Thomas Ozzborn - Police Misconduct
Ozzborn, Thomas ; weapon possession/sale; NRE: plea, no crime, perjury/false accusation, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence
NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):
"On May 9, 2015, a guard at the Auburn Correctional Facility accused 26-year-old inmate Thomas Ozzborn of llegally possessing a weapon. The guard, 33-year-old Matthew Cornell, reported that Ozzborn was caught with a shank in his shoe during a search.
"At a prison disciplinary hearing three weeks later, Ozzborn was found guilty of possessing the shank. He was transferred to Cayuga Correctional Facility, where he spent the next seven months in solitary confinement.
"On January 27, 2016, Ozzborn was to be released from prison, having completed his original sentence on gun and narcotics charges. At that time, however, he was arrested on a charge of promoting prison contraband for having been caught with the shank.
"Ozzborn claimed he was innocent and that Cornell had planted the weapon. On June 8, 2016, however, he pled guilty to promoting prison contraband and was sentenced to two to four years in prison. Ozzborn pled guilty because he believed that if he went to trial, jurors would believe the guard's testimony and not his denial that he had a shank.
"In December 2016, the Cayuga County [DA's] Office announced that Cornell had admitted that he planted a weapon on a different inmate at the Auburn prison." "Because of Cornell's admission, the inmate involved in that incident was not charged with a crime. However, Budelman then asked a Cayuga County...judge to vacate Ozzborn's conviction. On January 19, 2017, Ozzborn's conviction was vacated and the charge was dismissed."
"That same month, at the [DA's] request, the convictions of Sean Gaines, , Naythen Aubain , Donnesia Brown, and Jose Muniz were vacated and the charges dismissed. All of them -- like Ozzborn -- had pled guilty to possessing a weapon in prison and all had contended Cornell had planted the weapons."
"In March 2017, Ozzborn filed a lawsuit in the New Your State Court of Claims seeking damages for his wrongful conviction, but his petition was denied. In September 2017, Ozzborn filed a federal lawsuit seeking compensation. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed."
[ Matthew Cornell is hardly the only c.o. at Auburn (and elsewhere) who routinely planted weapons on inmates (see Department of Corruptions section.)]
[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.]
[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]
