Gary Craig

@gcraig1

After months of self-imposed bad news — a drunken driving conviction and a violation of her post-conviction mandates — Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio Monday got some good news: She's getting her driver's license back.

A judge ruled Monday that Astacio did not violate her post-release conditions imposed for her drunken driving conviction last year. Astacio will have her license restored. Her license had been suspended awaiting the ruling.

However, the decision by Judge Stephen Aronson still does not answer what the long-term ramifications of Astacio will be for her conviction and later actions. She is under investigation by the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct, which could recommend her removal from the bench.

The commission does not acknowledge investigations into alleged judicial misconduct, unless there is discipline, but Astacio noted during a March hearing that she had been interviewed by the commission.

She also has been stripped of all judicial duties, though she is collecting her annual salary of $173,700.

"I don't anticipate making any changes to her current status in the foreseeable future," said state Supreme Court Justice Craig Doran, the administrative judge for the Rochester region's courts.

Astacio has admitted earlier to violations of her post-conviction terms, but she stood accused of five more: Two alleged she'd been drinking in violation of her pledge of abstinence and three others were alleged violations of the use of the interlock ignition device on her car.

Aronson ruled Monday that there was a lack of proof that she'd been drinking and that the interlock device monitoring had been improperly transferred to Ontario County, nullifying those allegations.

Still, even without the transfer issue, Astacio "would not have been found to have violated two of three" with the allegations, Aronson said. And, with the third, her violation would have been "minimal" because there was not proof she'd been drinking, Aronson said.

Aronson "held (the evidence) up against the yardstick that it has to be held up to under the Constitution of the United States," said Astacio's attorney, Ed Fiandach.

Christopher Eaggleston, an assistant Ontario County district attorney who prosecuted the alleged violations, said he thought the proof had been sufficient. The case was prosecuted by Ontario County and heard by a Canandaigua judge because of the possible conflicts of interest if handled by Monroe County prosecutors and judges.

In particular, Aronson, who in August found Astacio guilty of drunken driving, ruled Monday:

• That claims by a security guard that Astacio was drunk at a Marketplace Mall restaurant did not stand up to proof that she was there for two to three hours after an interaction with the guard and that the guard never saw her with a drink or buying a drink. Eaggleston said after court that the guard's testimony that Astacio "was staggering(and) she was stumbling" was evidence of intoxication.

• That Facebook photos from a family Thanksgiving get-together — one where others were drinking — did not answer what was in Astacio's drinking cup. She and two others testified at a hearing this month she did not drink alcohol there. "Although these photographs posted on Facebook may have given rise to an inflammatory reaction of public opinion, our laws require legally sufficient evidence that (Astacio) was failing to abstain from using alcoholic beverages," Aronson ruled.

• That the jurisdiction for monitoring Astacio's interlock ignition device — which won't allow a driver to start a car if drinking — was improperly transferred to Ontario County.

• That two interlock-related allegations, regardless of the jurisdiction, were without sufficient proof. The allegations were that she allowed someone else to start the car on Jan. 30 and that she did not take the device in for regular servicing, as required.

• That, while she may driven the car after started by someone else on Jan.12, any violation of the device would have been "minimal" because her breath did not show signs of alcohol when she did later blow into the device. Eaggleston said after court that, regardless of the question of the presence of alcohol, the criminal law would prohibit Astacio from taking control of the car after it was started by someone else.

With that particular allegation, Astacio did testify that someone else started the car and drove it, but she said she didn't restart the car because of the time it can take to re-engage the vehicle because of the device. That claim, even if true, still showed Astacio violated the law, though she was not criminally charged for the breach, Eaggleston said.

"By her own admission she committed a crime," he said.

Eaggleston said that Monroe County interlock monitoring officials reached out to Ontario County to monitor the device.

Monroe County will now handle the oversight.

"As of right now, Monroe County probation has taken over monitoring in this case," said Monroe County spokesman Brett Walsh. "We will decide the path forward once the county attorney has the opportunity to review the judge's ruling."

GCRAIG@Gannett.com

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