices, who ran for the court as Republicans.

That does not automatically disqualify the court from handling the DeLaus case, although one of the justices, James Mulley Jr., has recused himself. Nor should it imply anything untoward with the case thus far.

But it does allow for the questions Cortes and others are asking because it's rare for a judge to refuse an arraignment, which is a formal reading of the charges facing a defendant.

"I agree it's very unusual," Lomenzo said. "But it's my job as a judge to simply not rubber stamp what the police or prosecutors bring to me."

Reached by phone, DeLaus Jr. declined to discuss his son's criminal charges and hung up.

Cpl. John Helfer, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said deputies felt they had a strong enough case against DeLaus to arrest him on July 21. They had physical descriptions of the suspect — a male with brown hair in his early 20s — and had traced his car.

After the case was refused, though, investigators got to work solidifying the identification of the driver. That work included asking witnesses to choose the man they believe they encountered from photos the Sheriff's Office had on file. The witnesses fingered DeLaus.

Helfer said DeLaus was arrested and arraigned in East Rochester on Monday because the court there was in session and it has a reciprocal agreement with Penfield Town Court to handle cases when the other is closed.

The case has since been returned to Penfield and DeLaus is scheduled to appear at 11 a.m. Aug. 10 before Lomenzo.

Lomenzo said he knows DeLaus Jr. but that he had no reason to recuse himself.

"I won't because, frankly, I don't have any relationship with Dan DeLaus," he said

"It's a legitimate question to ask," Lomenzo added. "I'm not troubled by the fact that people might be concerned."

Cortes was almost apologetic in asking about such matters and said, "I just want to make sure that everybody is being above board."

She has every right to want that, and every right to expect it.

David Andreatta is a Democrat and Chronicle columnist. He can be reached at dandreatta@gannett.com.