PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – An accused drug dealer wants to withdraw his guilty plea to cocaine-dealing charges because a Providence police detective never gave his defense attorney a stack of documents related to the case before he admitted guilt.
Derrick Isom’s attorney says that lapse violated Isom’s constitutional rights. Isom is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 7 for conspiracy and dealing crack cocaine and faces up to life in prison.
Isom’s request is the latest twist in a bizarre criminal case that allegedly involves a conspiracy led by defense attorney John M. Cicilline, the brother of Providence Mayor David Cicilline, and police work so sloppy that an exasperated federal judge called it “incredible.”
Federal prosecutors dropped similar charges against Isom’s co-defendant, Khalid Mason, after Isom had already pleaded guilty. The U.S. Attorney’s office dropped the charges against Mason after Sgt. Scott Partridge found police reports and other documents related to the investigation in his attic. He had testified a few weeks before that he did not write reports during six weeks of surveillance and did not keep his notes.
Providence police have started an internal affairs probe into the lapse. Police officials and Partridge did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
In court filings, defense attorney Patrick Sullivan said Isom should be allowed to withdraw a guilty plea made nearly eight months before the missing documents turned up. Without seeing the documents, Isom could not fully evaluate the government’s case against him before deciding to plead guilty, Sullivan said.
Isom maintains his innocence, his lawyer said. During one court hearing, Isom testified that he pleaded guilty to avoid a possible life sentence, according to court records.
Prosecutors oppose Isom’s request but have not yet responded in court, said Tom Connell, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Months after pleading guilty, Isom testified that his former attorney, John M. Cicilline, told him that he could make the criminal case against Isom and Mason disappear in return for $200,000, some of which would be used to bribe police officers.
U.S. District Court Judge William Smith said the allegations were troubling but remain unproven.
Cicilline has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators for his role in an alleged extortion plot. Cicilline allegedly offered to set up drug deals that his clients could report to police in exchange for lesser sentences.
Cicilline did not return a call seeking comment.
AP-ES-11-21-07 1717EST
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