AUBURN - A former nightclub operator once labeled by Auburn police as the biggest drug dealer in city history will have his prison sentence reduced.

In a hearing Thursday to consider a re-sentence for Albert "Albee" J. Brunner IV, Cayuga County Judge Peter Corning promised to reduce his previous 25 years-to-life sentence to 19 years. Brunner, who has been in prison for more than 15 years, became eligible for a new sentence range of eight to 20 years under the 2004 Drug Law Reform Act, which was passed by the state Legislature to reform the Rockefeller-era drug laws.

Brunner was to be officially re-sentenced at 10 a.m. today. With time served for good behavior, he could be released from prison within a year.

Brunner's friends and family have been calling for his sentence to be reduced.

"I feel that my brother served over 15 years for a first-time, nonviolent felony crime. He has served enough," said Brunner's sister, Margaret Liberatore, of Auburn.

Liberatore touched her brother's arm as he was escorted from the courtroom to the elevator by corrections officers. He spent the night in Auburn Correctional Facility.

Brunner was arrested in January 1989 in the Auburn Plaza's parking lot on Grant Avenue after arranging a sale with an undercover police officer for 30 ounces of cocaine worth $40,000. Another five ounces was found in a suitcase in Brunner's now-defunct Bedrock Cafe nightclub at 29 Grant Ave.

Brunner evaded authorities for five months before being captured in November 1989, leaving behind a forfeited $250,000 bail bond.

His assigned attorney, Joe Sapio, had also asked for Corning's recusal, or for the case be transferred to another county, but Corning did not take himself off the case. Corning said the DLRA required the judge who did the original sentencing to conduct the re-sentencing.

Sapio said they will not immediately object to the 19-year re-sentence, but they will appeal to a higher court after today, arguing that Brunner's good behavior while imprisoned - like earning an associate's degree in business and participating in volunteer programs - as well as the grounds of recusal, should have led to an even lighter sentence.

Sapio argued in his July 1 motion papers that there were several grounds for Corning to recuse himself.

During conferences, he wrote, Corning blamed Brunner for hurting people, including bondsmen Theodore Cheche, who lost his funeral home business and served a brief state prison sentence following a bail bond scandal brought to light because of Brunner's flight to Louisiana in June 1989. It was a case in which Corning was admonished for improper judicial conduct by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct Nov. 4, 1992. The commission said he improperly approved bail bonds.

"(The defense) has concern that the Hon. Peter E. Corning is holding Defendant Brunner reliable for the subsequent misfortunes of Mr. Cheche," Sapio wrote.

Sapio also called for Corning to recuse himself because Brunner had accused Corning and then-District Attorney Paul Carbanaro of drug use and trafficking. An FBI probe found no support for the allegations.

"I'm here to obey the law as is everyone else," Corning said.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net