twelfth woman
03-06-2008, 05:10 PM
Here is the article from the Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/05/willie-clark-wants-drug-case-tossed/
An attorney for one of the men indicted in a massive federal drug bust says the charges should be dropped because prosecutors connected him to other crimes - including the murder of Denver Broncos player Darrent Williams - when they presented the case to the grand jury.
Willie Clark, 24, was indicted last year on one count of conspiracy to distribute drugs.
Prosecutors claim Clark is a gang member who worked with a violent group, the Elite Eight. The group is connected to up to 11 unsolved murders, including Williams' New Years Day 2007 killing, authorities have said.
In court documents, Clark's attorney said Denver police consider Clark one of three suspects in the Williams murder. Clark denies he was involved and has pleaded not guilty to the drug charge.
Clark's attorney, Alaurice Tafoya-Modi, argued in a court filing Wednesday that prosecutors prejudiced the grand jury against Clark when they presented evidence unrelated to the drug charge.
Robert Fuller, a detective with the Denver District Attorney's Office, testified before the grand jury that after Clark was arrested, the gang's alleged leader, Brian Hicks, discussed "a crime of violence" with his girlfriend via telephone from the Denver jail, where he was being held.
"Hicks was contemplating that if he wasn't in jail, that a lot of this stuff wouldn't have happened . . . and that he wouldn't allow the associates or the members of his organization, the Elite 8, to go to the bars and get in trouble," Fuller told the grand jury, according to a transcript made public Wednesday.
During the same conversation, Hicks asked his girlfriend to send someone to visit Clark so he would feel loved and not start talking to police, Tafoya-Modi said.
Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment, saying the office will respond in its own court filing.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/05/willie-clark-wants-drug-case-tossed/
An attorney for one of the men indicted in a massive federal drug bust says the charges should be dropped because prosecutors connected him to other crimes - including the murder of Denver Broncos player Darrent Williams - when they presented the case to the grand jury.
Willie Clark, 24, was indicted last year on one count of conspiracy to distribute drugs.
Prosecutors claim Clark is a gang member who worked with a violent group, the Elite Eight. The group is connected to up to 11 unsolved murders, including Williams' New Years Day 2007 killing, authorities have said.
In court documents, Clark's attorney said Denver police consider Clark one of three suspects in the Williams murder. Clark denies he was involved and has pleaded not guilty to the drug charge.
Clark's attorney, Alaurice Tafoya-Modi, argued in a court filing Wednesday that prosecutors prejudiced the grand jury against Clark when they presented evidence unrelated to the drug charge.
Robert Fuller, a detective with the Denver District Attorney's Office, testified before the grand jury that after Clark was arrested, the gang's alleged leader, Brian Hicks, discussed "a crime of violence" with his girlfriend via telephone from the Denver jail, where he was being held.
"Hicks was contemplating that if he wasn't in jail, that a lot of this stuff wouldn't have happened . . . and that he wouldn't allow the associates or the members of his organization, the Elite 8, to go to the bars and get in trouble," Fuller told the grand jury, according to a transcript made public Wednesday.
During the same conversation, Hicks asked his girlfriend to send someone to visit Clark so he would feel loved and not start talking to police, Tafoya-Modi said.
Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment, saying the office will respond in its own court filing.