Sean Gaines - Perjury / False Accusation
Gaines, Sean ; weapon possession/sale; NRE: plea, no crime, perjury/false accusation, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence
From NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):
"On December 8, 2015, a guard at the Auburn Correctonal Facility in Auburn, New York accused 28-year-old inmate Sean Gaines of illegally possessing a weapon fashioned from a razor blade.
"The guard, Matthew Cornell , reported that Gaines was caught carrying the weapon during a search.
"In early December 2016, the Cayuga County District Attorney offered Gaines a deal. If he would plead guilty to the charge of promoting prison contraband, the prosecution would agree to a sentence of 1-1/2 to three years in prison. That sentence would be consecutive to the sentence of 9 to 11 years he was currently serving for assault.
"Gaines's attorney, Joseph Sapio, said Gaines claimed he was innocent and that Cornell had planted the weapon. However, on December 12, 2016, Gaines accepted the offer and pled guilty because he believed that if he went to trial, jurors would believe the guard's testimony.
"Two weeks later, the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office announced that 33-year-old Matthew Cornell had admitted that he planted a weapon on a different inmate at Auburn prison.
"District Attorney Jon Budelman revealed that Cornell admitted planting the weapon on the inmate."
"Because of Cornell's admission, the inmate involved in that incident was not charged with a crime. However, Budelman then asked a Cayuga County Supreme Court Judge to vacate the convictions of Gaines and four other inmates, all of whom had pled guilty to promoting prison contraband even though they claimed at the time that the weapons had been planted. In all five cases, Cornell was the guard who said he found the weapons.
"On January 29, 2017, Gaines's conviction was vacated and the charge was dismissed.
"The same month, convictions of Thomas Ozzborn , Naythen Aubain , Donnesia Brown , and José Muniz were vacated and the charges were dismissed. All of them -- like Gaines -- had pled guilty to possessing a weapon in prison and all had contended that Cornell had planted the weapons."
[ Matthew Cornell is hardly the only c.o. at Auburn (and elsewhere) who routinely planted weapons on inmates. Recall the Donnesia Brown case, where a federal judge wrote: "In December 2016, the Inspector General for DOCCS raided Auburn CF and uncovered multiple items of contraband in the possession of prison guards." ]
[All emphases added.]
[There are yet more cases in which a correctional officer helped to convict innocent people. Also see Thomas Bianco , where an Auburn lieutenant claimed at trial that the man he saw with the subsequent murder victim had -- like Bianco -- 'high cheekbones' -- despite previously stating that he had never seen the man's face because the latter had his back to him. And then we have the case of Kin-Jin ('David') Wong . There, it was a c.o. who coached a witness to provide more damning testimony.]
