Wheatfield Business Owner Sentenced to Probation on Drug Charge
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 25, 2011 |
BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Stephen Catone, 42 of Wheatfield, New York, was sentenced to two years’ probation by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara for his plea to cocaine-related charges. Judge Arcara also ordered Tomasino to forfeit the sum of $50,000.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. McCabe, who handled the case, Catone was owner of Papa Joe's Bar and Restaurant on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Wheatfield. The defendant admitted to storing, distributing, and using cocaine at Papa Joe's during business hours from early to mid 2009. Catone obtained cocaine from co-defendant William Hutchins, a member of a drug-trafficking organization led by Keith Simmons. Both Hutchins and Simmons have been convicted in the case.
The sentencing is was the culmination of an investigation on the part of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson; and officers from the Niagara County Drug Task Force and police departments in the City of Niagara Falls and Town of Amherst.