10 Years For Suffolk Man For Drug, Gun Find In Traffic Stop

RIVERSIDE, NY — A Coram man was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision for gun and drug charges stemming from a traffic stop in Medford, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney's office said.

During a February 2021 traffic stop on Barbara Lane, Suffolk police officers asked Lavon Dawson, 27, who was seated in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, to step out and when he did, they saw a loaded .380-caliber pistol directly below his seat, Tierney's office said.

When officers tried to arrest Dawson, he disobeyed and ran away over fences and through the yards of numerous homes, with the officers pursuing him before eventually apprehending him in a cellar stairwell, according to Tierney's office.

Along Dawson’s path of flight, officers recovered a plastic bag containing over half an ounce of heroin near his wallet on the ground, as well as a digital scale and cutting agent from the vehicle he bolted from, Tierney's office said.

Dawson was previously convicted in 2014 in Suffolk for first-degree robbery for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released in July 2020, one year before the arrest on this case.

Tierney said Dawson "was not even out of prison for a full year when he was caught with an illegal gun and heroin."

“Now he is headed right back to prison for another 10 years," he said. "How many times does it take to break the law for the lesson to resonate? The profiting of poisoning others with dangerous drugs and carrying illegal weapons in Suffolk will guarantee you a stay in prison for a significant time.”

Dawson was found guilty after a jury trial of one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, as well as one count of resisting arrest.

Patch has reached out to his attorney, Ian Fitzgerald of Hampton Bays, for comment.