NORWICH – A previously convicted felon, while pleading guilty to trying to sell meth in Chenango County Court, asked the judge Monday to make sure the sentence would not impact his current pistol ownership.

In a separate incident, police had charged the same person of being involved in a stabbing in Norwich in October of 2018, but those charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence and witness cooperation.

Appearing in court Monday, Matthew J. Neer, 36, of Norwich, pleaded guilty to fifth degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a D class felony, and admitted to the court that he was trying to sell two grams of methamphetamine on April 5 in the City of Norwich.

He was sentenced to participate in the judicial diversion program and put on interim probation.

Neer said he had a pistol and a permit from Broome County and wanted to make sure Monday's plea deal would not change that.

Neer was released to participate in the program after already serving several months at the Chenango County Correctional Facility.

In addition to being guilty of felony grand larceny in Broome County Court in 2015, First Assistant District Attorney James Snashall said Neer also had 10 prior misdemeanor convictions from Norwich, Sherburne, Vestal and Broome County areas.

Snachall said he was unaware Neer had a pistol permit, or how a convicted felon would have been permitted to keep one. He said the DA's office would contact officials in Broome, who issued the original permit to get more information.

Neer avoided a prison sentence by participating in judicial diversion.

Following the plea, Snachall asked Chenango County Court Judge Frank Revoir to sentence Neer to a felony charge as part of the deal, but the judge opted to give Neer another chance instead, offering to sentence him to misdemeanor if he behaved during the year of interim probation.

“I don't believe the record and facts warrant a misdemeanor in this case,” Snachall told the court. “It should be a felony.”

But Revoir said the purpose of the judicial diversion program was reform. He said the criteria on Neer were intentionally strict.

It was unclear if the terms would prevent him from owning a pistol though.