Deaf man pleads guilty to drug charge; faces extradition

R.A.W.

R.A.W.

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By GREG WELTER - Staff Writer

A deaf man's local legal entanglements ended this week when he pleaded no contest in Butte County Superior Court to one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

Fourteen other identical counts against Robert Lee Berry, 51, were dismissed.

Now Berry, who waived his right to an extradition hearing, will be returned to New York to face numerous similar drug charges there, as well as allegations he befriended and then defrauded up to 65 other deaf victims, particularly women.

Berry moved to Oroville early this year from south central New York and continued a pattern of using his disability to defraud local doctors and pharmacies. He successfully obtained bogus prescriptions from at least two Butte County pharmacies, targeting medications that contained morphine.

Whether Berry obtained the prescriptions with the intent of selling them isn't known. He allegedly had a serious drug habit and claimed to need them for the control of pain.

In New York, where authorities have reportedly sought Berry for years, several of his victims signed petitions demanding his extradition.

Attorneys in the Butte County case agreed to postpone extradition proceedings in connection with a New York warrant until local criminal charges were resolved.

While it isn't known if Berry had victims among Butte County's deaf population, it's alleged he had dozens in New York. He's being investigated for using Internet chat rooms for the deaf to establish relationships with women, then persuade them to pay for his drugs and expensive medical appointments.

In a well-documented incident in Rochester, N.Y., Brenda Palmagiano said she met Berry while teaching a defensive driving course for the deaf. He allegedly took her pain medications after she had surgery and used her money to purchase additional prescription drugs.

Staff writer Greg Welter can be reached at 896-7768 or gwelter@chicoer.com.

http://www.chicoer.com/Stories/0,1413,135~25088~2934783,00.html
 
Where will he be extraditing to ?

Date Time Event Description Dept Code Department/Judge
07/19/05 08:30 STATUS OF EXTRADITION

Disposition Date: 00/00/00


B08 HON. GERALD HERMANSEN, JUDGE
 
TrippLA, why do you say that? The guy is a monster!
 
About time that Bobby Berry's being indicted for the fraud cases and saving future victims from falling into his trap.
 
TrippLA said:
I just said "that's sucks". :P
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Wondering if you know anything about this guy?? I have chat with him in the chat room few times, I didnt like the way he talked at all. So he is a monster and I would have kicked his butt him if he ever crossed me or my son.
 
R3na3Blyth3 said:
About time that Bobby Berry's being indicted for the fraud cases and saving future victims from falling into his trap.
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yup i agree with u.... abt time!
 
Pomeranian said:
Wondering if you know anything about this guy?? I have chat with him in the chat room few times, I didnt like the way he talked at all. So he is a monster and I would have kicked his butt him if he ever crossed me or my son.
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I don't know about him, sorry man. :fruit:
 
I don't know him at all. Im gonna let the Jury decide wheather he will be acquitted or convict him. I don't mind hearing his case and would give him fair trial.

Pomeranian said:
Wondering if you know anything about this guy?? I have chat with him in the chat room few times, I didnt like the way he talked at all. So he is a monster and I would have kicked his butt him if he ever crossed me or my son.
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diehardbiker65 said:
I don't know him at all. Im gonna let the Jury decide wheather he will be acquitted or convict him. I don't mind hearing his case and would give him fair trial.
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I don't care if he's going to jail for good reason, be stupid to starting guilty. :nono:
 
Does NOT matter what you think. Only Jurors can decide wheather to acquit or indict him. If acquit, it means he will be set free because juror can't find guilty on his part, OR that Juror didn't see any reasonable doubts then indict him and send to jail as long as Judge decides. That is VERY simple and has been like this since 200 years.

TrippLA said:
I don't care if he's going to jail for good reason, be stupid to starting guilty. :nono:
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Just reminder, when you call to serve the Jury duty. You will be preaching that suspect always presume innocent UNTIL found guilty by court of law. This means accused person is always innocent UNTIL juror found this person without any reasonable doubts guilty. Many of you watch judge judy or something like that. These are civil court, not criminal court. Civil court is not about who is guilty. It is about siding the argument two parties, that is where judge can make the judgement on. In grand jury court or you could call criminal court. Judge can NOT decide guilty or not.
 
diehardbiker65 said:
Does NOT matter what you think. Only Jurors can decide wheather to acquit or indict him. If acquit, it means he will be set free because juror can't find guilty on his part, OR that Juror didn't see any reasonable doubts then indict him and send to jail as long as Judge decides. That is VERY simple and has been like this since 200 years.
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like happen to OJ Simspon before. ;)
 
From the newsroom of the Oroville Mercury-Register, Oroville, California, Wednesday,

From the newsroom of the Oroville Mercury-Register, Oroville, California, Wednesday, July 20, 2005 .....

http://www.orovillemr.com/Stories/0,1413,157~26686~2973063,00.html

MISTAKENLY RELEASED, DEAF MAN RETURNED TO CUSTODY

THE CASE: Robert Lee Berry, 51, was charged with more than a dozen counts of using his disability to obtain prescription drugs fraudulently.

THE PLEA BARGAIN: Prosecutors said they agreed to drop all but one of the local counts last month because the deaf suspect was facing far more serious allegations on the East Coast.

THE LATEST: While awaiting sentencing in the local drug case, Berry was inadvertently released from jail on Monday for one day after those other jurisdictions indicated they now do not plan to extradite him.

by TERRY VAU DELL/MediaNews Group

A deaf man facing charges in two other states won short-lived freedom after he was inadvertently released from the Butte County Jail, Monday.

Robert Lee Berry, 51, was freed after jail officials were informed that the other jurisdictions now don't plan to extradite him.

Berry, who was also being held pending sentencing on local drug charges, called the Butte County Superior Court on Tuesday to say he was at a motel in Oroville.

After Berry was brought into court later that morning, Judge Gerald Hermansen remanded him back into custody without bail in the local drug case.

The deaf man had been facing more than a dozen counts of using his disability to fraudulently obtain prescription drugs from several local pharmacies.

All but one of the felony counts were dropped in a plea-bargain last month.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey said he only agreed to the plea-bargain because he was assured Berry would be extradited back to New York and Massachusetts, where he faced "far more serious charges," including child molestation.

Because the prescription drug counts involved the "same pattern of conduct," Ramsey said Berry unlikely would have received consecutive sentences even had he been convicted on all of the local charges.

When his court case was called Tuesday morning, the judge seemed frankly surprised that Berry had been released from custody while awaiting sentencing.

According to court records, Berry was being held in the county jail on two no-bail fugitive of justice warrants.

One related to allegations that he defrauded "numerous" persons primarily in deaf communities in that state, said Ramsey.

According to Berry's attorney, Dennis Hoptowit, the hearing-impaired man was also being held pending extradition to Massachusetts on separate child molestation charges.

Deputy district attorney Lynda Passmore said the jail received a fax from New York authorities on Monday, indicating they had decided not to extradite Berry.

The jail released him Monday night after being informed that Massachusetts also did not plan to seek extradition.

On Tuesday, the judge ordered the New York warrant lifted, but agreed to postpone action on the fugitive of justice warrant out of Massachusetts until the court gets written confirmation of its position concerning Berry.

Evie Joseph, Berry's court-appointed private investigator, said she went to a Motel 6 in Oroville with a sign-language interpreter to retrieve a "confused" Berry Tuesday morning.

"He seemed not to understand why he was released from jail before his cases had been resolved," said Joseph.

She said the deaf man was wearing the pair of "scrub" pants, T-shirt and tennis shoes that he had on when he was originally arrested.

With no money or a place to stay, Berry had managed to contact a former cellmate who loaned him enough to get a room at the Oroville motel overnight.

The motel permitted the deaf man to use its special keypad-equipped telephone to call a hearing-impaired operator so he could notify the court Tuesday of his whereabouts.

When Joseph picked him up at the motel to return him to court, the investigator said Berry, who is a diabetic, was "very pale and sweaty." She said he told her he hadn't had anything to eat or any medicine since he got out of jail.

The investigator took up a collection in court Tuesday to buy the deaf man some crackers, a candy bar and a soda before he was returned to custody.

"I think Mr. Berry showed real integrity," said the defense investigator.

"If that had been any other of my clients, they would have been in the wind."

© 2005 Oroville Mercury-Register
 
:zzz: Stupid judge and deputies. Good that B.B. suffers with diabetic and no food.
 
Deaf man gets two-year sentence for drug fraud

By TERRY VAU DELL/MediaNews Group

A deaf mute wanted in three states was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for using his disability to obtain a large amount of prescription narcotics from some 20 Butte County doctors and pharmacies.

A seemingly resigned Robert Lee Berry nodded his head up and down, as a sign-language interpreter communicated the sentence to him in Butte County Superior Court.

Berry was mistakenly released from custody last month while awaiting sentencing in the case after authorities in New York and Massachusetts indicated they did not plan to extradite him in connection with alleged crimes in those states.

The disabled man got an Oroville motel owner to allow him to use a special keypad-equipped telephone to contact the judge so he wouldn't be held responsible for failing to come to court that day.

He was initially charged with 15 counts of obtaining prescription pain killers by fraudulent means from 12 local doctors and eight pharmacies.

All but one of the counts was dropped in a subsequent plea bargain.

Berry admitted he was addicted to painkillers since his late teens, but denied forging any of the local prescriptions, insisting he obtained all the narcotics legally from a variety of doctors in Butte County.

In arguing for an upper-term prison sentence Tuesday, deputy district attorney Kevin Maloney said a Sheriff's Office investigation showed the deaf man had used his disability to obtain "305 days worth of drugs in 25 fraudulent transactions during the 69 days he was loose in California."

The prosecutor alleged Berry had befriended a woman in Oroville whom he met through a chat room for the deaf, borrowing more than $1,000 from her to pay for the various prescriptions.

Court reports indicate that at the time of his arrest in Oroville, Berry was being sought for allegedly defrauding several deaf women in New York and Pennsylvania to feed his drug habit.

He is also wanted for questioning in connection with an alleged molestation of a 6-year-old girl in Massachusetts.

All three states so far have declined to extradite him.

Berry's attorney, Dennis Hoptowit, urged the judge Tuesday not to consider the unproved out-of-state charges.

In asking that a probation officer's recommendation to place Berry on probation be followed, Hoptowit asserted that in the silent world his client inhabited, prison would be terrifying.

But Judge Gerald Hermansen imposed a two-year prison sentence, citing the sophisticated methods the deaf man used to get local doctors and pharmacies to write the large number of narcotic prescriptions.

http://www.orovillemr.com/Stories/0,1413,157~26686~3023887,00.html
 
2 years???? :eek:

they forget quickly what Bobby abused the children with sexually... Oh dear!
 
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