September 19, 2018 at 4:52 p.m.
Chagnon draws jail time in battery case
Sentence to run concurrent to five-year prison term on probation revocation
Chagnon draws jail time in battery case
Albert J. Chagnon, 36, was originally charged with battery by prisoners stemming from an April 2 incident in the Oneida County jail.
According to the criminal complaint, Chagnon got into an argument with another prisoner and started chasing the man around a jail pod. Video footage of the incident shows Chagnon lunged at the man and stabbed him with a pencil, the complaint states.
A small puncture wound with part of the lead from the pencil was also found on the man's lower back, according to court records.
In court Tuesday, assistant district attorney Jillian Pfeifer told Branch II judge Michael Bloom she would amend the charge from a class H felony, which carries up to six years in prison, to a misdemeanor charge of battery, in exchange for a guilty or no contest plea.
She told Bloom this plea agreement came about because the stabbing victim was not cooperating with the district attorney's office. She and defense attorney Karl Schmidt then made a joint recommendation for 90 days in jail concurrent to Chagnon's current revocation sentence.
The revocation dates back to a 2014 conviction on four misdemeanor counts of violating state/county institution rules. According to the complaint in that case, as Chagnon was being processed for discharge from prison after serving time for a 2002 possession of child pornography charge, officials found a notebook containing photographs of fully clothed girls that he had clipped from The Lakeland Times and other publications.
Some of the photos were accompanied by written commentary of a graphic nature.
The state attempted to charge Chagnon with 23 counts of registered sex offender intentionally photographing a minor without consent, but the third circuit court of appeals dismissed the charges.
Chagnon eventually pled no contest to the misdemeanor counts and was sentenced to one year in prison followed by one year of extended supervision, to be served consecutively, with credit for 394 days served. According to online court records, Chagnon served 701 days before being released in September 2017. However, by October 2017, he was back behind bars on a probation revocation and on July 25 he was ordered back to prison for five years.
In court Tuesday, Chagnon apologized for the pencil stabbing and said he would apologize to the victim if he could. He and Schmidt also noted his non-violent criminal history.
"Basically I wasn't thinking properly while under a lot of stress and it just got out of hand," Chagnon told Bloom. "I regret doing what I did."
Bloom said the stabbing "was not a garden variety monkeying around between inmates" and added that the fact that a pencil was used as a weapon doesn't lesson the severity of the crime.
"This wasn't nothing," the judge said.
Bloom noted he has no idea what it is like to live behind bars for an extended period of time and have to get along with others "many of whom might be unpleasant, dangerous, mentally ill, difficult, etc. etc" and was hesitant to lecture Chagnon on how to do that. But his prior convictions have put Chagnon in a situation where "you don't have a lot of elbow room," he noted.
"You were out on extended supervision, and the experience of having that supervision revoked I would assume - or I would hope - would have clarified to you that you don't have a lot of elbow room," Bloom said. "And you have to keep yourself between the lines or you are never going to be able to succeed out in the world. And that reality requires you to keep between the lines while you're locked up."
Eventually, Chagnon will be released from prison after serving his sentence, he continued.
"And in a perfect world, you'd stay put," Bloom said. "But in that perfect world, you hold up your end of the bargain."
Bloom then went along with the plea agreement and sentenced Chagnon to 90 days in jail to be served at the same time as the five-year prison sentence.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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