Jamaican Native Sentenced For Attack On Federal Officer

CONTACT:      Barbara Burns
PHONE:         (716) 843-5817
FAX:            (716) 551-3051

BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. announced today that Seymour Ellis, 43, most recently of Queens, N.Y., who was convicted after plea of Assault of a Federal Officer, was sentenced to imprisonment of 68 months by United States District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr.

Special Assistant United States Attorney Brian J. Counihan, who handled the case, statedthat in April of 2015, the defendant was in immigration custody at the BuffaloFederal Detention Facility in Batavia, N.Y. The defendant was awaiting removal from the United States to Jamaica after having been stripped of his lawful permanent resident status and ordered removed by an immigration judge. The immigration judge ordered the defendant removed from the United States because of the defendant’s New York State narcotics trafficking, robbery, and theft convictions.  While in the detention facility, the defendant attacked and assaulted a detention officer using a radio and his fists and causing bodily injury.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation by Officers of the Enforcement and Removal Operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the direction of Field Office Director Michael Phillips.