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Office of the District Attorney P. David Soares Citizen Complaint Busts a Drug Gang ALBANY , NY – District Attorney P. David Soares today announced that RICHARD BAKER, 24, of 1261 Boynton Avenue , Bronx , NY pleaded guilty to Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3 rd Degree. He faces four years in State Prison, 2 years of Post Release Supervision. He also forfeits $500 seized at the time of arrest. BAKER is the fifth member of an entire drug gang to plead guilty from an arrest resulting from a citizen complaint about noise. On March 22, 2005 , a citizen called the Albany Police Department to complain about noise coming from a basement apartment at 74 Catherine Street , Albany , NY . APD Officers Vanamburgh and Batchelor arrived at the apartment just as one of the defendants was leaving. Through the open door to the apartment, the Officers saw a kitchen table loaded with several hundred plastic baggies, several razor blades, and a quantity of crack cocaine which later measured out to 1.6 ounces. They quickly called for backup, secured the area, and arrested the seven adults in the room. Other members of the gang arrested at the time are DEQUAN FREDERICKS, 26, of 180 Grand Avenue, Bronx, NY who plead guilty to Attempted Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3 rd Degree and faces 2 ½ to 3 years; his girlfriend JAQUILYN RODRIQUEZ, AKA YAKIRA MARCANO, 16 of Albany, NY who pled guilty to Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 5 th and faces 5 years of Probation; ANTHONY BETHEA, 44 of 74 Catherine Street, Albany, NY who pled guilty to Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 7 th Degree and faces one year in Albany County Jail. CATHERINE RICHARDSON and STACEY MASON who haves been referred to Drug Court . MASON also had two young children playing in the room full of cocaine. DA Soares pointed to this case as illustrating the power and importance of citizen action. “Criminals tend to engage in anti-social behavior. In this case the anti-social behavior was the generation of too much noise. A concerned citizen called in the complaint and the APD responded. Thanks to the alert work of Officers Vanamburgh and Batchelor, an entire gang of drug dealers and addicts was caught in the act of packaging crack cocaine for sale,” he said. “For the past year I have been advocating a pro-active community response as the foundation of a successful crime fighting program. Here is a case in which it worked perfectly. The result of this one call is that three drug dealers will go to jail, two addicts will get help, two children will get supervision, and one community nuisance will be eliminated,” he added. Sentencing for Richard Baker is scheduled for November 10, 2005 before the Honorable Stephen W. Herrick. Back to Press Releases For further information contact: Richard Arthur
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