NORWICH – A man accused of being at the center of a 2009 drug bust in which police raided two apartments and a storage shed, seizing sports cars, several handguns and more than $25,000 worth of cocaine, appeared in Chenango County Court last week to challenge his alleged role in the crimes.
Michael A. Victor Jr., 29, was arrested at daybreak on March 27, 2009, during a tactical operation by the Norwich Police Department, the New York State Police and Chenango County Sheriff’s Office.
District Attorney Joseph McBride said police conducted a three month investigation into Victor and his alleged co-conspirators, including his roommate and girlfriend at the time, 21-year-old Curissa Jenkins of Norwich.
Testifying before W. Howard Sullivan for an evidence hearing last Monday, Deputy Police Chief Rodney Marsh said investigators coordinating with the State Police and sheriff placed the couple under surveillance, using undercover narcotics officers and informants.
Marsh said during the investigation police took photographs of people visiting the two apartments rented under Jenkins’ name, one at 72 Plymouth St. and another at 31 Hickok Ave. Officers in unmarked cars also followed suspects to suspected drug deals and deliveries, he said.
Police would later raid both locations at the same time, allegedly discovering amounts drugs. Police say the couple used one location as a drug front and the other as a residence.
Marsh said undercover informants and police conducted nine covert cocaine and heroin buys between January and March 2009; eight of those were reportedly from Jenkins and one from another woman who was later charged as a co-conspirator, though none from Victor himself.
A few days following the raid on, April 3, 2009, a new development came in the case when officers discovered a storage unit in the Town of Norwich rented under Jenkins’ name.
Inside they reported finding a 2004 Mercedes CLK 500 sports coupe with three loaded firearms inside, a TEC-9 machine pistol with a large capacity magazine, a .357 revolver, a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol and $25,000 of wrapped crack cocaine inside the car.
Since the case became public, two other defendants were charged in relation to Jenkins’ and Victor’s arrest, and all of them, except for Victor, have accepted plea agreements with the district attorney’s office.
In January 2010, Jenkins pleaded guilty to fifth degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a D class felony. The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of two and a half years with one year of post release supervision. She has not yet been sentenced for the crime pending a resolution in Victor’s case.
Jenkins avoided the top charge originally filed against her – second degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a Class A-II felony, which could have carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison. Those are charges Victor still faces as his case heads to trial this summer. He has remained incarcerated at the Chenango County Correctional Facility since his arrest.
Following Jenkins’ plea, she was released by Judge Sullivan and told to remain out of trouble or her plea bargain could be thrown out. Since that time, the Norwich City Police have arrested Jenkins six times, including three warrants issued by Sullivan over issues involving her failure to comply with court orders, a minor drug possession charge and a disorderly conduct charge.
Following each arrest, Jenkins was released again until her most recent arrest, where she was remanded to the local jail in lieu of $25,000 cash bail over new felony drug possession charges.
On April 6, Norwich police executed a search warrant at a suspected residence containing drugs at 115 Rexford St. in the City of Norwich. Officers arrested one defendant and allegedly seized amounts of cocaine in the home. Police were then called back to the same residence the next day and again searched the home for suspect drug activity. Inside, police arrested another defendant and also found Jenkins.
Police charged the homeowners with selling controlled substances from the location, but Jenkins was charged with the most serious crimes – two counts of third degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, class B felonies. The city police said the crimes originated from alleged prepackaged heroin and cocaine Jenkins was carrying with her.
Victor’s defense attorney, F. Paul Battisti of Binghamton, attacked prosecutors’ description of his client as being the head of any drug activity, claiming Jenkins was the one responsible. He pointed to her recent arrests, the fact she was mentioned personally in the undercover drug buys and that the properties were in her name.
But McBride has contended that Victor manipulated Jenkins through the couple’s relationship in order to protect himself. McBride said he would present financial documents at trial that would show Victor was sending an average of $11,000 a week to an overseas account, which the DA claims paid for cocaine deliveries.
Victor has denied having any knowledge of the storage shed where police found a large amount of the drugs and weapons. In Monday’s hearing, McBride claimed an address for the site was discovered on Victor’s cell phone, but its use in court was still being debated after the defense claimed police neglected to specifically mention it on an issued search warrant. McBride also said Victor’s DNA was detected on one of the handguns found in the shed. Battisti challenged the DA’s DNA findings, but added that even if they were confirmed, the evidence was only circumstantial.
“Their entire case is (Victor) was in possession of these things found in a car he didn’t own – locked in a storage shed owned by another person, accessible only to a co-defendant who’s already pleaded guilty to possessing the drugs,” said Battisti.
Victor is scheduled to return to court July 19 when jury selection will begin for his trial.