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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren’s husband,
Timothy Granison, pleaded not guilty to drug and weapon charges
Thursday in connection to a large scale and long-term local
narcotics investigation.

Following a traffic stop in the city Wednesday, New York State
Police executed a search warrant at the home of Mayor Warren and her
husband.


Granison, 42, was ultimately booked into the Monroe County Jail
after the search warrant was executed and arraigned Thursday morning
in Rochester City Court.

The mayor’s husband pleaded not guilty to all three felonies he’s
facing, including:

Criminal possession of a controlled substance, third degree, class B
felony
Criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell,
third degree, class B felony
Criminal possession of a firearm, class E felony
The judge released Granison on his own recognizance as bail is not
allowed on these charges. He is due back in court on June 21 at 10
a.m.


“Yesterday, at approximately 3:30 p.m., members of the New York
State Police Violent Gangs and Narcotics Enforcement Team, along
with uniformed state troopers, stopped a vehicle outside 5 Birch
Crescent in the City of Rochester relative to an ongoing narcotics investigation,” said Maj. Barry Chase of the New York State Police. “Operating the vehicle was Timothy Granison. He was in possession of
a large quantity of cocaine.”

Following the traffic stop, state police executed the search warrant
and Warren and Granison’s home on Woodlawn Park in the City of
Rochester.

“An unregistered handgun was located inside this residence, so in
addition to the drug charges, Mr. Granison has been charged with
criminal possession of a firearm, a felony,” Maj. Chase said. “Mr.
Granison was committed to Wayne County Jail last evening, was
arraigned this morning in Rochester City Court, and was subsequently
released to reappear on June 21.”

Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said Granison’s
arrest was a part of a major law enforcement investigation into
drugs in the City of Rochester.

“Warrants were served at several locations last evening and early
this morning as a part of an accumulation of a longer term narcotics investigation,” Doorley said. “This was an investigation spanning
close to seven months, a title three wiretap investigation that was
run by my office.

In total, there were seven houses in the City of Rochester where
search warrants were executed:

93 Woodman Park (home of the mayor)
5 Birch Crescent
62 Clifton Street
230 Glenwood Avenue
287 Frost Street
132 Electric Avenue
15 Elwood Drive
2013 Norton Street
In addition to Granison, six others have been arrested and the
charges as are follows:

39-year-old Dkeidron Dublin was charged with Criminal Possession of
a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree with Intent to sell,
Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree,
Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 4th Degree and
Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree
44-year-old Jason Siplin was charged with Criminal Possession of a
Controlled Substance in the 1st Degree and three counts of Criminal
Use of Drug Paraphernalia in the 2nd Degree
27-year-old Jason Siplin, Jr. was charged with Criminal Possession
of a Controlled Substance in the 1st Degree and Criminal Use of Drug Paraphernalia in the 2nd Degree
30-year-old Namon Brown was charged with Criminal Possession of a
Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree with Intent to sell and
Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree
19-year-old Ernest S. Gamble was charged with Criminal Possession of
a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree with Intent to sell and two
counts of Criminal Use of Drug Paraphernalia in the 2nd Degree
32-year-old Lytrice Jackson was charged with Criminal Possession of
a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree with Intent to sell and two
counts of Criminal Use of Drug Paraphernalia in the 2nd Degree
Doorley added that more arrests could be coming.

“We are not done with our searches, but we can tell you at this
point, we have secured over 2 kilos of powdered and crack cocaine
with a street value of approximately $60,000,” Doorley said. “We’ve recovered three firearms, we’ve recovered one semi-automatic rifle.
We’re still not sure if it is legal, it will be examined by the
Monroe County crime lab. We have recovered more than $100,000 cash.”

Doorley said the mayor was living at the house on Woodman Park where
the search warrant was executed, but was not home at the time.
Doorley said the mayor’s daughter was home alone at the time.
Officials say she called a family member to pick her up and she left
the residence.

The district attorney said this drug bust was not politically
motivated, adding that Granison was not the original target of this investigation, but evidence ultimately led police to him.

“If you look at the amount of cocaine seized, money seized, weapons
seized — we believe this whole organization was a midlevel drug
organization that was affecting the City of Rochester,” Doorley
said.

Maj. Chase said authorities have reached out to Mayor Warren and are
interested in speaking with her in regards to the investigation.

“We have reached out to her attorney and we were waiting to hear
back, but we do want to interview her regarding the criminal
investigation,” Maj. Chase said.

Doorley would not comment on if the mayor could be implicated in the
criminal investigation. She would not comment if the mayor could be
heard on the wire taps either. Doorley said the search warrant was
not related to the campaign finance charges Mayor Warren is
currently facing.

Warren held a press conference Thursday to address her husband’s
arrest. She said had nothing to do with the crimes, and accused the
prosecutors involved of playing politics.

Mayor Warren’s press conference

“I find the timing of yesterday’s events, three weeks before early
voting starts, to be highly suspicious,” Mayor Warren said. “There’s nothing implicating me in these charges today, because I’ve done
nothing wrong. I haven’t spoken to Tim since his arrested, and I’m
not standing here to defend him. Again, we had a separation
agreement that was signed years ago, and we made a conscious
decision to co-parent in the best interests of our daughter, to
provide her the love and support she deserves, bBut we still need to
ask ourselves ‘why?” Because they saw, as you saw, that momentum was building in our favor in the mayoral race, and I was going to be
found innocent in my election law case, because I did nothing
wrong.”

In 1997, when Granison was 17-years-old, he pleaded guilty and
received probation in connection to an armed robbery in Rochester.
On the day Mayor Warren was sworn into office in 2014, she addressed
her husband’s past:

“I’ve often talked about the fact that I’m not far removed from the challenges that our Rochesterians faced. And the statement about my
husband, he was a juvenile and made a stupid decision listening to
peer pressure. Many of our children that live in our city every day
face those decisions and those challenges. I say that I don’t want
you to commit those crimes, but if you so happen to do that you may
not be so lucky as he was. You may not be able to redeem yourself
and be given a second chance.”


Rochester City Councilmember Malik Evans is running against Warren
in the Democratic primary for Rochester mayor.

His communications director released a statement, saying, “We are
aware of the situation at the mayor’s house today. We are still
learning details and believe it is not appropriate to comment at
this time.”

Primary elections are set to take place on June 22.

https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/local-news/large-police- presence-at-home-registered-to-rochester-mayor-lovely-warren/

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