New York
Ex-detective on trial in perjury case that sank convictions
NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City narcotics detective went on trial Thursday on charges that he lied about witnessing drug deals — allegations that prompted the dismissals of hundreds of drug convictions.
Prosecutors say video contradicted several of Joseph Franco’s claims to have seen illegal drug sales. His lawyer says the former detective might have muffed some details about where he saw the alleged transactions but didn’t deliberately lie, and the lawyer maintains the video doesn’t prove otherwise.
Franco worked for the New York Police Department from for about 20 years, until 2020. He was charged in Manhattan in 2019 with perjury and other offenses and has pleaded not guilty.
The charges involve a handful of cases, but the allegations prompted prosecutors in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx to disavow hundreds of convictions in cases involving Franco. The prosecutors didn’t say they had found evidence that he lied in those cases, but they said they couldn’t stand by his work.
In an opening statement at trial Thursday, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Samantha Dworken said some people ended up behind bars on convictions based on Franco’s alleged lies.
“This was not a mistake. It was a pattern,” Dworken said.
While some suspects did indeed sell or have drugs, “his lies were a poison that tainted any fair or legitimate case that could have been made against them,” she told jurors.
Franco’s attorney, Howard Tanner, said Franco was dedicated to trying to get drugs off the streets. He couldn’t take notes or make recordings while on surveillance and may have erred at times in recounting exactly where alleged drug took place, but “that still doesn’t make it a crime,” Tanner said.
“Joe’s on trial for doing his job,” Tanner said in his opening. He described the case as “second-guessing, Monday morning quarterbacking by an overzealous district attorney’s office.”
New York
Ex-convict who abused college women gets 60 years in prison
NEW YORK (AP) — An ex-convict who obtained millions of dollars by subjecting his daughter’s ex-college roommates to forced labor and prostitution was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison.
Lawrence Ray, 63, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Lewis J. Liman, who described his crimes as “particularly heinous.”
Liman announced the sentence after Assistant U.S. Attorney Mollie Bracewell said that age will not deter Ray from inflicting the kinds of “unspeakable cruelty” on others that he did for the last decade on the friends of his daughter after he met them at Sarah Lawrence College, a small New York liberal arts school.
Given a chance to speak, Ray expressed no remorse but decried his prison conditions and physical ailments.
His defense lawyer argued against the life prison term that prosecutors called for, saying the 15-year mandatory minimum was sufficient, particularly because Ray has experienced harsh conditions in prison for the past few years.
Ray was convicted at trial last April of charges including racketeering, conspiracy, forced labor and sex trafficking.
At trial, one women testified that she became a sex worker to try to pay reparations to Ray after becoming convinced that she had poisoned him. She said that, over four years, she gave Ray $2.5 million in installments that averaged between $10,000 and $50,000 per week.
A lawyer for the woman read her statement aloud Friday before the judge announced the sentence.
She said she had been subjected to “unremitting sadistic torture.”
“Experiences I had while being sex trafficked haunt me today,” she said in the statement.
During Ray’s trial, several students testified that they were drawn into Ray’s world as he told them stories of his past influence in New York City politics, including his role in ruining the career of former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik after serving as the best man at his wedding years earlier.
Ray had, in fact, been a figure in a corruption investigation that derailed Kerik’s 2004 nomination by President George Bush to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
As he imposed the sentence, Liman credited victims willing to testify for bringing justice for the kind of crimes “difficult to detect and difficult to prosecute.”
“This case shows the strength of the human spirit and the dedication of law enforcement,” Liman said.
The judge said Ray’s attempt to “extinguish lives” had failed and the sentence he announced will ensure Ray will never again harm someone else.
Wisconsin
4 people indicted in fatal shooting of U.S. postal worker
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Four people have been indicted in connection with the fatal shooting of U.S. Postal Service employee Aundre Cross, federal prosecutors in Milwaukee announced Thursday.
Lakisha Ducksworth, 38, was indicted on charges of lying to investigators, prosecutors said. Three other people had already been charged in the case: Kevin McCaa, 36, and Charles Ducksworth Jr., 26, were indicted on murder and gun charges, and Shanelle McCoy, 34, was also indicted on charges of lying to investigators.
McCaa also was charged with unlawfully possessing ammunition and Charles Ducksworth also was charged with possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, prosecutors said.
It’s not clear whether Charles Ducksworth Jr. and Lakisha Ducksworth are related.
Prosecutors said surveillance videos showed two suspects following Cross for about an hour on Dec. 9. After exiting a vehicle without license plates, someone approached Cross from behind and a gunshot was heard.
The vehicle belonged to McCoy. She told law enforcement that she was using the vehicle at the time of the shooting to make DoorDash deliveries. However, investigators found footage of McCoy using a different vehicle — one that belonged to Charles Ducksworth — at that time to make deliveries and switching back to her own vehicle later.
It was not clear why Cross was shot. He had worked for the USPS for 18 years. A former co-worker said he had four children, and others said they remembered him for his positive attitude.
Illinois
Paramedics, ambulance company sued for man’s death
CHICAGO (AP) — The family of an Illinois man whose death prompted murder charges against two paramedics who strapped him facedown on a stretcher has filed a lawsuit against them and their employer, attorneys said Thursday.
Ben Crump, whose firm often handles civil rights cases and frequently represents the families of Black men killed by police, is representing 35-year-old Earl Moore’s family in the lawsuit against Peter Cadigan, Peggy Finley and LifeStar Ambulance Service. Speaking to reporters, Crump said police video of the paramedics’ interactions with Moore showed “barbaric” behavior.
“We saw it with so many tragedies in America,” Crump said, referencing killings of Black men by police, including George Floyd. “It’s just so tragic that now this pattern seems to be spilling over to the first responders, to the EMTs. When you look at that video, the reason it’s so shocking is because they offer Earl no consideration.”
Prosecutors have separately charged Cadigan and Finley with first-degree murder, accusing them of tightly strapping Moore on a stretcher after Springfield police, who initially responded to a 911 call at Moore’s home, requested an ambulance. Under Illinois law, a first-degree murder charge can be filed when a defendant “knows that such acts create a strong probability of death or great bodily harm.”
Moore’s mother, Rose Washington, said losing her only son has been unimaginably painful.
“They tied him down like some kind of animal and killed him,” she said. “My baby suffocated because of their actions.”
Edward Unsell, Cadigan’s attorney, said he had not seen the suit yet but a civil lawsuit had been anticipated. As for the murder charge, Unsell said he doesn’t believe prosecutors have probable cause against Cadigan.
W. Scott Hanken, Finley’s attorney, also called the criminal charge unwarranted, saying, “What happened may be negligent, but it’s not a criminal act and certainly not first-degree murder.”
A woman who answered the phone at LifeStar Ambulance Service’s office and did not provide her name declined to comment.
Experts in emergency medicine have said the Springfield case is a rare instance of prosecutors filing criminal charges against emergency medicine providers. Another prominent example is pending in Colorado, where a grand jury in 2021 indicted two paramedics along with three police officers for manslaughter and other charges in the death of a Black man, Elijah McClain.
Cadigan and Finley remain in the Sangamon County jail on $1 million bond each. They appeared via video for a brief court appearance Thursday, but no additional details of the case were discussed. They were scheduled to appear again Friday morning.
After Sangamon County prosecutors filed the charges this month, Springfield police released the videos which show a woman inside Moore’s home telling police that he is in withdrawal from alcohol and hallucinating. Police then call for an ambulance.
When Finley arrives she enters the bedroom, where Moore is on the floor. Soon after, she yells at him to sit up and asks repeatedly for his birth date.
“Sit up,” she says. “You know what, I am not playing. Sit up. Quit acting stupid. Sit up. Sit up now. I am not playing with you tonight.”
“You’re gonna have to walk cause we ain’t carrying you,” she adds.
Once outside the house, the video shows Cadigan forcefully putting Moore onto his stomach on the stretcher and both paramedics tightening straps across his back.
Springfield Police Chief Ken Scarlette has said he asked Illinois State Police to investigate after learning that Moore died after arriving at the hospital. An autopsy report listed Moore’s cause of death as homicide by compressional and positional asphyxia.
Wisconsin
Man charged with imprisoning woman in her house
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a 27-year-old man with imprisoning a woman in her home in La Crosse earlier this month.
Cole J. Clark of Lancaster was charged Tuesday in La Crosse County with felony kidnapping, false imprisonment, intimidating a victim by use of force and bail jumping, the La Crosse Tribune reported Thursday. He also was charged with misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman told police that Clark showed up uninvited at her home on Jan. 11 and wouldn’t leave. He messaged the woman’s family and told them that she’d been in a car accident and was hospitalized in Madison and that doctors wouldn’t allow any visitors.
The woman said that she feared for her life if she tried to escape. She said Clark took her to the hospital at one point to address a medical issue. He didn’t leave her side during the visit and threatened to hurt her if she told anyone she was in trouble, according to the complaint.
The woman escaped on Jan. 15 when a family member knocked on the door. Clark allegedly hid in a closet, giving her a chance to run outside, the complaint said. Police surrounded the house and the man surrendered without incident.
Clark denied any wrongdoing, and is quoted in the criminal complaint as saying the woman asked him to call her mother and make up an accident story because she needed a break.
Assistant District Attorney Nick Passe said Clark was charged last year with abusing the same woman. Those charges are still pending.
