JAMESTOWN- A prominent Western New York criminal defense attorney recently spoke to WNYNewsNow about the defense people like Odessin McBride require in federal cases.
“Federal cases are very well put together by either the DEA, FBI, or whoever is investigating it,” said Frank LoTempio III, President and Partner of LoTempio Law Group in Buffalo.
Local police typically pursue federal charges when firearms are used to transport drugs across state lines.
Jamestown Police Captain Robert Samuelson refused to answer why JPD turned McBride over to the feds.
“I don’t want to release that because that’s not going to be helpful to our investigation. He’s going to be charged federally with drug trafficking, and that’s all I can tell you,” said Captain Samuelson.
Jamestown Police have recently relied on the U.S. Government more and more with federal cases such as Beau and Matt Jones and Juan Pacheco.
Jamestown Police Chief Harry Snellings recently told reporters he may pursue federal charges in a Falconer raid which yielded around 11 ounces of cocaine. Snellings said he’s mainly interested in such action because there was a stolen gun recovered from residence.
In Odessin McBride’s case, no gun was found and the weight he allegedly possessed was half that of the Falconer suspects. The Falconer suspects are still in county jail as of Saturday evening.
McBride may also face money laundering charges as the owner of two local businesses.
LoTempio said that should be the least of his worries.
“The drugs are going to be the much bigger component to this; the drugs and if there were any guns,” LoTempio said.
“Taking on a federal case is much more costly than taking on a state case.”