Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announces that 37 year- old Wade F. Wampler, II of 333 Aldrich Street in the Town of Gowanda pleaded guilty as charged to Assault in the Second Degree, Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle in the First Degree and Driving While Intoxicated before Acting State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller. These are the highest charges for which the defendant could have been convicted had he gone to trial. In other words, Wampler did not receive a so-called “plea bargain” and was instead prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

On January 6, 2014, police were summoned to investigate a single vehicle crash occurring on the Niagara Section of the Thruway near downtown Buffalo. That portion of the Thruway was closed at the time because of a driving ban occasioned by frigid temperatures and dangerously high winds. 

State Trooper James Gainey arrived and, suspecting Wampler was intoxicated, administered field sobriety tests, which the defendant failed. Wampler--whose driver’s license had been revoked three times-- then lied about his name and date of birth. After being placed under arrest, Wampler became combative and attacked Trooper Gainey, kicking the officer several times in the back of the head. Shockingly, an assault upon a police officer by a drunken numbskull with no respect for the law received little media attention.    

Wampler faces up to seven years in state prison when he is sentenced on January 9, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. by Justice Boller. 

The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Robin J. Deubler, who is assigned to DA Sedita’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau.