Former Auburn City Council Candidate & Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty to Trespassing at Fairmount Wegmans

The former Republican Auburn City Council candidate and owner of Octane Social House has pled guilty to criminal trespass in Geddes Town Court.

According to The Citizen, Robert Otterstatter was originally accused of stealing over 600 dollars worth of groceries from the Fairmount Wegmans last summer by using self checkout on three separate occasions to make products not ring up.

He had already been banned from Wegmans stores for two years after being accused of shoplifting earlier in 2022 by security at the Auburn location.

Originally charged with three counts of burglary and petit larceny before being reduced to misdemeanors, he accepted the plea deal and admitted to criminal trespass. Otterstatter has been given a one year conditional discharge, a fine of 205 dollars, and must provide a DNA sample costing 50 dollars.

Octane Social House was formerly located in the Nolan Building. Photo by Ed Helinski

Octane Social House was closed after Ottersatter’s arrest, leaving Auburn with a 143-thousand dollar debt from a Community Development Block Grant loan made in January of 2020.

A portion of the debt was recovered through an auction of the coffee house’s contents.