Rochester mayor hit with gun charge, child endangerment

AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, File

Sometimes you can feel like it’s just not your day. But for Rochester, New York Mayor Lovely Warren, it’s just not turning out to be her year. First, she was found to have mishandled the case of Daniel Prude’s death in police custody so badly that her entire senior police command staff quit in protest. Then, in May, her husband, Timothy Granison, was arrested for allegedly being part of an illegal drug-dealing ring. At the time, she suggested to reporters that the arrest was part of a plot to undermine her in the upcoming primary election. (If it was a plot, it was a very successful one, because she went on to lose in a landslide.) But now the soon-to-be-ex mayor has even more problems because she too has been arrested on an illegal weapons charge, child welfare endangerment and other charges. (Daily Wire)

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Embattled Democrat Mayor Lovely Warren was hit with numerous criminal charges on Friday, related to firearms and child endangerment.

A grand jury indicted Warren and husband Timothy Granison following a cocaine bust at the couple’s residence in May.

“Both are charged with criminal possession of a firearm, a felony, and two counts each of endangering the welfare of a child and failure to lock/secure firearms in a dwelling, both misdemeanors; according to a statement from the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office,” the Democrat & Chronicle reported Friday.

At the time of Granison’s original arrest, I didn’t even bother covering the story, despite the strange nature of the details covered in the local press. After all, the police hadn’t charged Warren (who claimed to know nothing about the illegal activities) and she’s not responsible for the actions of her adult husband. And the idea of a sitting mayor of a medium-sized city running a drug ring in her spare time sounded pretty crazy.

But a the same time, her claims of total ignorance were a bit hard to swallow. The police hauled $60K worth of crack and more than $100K in cash out of that house, along with two unregistered firearms. And it’s not that big of a house. For her to know nothing about what was going on, her husband must have been a world champion master in the art of squirreling things away around the home.

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But now, more details of the initial raid leading to the husband’s arrest have been revealed. When the cops arrived, the only person in the house was Warren’s 10-year-old daughter. And the weapons were not locked up safely where she couldn’t touch them. (Both Warren and the husband were also hit with a charge of failure to secure firearms.) Leaving a child that age alone in the evening in a house full of drugs and guns is a pretty clear sign that something has gone seriously off the beam.

Warren continues to insist that this is all some sort of racist plot to destroy her political career. She deserves her day in court to defend herself like anyone else, but that explanation is more than a bit of a stretch. According to the police, Granison’s arrest was only one of more than half a dozen across the city back in May. They were investigating an extensive drug ring and Granison wasn’t even the original target. Reports from the grand jury proceedings indicate that there were phone taps involved, potentially including phones at Warren’s home. If they have evidence that the Mayor was actively involved in, or at least directly aware of her husband’s alleged drug smuggling and distribution operation, she’s probably going to be up a creek without a paddle.

No court date has been set at this point. it may also be worth noting that Warren claims that she and her husband are estranged and have been separated since the original arrest in May. It doesn’t sound as if that’s going to shield her from these charges, though. Exit question: At what point do you just resign and let the Deputy Mayor serve out the rest of your term?

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