By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

Former Erie County Assistant District Attorney Anne Adams was sentenced in state Supreme Court Thursday to 15 days in jail and three years' probation following her guilty plea to three misdemeanor charges.

But a stay of sentencing issued by senior Appellate Division Justice Hon. Samuel Green hours after the sentence was handed down has allowed Adams to go free pending an anticipated appeal.

She was released Thursday evening after serving less than six hours in the Erie County Holding Center.

Adams pleaded guilty in Feburary to multiple counts, including driving while intoxicated, stemming from her arrest in the Town of Hamburg last fall.

She was pulled over Sept. 2 on Route 5 in Hamburg after leaving Shanghai Red's, a Buffalo restaurant where she had been meeting with state Supreme Court Justice Hon. Joseph Makowski. At the time, Adams registered a .19 blood-alcohol- content reading and failed field sobriety tests.

What could have been a standard driving-while-intoxicated case quickly escalated as Adams was accused of soliciting her doctor to falsify a blood test. Makowski filed an affidavit on her behalf, claiming he was with her prior to her arrest and had seen no signs that she was impaired as she drove home that evening. Witness statements quickly discredited Makowski's account, however, and, under an agreement with Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III, Makowski resigned to avoid possible criminal charges including perjury.

Adams declined to address the court prior to the sentencing, relying instead on a letter she submitted to the court in which she said she had "hatched a selfish and reprehensible scheme" and called her actions following her arrest "inexcusable." Her attorney, James Harrington, said his client is suffering from depression and has experienced public humiliation.

"This is a person who made her living as a wordsmith, and she is at the point today where she is not able to speak to the court," he said.

Despite a plea from Harrington and a report from the probation office recommending no jail time, Griffith refused a request to stay the sentence while Harrington filed an appeal, and Adams, a former University at Buffalo Law School faculty member, was led from the court in handcuffs.

In addition to the 15-day jail sentence and term of probation, Griffith ordered Adams to pay a $500 fine and an additional $395 in court costs. He refused Harrington's request for a conditional driver's license, revoking her driving privileges immediately.

In a requirement that Sedita said he had never seen before, the judge ordered Adams to write two "sincere letters of apology" - the first to the arresting officers, whom Adams publicly criticized following her arrest, and the second to her former legal colleagues in Buffalo, a letter Griffith said must be published in the Bar Association of Erie County's newsletter.

Hon. Michael Griffith, a state Supreme Court judge from Wyoming County who presided over the sentencing, said a psychological report and letters submitted on Adams' behalf factored into his sentence. Griffith warned observers who might think the sentence was too light to "put yourself in Ms. Adams' shoes."

Following the sentencing, Sedita praised Griffith for what he called his "incredibly thoughtful remarks" regarding the case.

"It was obvious he had studied this case very hard, and he fashioned the sentence that he thought was appropriate."

Sedita said he had expected Adams to get some jail time following her guilty plea.

"On most misdemeanor cases, I'd say 95 percent, unless the defendant has a long criminal history - and Ms. Adams has none - the judges do not put the defendant in jail," he said. "I think because of the dishonesty and the manipulation in Ms. Adams' conduct, that's why she's going to be sitting in a jail cell."

Hours after the district attorney made those remarks, Adams walked out of the county jail a free woman, at least for now.

Harrington, after failing to convince Griffith to order an immediate stay of the sentence, took his argument before Green, who granted the stay, paving the way for Adams' release.

Adams now has 120 days to appeal the sentence.

As of press time, calls to Sedita and Harrington were not returned.