Cara Briggs for District Attorney

Contrary to his claims on the Monroe County District Attorney website, Mike Green is responsible for delays that denied an innocent man, Douglas Warney, his freedom. Mike Green violated his obligations as a prosecutor to seek justice and made a conscious decision not to live up to those obligations. The Douglas Warney case exemplifies what is wrong with the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office. Instead of seeking the truth and working to ensure that the innocent are protected, Mike Green worked to keep an innocent man in prison.

In October 2004, Douglas Warney, who had been convicted in 1997 of murder in the death of William Beason, sought to have DNA evidence from the crime scene tested in an attempt to prove his innocence. First, he simply requested, through his attorney, access to the evidence so that he could conduct DNA testing at his own expense.

Mike Green refused Warney’s request.

Mr. Warney then filed a motion for DNA testing pursuant to NY CPL § 440.30(1-a), a statute that provides for DNA testing of evidence post-conviction in order to exonerate the wrongfully convicted.

Mike Green vigorously opposed Mr. Warney’s request, and the trial court denied it.

Unbeknownst to Mr. Warney, while Mike Green was opposing Mr. Warney’s request to test the evidence, Mike Green ordered to have the evidence tested secretly. On February 17, 2006, Mike Green received a report which showed that the DNA recovered from the Beason crime scene did not match the DNA of Mr. Warney.

Mike Green did not share this information with Mr. Warney or his attorneys.

On March 2, 2006 Mike Green was informed that the DNA matched a sentenced prisoner, Eldred Johnson, who was in prison in Utica for murder as well as robberies.

Mike Green did not share this information with Mr. Warney or his attorneys.

On March 24, 2006, an evidence technician determined that a latent print found at the scene of the crime also matched Eldred Johnson.

Mike Green did not share this information with Mr. Warney or his attorneys.

Finally, on May 1, 2006, Mike Green informed Mr. Warney’s attorneys that the secret DNA testing exonerated Douglas Warney.

On May 12, 2006, Mike Green informed Mr. Warney’s attorneys that on May 11, 2006, police interviewed Eldred Johnson who “orally admitted that he killed Beason and claimed that he acted alone and does not know Doug Warney.” Green also told Mr. Warney’s attorneys on May 12^th that the fingerprint from the scene examined on March 24, 2006 matched Eldred Johnson.

On May 16, 2006 Mike Green finally consented to Mr. Warney being freed – over 18 months after Mr. Warney had first sought the DNA test that would have proved he was an innocent man, and three months after the DNA test that proved Douglas Warney was innocent.

Mike Green has never offered an apology to Mr. Warney for the 18-month delay caused by his conduct.

Mike Green opposed Mr. Warney’s first request for DNA testing. He opposed Mr. Warney’s motion for DNA testing. He secretly tested the DNA, while opposing Mr. Warney’s request for DNA testing in court. Mike Green waited almost three months before informing Mr. Warney of the DNA test results that showed he was an innocent man.

Is this the man you want as your District Attorney?

“If elected District Attorney, I pledge to end the opposition to DNA testing motions brought by those convicted of crimes in Monroe County,” said Cara Briggs, the Republican candidate for District Attorney. “Mike Green’s opposition to Mr. Warney’s request betrayed his obligation to the public as District Attorney to seek the truth and protect the innocent. His hard-headed opposition to Mr. Warney’s motion kept an innocent man in prison for 18 months. The residents of Monroe County deserve better – they deserve a DA who cares about the truth,” Briggs concluded.

With DA Mike Green, It’s Not What You Did, It’s Who You Are

Mike Green Cuts Another Deal For a Doctor Who Sexually Abused a Child

An area physician who has confessed to sexually abusing a child has avoided a prison sentence as a result of a plea bargain offered by Mike Green's office. Carlos Torres, a pediatric neurologist, who confessed to sexually abusing a 10 year old girl on multiple occasions, originally faced charges with maximum possible sentences of 15 years in State prison.

However, despite the fact that Torres admitted the abuse to the police, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a sentence of up to 6 months in the Monroe County Jail and 5 years probation. He was sentenced on Tuesday (October 16, 2007) to 5 months in the Monroe County Jail and 5 years probation.

This is the second time under Mike Green's watch that a local physician who has confessed to molesting a child was spared a prison term. In March, 2005, Louis Farchione, a Pittsford gynecologist who confessed to molesting a young girl for over a year, was also given leniency, which allowed Farchione to serve a probation term instead of a prison term.

Mike Green’s willingness to extend favorable plea bargains is not limited to sex-abusing physicians. In 2004, Mike Green allowed Thomas Tacito, the son of a former DA investigator, who faced multiple felony charges including DWI, weapons possession, reckless endangerment and other charges, to plead guilty to two misdemeanors with a “no jail” recommendation. This deal was offered to Tacito in spite of Mike Green’s “no reduction” policy in weapons cases, and in spite of a recommendation from one of his own prosecutors that a felony charge with state prison time be pursued.

Mike Green’s handling of the Torres and Farchione cases, as well as the Tacito case, raises serious questions about the fair administration of justice in Monroe County.

"Our community deserves a District Attorney who dispenses justice evenhandedly," said Cara Briggs, Republican/Conservative candidate for District Attorney. "Green's special treatment of these doctors, as well as Tom Tacito, the son of a former DA investigator, serve to the erode public trust in the District Attorney's Office. No DA should, in good conscience, ever allow a defendant's social status or personal or political relationships to influence the outcome of the criminal case."

District Attorney’s Blunder Results in Murderer Going Free

Second Murderer Walks in Monroe County After DA Repeats Mistake

A convicted murderer was freed on Friday because the District Attorney’s Office charged him with the wrong crime. Edward R. Rodriguez was charged with both intentional murder and reckless depraved indifference murder for the stabbing death of Linda Rivera. The jury acquitted Rodriguez of intentional murder, but convicted him of reckless depraved indifference murder.

In dismissing the case, the Appellate Court (Appellate Division, Fourth Department) found that the reckless depraved indifference murder charge was inappropriate stating, "there is no valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences" that would allow the conclusion that the defendant's conduct of stabbing the victim 8 times, including 4 stab wounds to the lungs and 2 to the heart was reckless, rather than intentional conduct.

What the public should find most shocking is that less than three months before the Rodriguez case went to trial, another murderer in Monroe County was allowed to go free. Walter Gonzalez had his murder conviction dismissed when the Court of Appeals ruled that the Monroe County District Attorney had made the identical error -- charging Gonzalez with reckless depraved indifference murder, for a clearly intentional crime. Despite the District Attorney's awareness that his Office had charged Gonzalez with the wrong crime, it did so again in the Rodriguez case, resulting in another murderer going free in our community.

“The question this community needs to answer is whether it is satisfied with a District Attorney who repeatedly makes such fundamental mistakes as not knowing which type of murder charge to bring against a vicious killer, said Cara Briggs, Republican candidate for District Attorney. “As a result of the DA indicting on completely inappropriate charges, Rodriguez is now a free man, despite brutally murdering Ms. Rivera. With results like these it’s no wonder that violent crime is soaring in Monroe County,” Briggs continued.

DA’S Office Loses Another Homicide Case

10^th Loss This Year

Another murderer walks. Yesterday, Kevin D. “Kevy Kev” Lipford was acquitted of murder in the second degree in the death of Josue Marrero. This is the most recent murder acquittal in an epidemic of homicide losses by the District Attorney’s Office.

As the D&C Editorial Board recently observed: “Excessive turnover [in the DA’s Office] can lead to problems not only in transition and training but in case outcome” and that “too much staff dissension can lead to losses in the courtroom.” It appears that the D&C is correct. Since Mike Green began running the DA’s Office, 85 prosecutors have quit. 48 have quit since he became DA. A review of the DA’s Office’s performance in handling homicide cases shows a shocking level of incompetence, undoubtedly due to the fact that homicide prosecutions are now handled by inexperienced prosecutors.

“The shocking number of losses in homicide cases is the catastrophic result of the loss of experienced prosecutors due to Mike Green’s inadequacies as District Attorney”, said Cara Briggs, a former prosecutor with the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office who is challenging Green in the November election. “Unfortunately, the latest data show the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, under Mike Green, has been failing the citizens of Monroe County. An alarming number of defendants charged with homicides are either being acquitted outright, or being convicted of less serious offenses.”

At least nine other cases of defendants charged with homicides have resulted in outright dismissals or acquittals so far this year. The most recent losses, before yesterday, occurred last Friday, October 19th, when a Monroe County jury acquitted both Keon Anderson and Samuel Haile of Murder in the Second Degree in the March 25th slaying of Antonious Moye.

Other homicide losses in 2007 include:

* Edward Rodriguez – Murder Case Dismissed

* Brandon Daymon - Acquitted of Murder
* James Stanford - Acquitted of Murder (convicted of manslaughter)

*           Brian Smith – Acquitted of Murder (convicted of manslaughter)
*           Rosa Resto - Acquitted of Murder (convicted of manslaughter)
*           Joshua Rivera - Acquitted of Murder
*           Charlie Scott - Acquitted of Murder (convicted of manslaughter)
*           Frantina Smith - Acquitted of Manslaughter
*           Karen Greene - Acquitted of Vehicular Manslaughter
*           James Telban - Acquitted of Vehicular Manslaughter
*           Vincent Bermudez - Acquitted of Manslaughter 1^st (convicted of manslaughter 2^nd)
*           Pierre Harris - Acquitted of Manslaughter (convicted of negligent homicide)
*           Chazaray Green - Acquitted of Murder (convicted of manslaughter)
*           Earl Nesmith - Acquitted of Murder