NORWICH – Casie L. Brooks was the first witness of the day in Chenango County Court Tuesday, as the trial of accused drug dealer Michael A. Victor Jr. continued.
Under direct examination by District Attorney Joseph McBride, the young woman, now 25, described her role selling drugs under Victor in the early months of 2009 and her sexual relationship with the man’s brother, Michael G. Victor, during that time. At the time, she said, she was addicted to drugs and she engaged in both to support her habit.
“We were friends with benefits to allow me to get drugs,” she said, of her relationship with Victor’s brother.
During that time, Brooks said, Victor, who she referred to as “J,” asked her to purchase a car for him from a Sidney-area used car dealership. That car, a Pontiac Grand Prix, was one of three vehicles seized by police in March and April of 2009 in conjunction with the Victor case.
While Brooks said she briefly lived at the Hickock Ave. apartment where Victor and Curissa Jenkins were arrested, she moved out prior to the police raid.
“Things were getting too crazy,” she said.
Brooks was asked to identify a number of items already entered into evidence in the case, including the guns, photos of the cars seized and clothing.
“I recognize that already,” she said, as the prosecutor moved to hold up a black leather Pelle-Pelle brand jacket. “It’s Michael Victor’s, J’s.”
Under cross examination, Defense Attorney F. Paul Battisti asked Brooks whether or not she had registered and insured the vehicle under her name even though doing so constituted a crime if, as she said, the car in fact belonged to someone else.
“Yes, I did,” she replied, “because I got crack out of it.”
Brooks also testified about visiting the Norwich City Police Station following the car’s seizure, ostensibly to get the license plates so she could take it off her insurance. Battisti asked her why, at that time, she still claimed the car was hers.
“I was still seeing him,” she said later when asked the same question by McBride, referring to Victor’s brother. “I was scared to tell (where the money came from).”
Brooks, who was convicted of third degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a class B felony. She was initially sentenced to drug treatment court and five years of probation, but after testing positive for narcotics, she was re-sentenced to 1 year in the Chenango County Correctional Facility.
“I was a drug addict. I will admit it,” said Brooks, who says she has now been “clean” for a year.
Paul Law, a Staten Island man currently incarcerated in the Wyoming Correctional Facility in Attica on unrelated burglary charges, also testified. Law, who was subpoenaed as a witness, appeared reluctant on the stand as he revealed he used to purchase drugs from Victor and served as a driver for him on several trips to New York City. On one of those trips, he said, Victor purchased the Pelle-Pelle jacket previously identified by Brooks.
Detective John Fern of the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office also appeared briefly on the stand Tuesday. He was followed by a procession of expert witnesses from the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Laboratory in Albany. Details of their testimony will appear in a later edition of The Evening Sun.
The trial will resume at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday.