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Man who threw chair and hurt son pleads guilty to three charges

By Howard B. Owens

A Batavia man admitted in Genesee County Court this morning that on Aug. 31, he got drunk, got mad and wound up hurting his own 4-year-old son after he threw a chair at another person, striking his son instead.

James S. Nottingham Sr., pled guilty to attempted assault 3rd, DWI and aggravated unlicensed operation.

The attempted assault charge requires the prosecution to prove that Nottingham intended to hurt another person. Judge Robert Noonan made sure that Nottingham understood his right at trial to use his intoxication as possible proof that he wasn't aware that his actions might cause serious injury.

The charge is a felony and serves as his second felony for purposes of sentencing.

Nottingham, 30, who finished ninth-grade, admitted to a felony count of criminal mischief in 2005. He also had a DWI conviction in Batavia City Court last year.

Attorney Gary Horton asked to have Nottingham released under supervision, but Noonan denied his request and continued his bail.

In the Aug. 31 incident, Nottingham said he threw the chair at Warren Cotton.

Gary Spencer

Nottingham, 30,-------"who finished ninth-grade,"----- admitted to a felony count of criminal mischief in 2005. He also had a DWI conviction in Batavia City Court last year.

Why is the education level of this person relevant to the story???

Feb 23, 2010, 12:22am Permalink
Doug Yeomans

It's unusual? How so? The event dropout rate for ages 15 through 24 in grades 10 through 12 has fallen from 6.1 percent in 1972 to 4.5 percent in 1993; and The cohort rate [3] for students who were sophomores in 1980 and dropped out between grades 10 and 12 was 11.4 percent, while the cohort rate for a comparable group of 1990 sophomores was 6.2 percent. (http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/dropout.html)

6.2% in 1990 for sophomores. Ninth grade would've made him a freshman but I can remember a fair number a males and females that dropped out of school and I graduated in 1981. Many of them dropped out because of the monotonous teaching method that bored them to tears and others quit just because they had a poor attitude.

The dropout rates in the city of Rochester are something in the 60 percentile range.

I don't think it's unusual at all for people in trouble or any other place in society to be a dropout.

Feb 23, 2010, 8:11am Permalink
Dave Olsen

Doug; After looking at the article you linked, I'm thinking those are National figures. I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that NY State outside of NYC will have lower drop-out rates than the national average. Still I'm sure we'll both agree anyone who throws a chair in the direction of a 4 year old, regardless of who the intended recipient was, ain't too smart no matter how drunk or educated. When I was in the Navy, they told us you couldn't use intoxication as a defense. I still agree with that. You get plastered and do something stupid, you're still guilty.

Feb 23, 2010, 9:59am Permalink
Gary Spencer

"Until this case, I had yet to see a defendant at sentencing who hadn't yet completed high school. "

I think that many defendants in the courtroom have yet to complete high school, I don't have all the statistics here in front of me, but I am sure that many-if not MOST- defendants (more so at this mans age 30)are high school drops outs. Quitting school may seem like a good idea at the time but it has lasting consequences...many people drop out of school because they are involved with substance abuse and the substance abuse later sends them to court for various reasons.

Feb 23, 2010, 8:40pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Whatever, Gary. I'm quite comfortable with how I reported this story. Further, at sentencing Judge Noonan ALWAYS asks what level of schooling the defendant completed. I can't think of another time in the past year that the answer was anything other than one of the three following: Graduated HS, got a GED, or, some college.

Feb 23, 2010, 9:02pm Permalink

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