Ex-prosecutor says prison officer divulged plan to frame gang members
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FILE The James T. Foley United States Courthouse in Albany, N.Y.Times Union
ALBANY A former prosecutor testified Wednesday that a state correction officer told him he planted a weapon on an inmate in Auburn Correctional Facility in 2015 as part of a larger effort among prison officers to rid the jailhouse of gang members.
Brian Leeds, a former assistant district attorney in Cayuga County, told a civil jury in U.S. District Court in Albany he was preparing for an inmate s trial when Officer Matthew Cornell divulged the startling admission on Dec. 9, 2016. Leeds said Cornell told him officers in the maximum-security prison had “boated” a lot of the gang members from the prison by planting weapons on them.
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Ex-inmate tells Albany jury correction officer planted weapon on him
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FILE The James T. Foley United States Courthouse in Albany, N.Y.Times Union
ALBANY A former state inmate testified Tuesday that a correction officer planted a weapon on him in 2016, costing him five more months in prison and ruining his plans to get married.
Donnesia Brown, 52, told jurors in U.S. District Court he was in his cell in maximum-security Auburn Correctional Facility on Jan. 21, 2016, when Matthew Cornell, joined by another officer, demanded to see his hands. Brown said Cornell walked him to an office, ordered him to strip, handcuffed him to a pipe and then falsely accused him of carrying an eight-inch sharpened toothbrush in his buttocks.