A federal jury has acquitted Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins who was charged on two counts of extortion for a hashish funding.
Prosecutors had alleged Tompkins pressured his longtime buddy, hashish government Frank Perullo, to promote him $50,000 of inventory earlier than Perullo’s firm, Ascend Wellness Holdings, went public. And when the inventory worth plummeted, they are saying Tompkins used his place of energy to get his a reimbursement.
However in closing arguments, the protection argued Perullo was the grasping one — and the federal government exploited that. FBI brokers approached Perullo to testify towards Tompkins, in alternate for immunity from prosecution. Perullo’s have to keep away from prosecution, they argued, was leveraged by the federal government’s “superior” and “coercive” energy.
The jury apparently agreed, returning their determination inside hours of the choose’s dismissal.
Tompkins has maintained his innocence; he’s on depart from his elected function as sheriff as he faces the extortion prices. To convict him, the federal government needed to show past an inexpensive doubt that Perullo feared financial hurt if he didn’t adjust to Tompkin’s requests — or alleged calls for — to put money into the hashish firm. And for the second rely, the jury needed to imagine that Tompkins relied on his place of energy to get his a reimbursement.
Addressing a stone-faced jury, Assistant District Lawyer Lauren Maynard stated that is “what it seems like when a public servant breaches the general public belief.”
In delivering a abstract of the federal government’s case, she stated Perullo didn’t need to let Tompkins make investments — or, later, recoup his loss. However the sheriff wouldn’t take “no” for a solution on what she referred to as a “golden alternative.”
“The ability to make an funding in a startup hashish firm, completely danger free — that’s energy,” Maynard stated.
However even the prosecution acknowledged Perullo’s imperfection as its star witness.
“He’s not the hero of this story,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Dustin Chao stated. “I’m undecided if anybody would need to rely him as a buddy.”
However, he advised the jury, “Frank is the final one who desires to offer $50,000 again.”
Ascend’s cope with the sheriff
In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutors and the protection agreed on one factor: This case got here all the way down to a query of greed.
In alternate for the sheriff’s buy-in, Maynard stated, a time- and cash-conscious Perullo might safe a license from the Hashish Management Fee. He partnered with Tompkins on a jobs program to satisfy the state regulator’s requirement to have a “constructive affect” on communities focused within the nation’s battle on medication.
Perullo allegedly believed the danger of a delayed license might harm cashflow and the underside line, and in the end the corporate’s plan to go public. Additionally, the federal government alleged, Perullo struggled to face as much as Tompkins, given their shut relationship.
Earlier testimony revealed the 2 males texted steadily; they went to the flicks collectively; they stated “I like you.” So, Maynard stated, Perullo in the end relented.
“Generally even buddies disappoint us,” she added.
Tompkins, sitting 25 yards from the jury, sat again in his chair, sometimes stroking his chin or whispering to his attorneys for everything of closing arguments.
When Tompkins’ protection legal professional, Martin Weinberg, spoke to the jury, he argued that Perullo was no shrinking violet, however reasonably, a shrewd businessman who’d spent years working with politicians and constructing a profitable enterprise the place he, by his personal admission, didn’t get intimidated or wrestle to say “no.”
Perullo, he stated, “doesn’t get bossed round.” Had he feared Tompkins or felt stress from him, “Frank Perullo doesn’t keep your buddy.”
In truth, Weinberg stated, Perullo did not pony up the money instantly; as a substitute, he wrote Tompkins a sequence of checks, paying him in roughly $12,000 increments.
Weinberg additionally disputed the notion that Ascend relied solely on the Tompkins association in an effort to safe and maintain its license. He stated Perullo additionally directed funds to different teams centered on hashish justice and reform that helped fulfill his “constructive affect” necessities.
For that motive, in Weinberg’s telling, Ascend’s license was by no means in danger. That’s “sheer fiction” from an “untrustworthy” supply who testified to get immunity, he stated.
Weinberg rested his case with a plea to the jury on Tompkins’ behalf: “Give this man his life again.”
Earlier than the choose instructed the jury on methods to start their deliberations, Chao, the prosecutor, made one final pitch: Bear in mind, Tompkins was the sheriff.
“Public officers,” he stated, “ought to know proper from flawed.”