Linsky sentencing appeal withdrawn

By DARREN ANKROM
TIMES STAFF WRITER

MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 2012

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CANTON — Prosecutors have withdrawn their motion appealing Zachary D. Linsky’s sentencing, ending a two-month battle between the offices of the St. Lawrence County District Attorney and the Public Defender.

Mr. Linsky, 19, Norwood, was sentenced to 60 days in St. Lawrence County jail, Canton, three years’ probation, was ordered to pay a $1,095 fine and had his driver’s license suspended on July 25 in Potsdam Village Court.

That sentence proved satisfactory to the prosecution, which had been seeking to reinstate felony charges against Mr. Linsky.

“Since filing and serving the notice, the defendant in this case has been sentenced in Justice Court, and based on the severity of the sentence, and with mind to the other equities in this case, we are no longer pursuing this appeal,” stated Assistant District Attorney Jonathan L. Becker within the notice of withdrawal.

Mr. Linsky, along with Lamarion J. Blanks Jr., 18, Brooklyn, was originally charged with felony second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. The men were stopped on June 2 in Potsdam and found in possession of 250 Ecstasy pills and a small amount of marijuana.

An error in Mr. Linsky’s June 6 arraignment hearing — Assistant District Attorney Andrew Botts failed to provide the Ecstasy pills’ weight — caused Village Justice Nicholas J. Pignone to reduce Mr. Linsky’s charges to a misdemeanor.

Appeals from both sides, with the prosecution seeking to stay sentencing and reinstate felony charges and the defense pushing to complete sentencing, culminated in Judge Kathleen M. Rogers’s decision to reject all appeals on July 19.

In reaction to the withdrawn appeal, Public Defender Stephen D. Button said he was “thoroughly pleased that justice has prevailed.