Coffee shop owner gets 4 to 12 years for insurance arson
ByMatt Gryta
News Staff Reporter
Updated: September 08, 2009, 5:04 PM

Former Buffalo coffee shop owner Lon Coldiron, still proclaiming his innocence, today was ordered to spend the next four to 12 years in state prison for setting fire to the building in a bid to collect insurance money.

Coldiron also was ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution to the insurance company for what Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk called his "terribly selfish" crime.

Coldiron, 43, was convicted by a jury July 27 of third-degree arson and attempted grand larceny for the Oct. 21, 2004, fire that destroyed his "Coffee &" shop and the three-story building it was in at 718 Elmwood Ave.

The judge denounced him for the "orchestrated" fire he falsely thought could generate insurance payments on his money-losing business.

It was Coldiron's second trial in connection with the fire. He was spared a jail term when an Erie County Court jury three years ago convicted him only of attempted grand larceny. However, an appellate court set aside that conviction and ordered a second trial because of juror misconduct in the first trial.

After Coldiron today insisted that "I'm still innocent and someday it will come out," Franczyk denounced him for the insurance ploy that prosecutors showed took place while his coffee shop was losing money and he was still gambling at nearby casinos "like a drunken sailor."

The judge also faulted him for causing damage to adjoining structures and putting Buffalo firefighters at risk in dealing with the early-morning arson five years ago. Franczyk also ordered him to repay Travelers Insurance Co. the $250,000 it paid the owner of the building destroyed in the arson.

John K. Jordan, Coldiron's attorney, said the conviction will be appealed.

okay, so this journal has neither, but something almost as good. One of my college friend's band is coming to Buffalo this Friday at Mohawk Place.

They are called the Spinto Band and are mmm, mmm, pop rock goodness. You should check them out (as I am not in Buffalo, I have to drive 1.5 hours to see them on Saturday in Western MA).

And on top of it all - they are (e:twisted) approved

I post this as a warning to all fellow (e:strip)pers - do not use Orbitz, Cheaptickets.com or any of their affiliates (http://corp.orbitz.com/). They consistently advertise prices that they cannot guarantee.

Two times in the past week, I have ordered tickets through their website, only to later get an email (Once one day later, once seven days later!!!) saying that the airline cannot sell the ticket I ordered at that price. Even though they continue to say on their website that they can.

I called customer service to ask why I kept being denied and all they would say is that an airline wouldn't confirm my ticket. I asked which airline so I could avoid it, and they would not tell me. I pointed out that the flight was still available for a similar price and asked why it had not been removed. They suggested I fill out a feedback form on their website so the tech people could consider my suggestion. WTF!!!! How can a website offer a flight for a price that they cannot deliver. That is BS. I am never using Orbitz or Cheaptickets.com again. I suggest that you avoid them too.

I can't fall asleep for the life of me (yes I know it is not even 11 - I have the daily routine of an 80-year old). My mind is just going a million miles an hour. Not even the worried about the future or worried about work I have to do million miles an hour. Just a thinking about the past and certain feelings. A number of things are prompting this - talking to friends from both grad and undergrad about people in grad and undergrad; listening to Moby's "Songs" (greatest hits before he was on every tv commercial) which I listened to a lot during the first summer of grad school; a dream about a person I went to school with that I no longer speak with (not that I ever really did, she was kind of one of the background people that you wish you got to know more and still hang out with, like luca brasci in the Godfather movie, but you can just learn more about him by reading the book); writing "update" emails to professors; myspace stalking; Sivram being back in DC with a lot of undergrad people; taking a nap during the day; drinking a liter of pop; eating a lot for dinner; going on the Tour de France website yesterday (another thing I did religiously during my first summer of grad school - watching 3 hours of tour coverage nightly); the summer and warm nights, which always make me feel sentimental, specifically due to the fact that it is coming close to being two years from when I started grad school and one year from when I started my current job; it being three years from the summer I spent in DC. My mind just keeps going a million miles an hour and I am not sure that I want it to stop. All of these things are just combining to make me feel very strong emotions - specifically sentimentality, which I tend to be prone to. I don't know that I dislike it and I might even like it, but it is a touch overwhelming, and I do need to sleep.

Also, sorry I haven't been updating as of late. I know I have been bad.

Also, memorial day weekend was my three-year anniversary on (e:strip). YAY. Thank you (e:paul) for setting up this site even though I am a bad member.

I hope all is well with you and I love you all.

I don't know if you caught this
in the Buffalo News yesterday, but (e:strip) ' s favorite lawyer was quoted in it.

American Axle gets big cut in property taxes in Buffalo
But it is not known if the savings boost the odds of survival for the faltering plant
By Fred O. Williams NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

Tax breaks aren't just for growing companies.

American Axle & Manufacturing has cut a quarter million dollars from its annual taxes in Buffalo - a move that other industrial sites are attempting.

"It's a substantial savings," the company's lawyer Bruce S. Zeftel said, "but the property was overvalued."

A county judge agreed last year, slashing the factory's $12.5 million assessment nearly in half. That cuts city and county taxes to about $270,000, from $531,000 a year.

The axle maker wouldn't say if the savings boost the odds of survival for faltering plant on East Delavan Avenue. The axle factory has shed about half its former 1,200 jobs, and is one of three sites where production lines could be idled.

The 41-acre site includes parking as well as the main plant built in 1923, plus more recent additions.

Detroit-based American Axle is also challenging taxes on its other area plants in Cheektowaga and the Town of Tonawanda.

"The going rate for industrial properties is pretty low," Zeftel said. Besides American Axle, he has filed assessment challenges for major employers including Quebecor in Depew and Praxair in the Town of Tonawanda.

Helping fuel the disputes is a glut of factory space in the Buffalo area, which is eroding market values. What they don't pay increases the burden on other revenue sources - mainly homeowners.

The region's best-known example is probably Lackawanna's longrunning battle over the former Bethlehem Steel property on Lake Erie. Assessed at $40 million, the disused industrial site is actually worth nothing, owner Mittal Steel argues. A court case is pending.

In the Town of Cheektowaga, the axle maker's challenge is one of about 40 ongoing tax disputes on commercial properties, Town Attorney Kevin Schenk said.

The length of the dispute process cushions municipalities from sudden hits to their tax base. In most jurisdictions, an assessment challenge is heard by a municipal appeal body before the issue can go to court. In Buffalo, American Axle's assessment cut stands in contrast to commercial properties closer to downtown, where values are growing, according to the city's assessment office.