The mayor of Rochester, New York’s husband, was arrested on Wednesday after police said they found drugs and weapons in searches of his car and house, the latest crisis for the mayor in a year riddled with controversy.Timothy Granison, 42, Mayor Lovely Warren’s husband, was charged with drug and gun possession on Thursday, the culmination of a seven-month investigation, according to prosecutors.
According to the Monroe County district attorney, six other people have been charged in connection with the case, and further charges are planned.Ms. Warren has not been charged with a crime, and investigators have made no indication that she is a subject of the investigation. Mr. Granison’s lawyer said that Ms. Warren had no connection with the allegations against him.
However, Mr. Granison’s arrest, as well as the discovery of 31 grammes of powder in his possession that police suspect to be cocaine, as well as a semiautomatic rifle and an unregistered handgun in Ms. Warren’s home, threatened to throw Ms. Warren’s re-election campaign into disarray once more.Ms. Warren, who is running for a third term as mayor of Rochester, a small city south of Lake Ontario, has been embroiled in a string of controversies.
The city was rocked last summer by allegations of a cover-up in the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in police custody, leading to the firing of the city’s police chief and the censure of top officials. Ms. Warren was arrested on campaign finance charges by county prosecutors in the fall for financial misconduct during her 2017 re-election campaign. She has entered a not guilty plea.
Ms. Warren said she was the target of a massive plot to smear her just a month before the city’s Democratic primary election in a speech from City Hall on Thursday. She said that the New York State Board of Elections tampered with facts in its case against her, and that the district attorney was framing her because she was enraged that the mayor had backed her opponent. Ms. Warren also hinted that Mr. Granison’s arrest and next court date — June 21, the day before the primary — is planned to keep her from running for re-election.
She referred to the recent events as her “Work year” and denied any involvement in Mr. Granison’s problems; the mayor and her husband had signed a separation agreement years earlier but continued to co-parent their 10-year-old daughter, she said.Sandra Doorley, the Monroe County district attorney, refuted Ms. Warren’s allegations at a press conference on Thursday.“I’m sure there will be people who believe this was politically motivated,” Ms. Doorley said. “No, it wasn’t.”
Mr. Granison was identified as a member of a “narcotics ring” by Ms. Doorley, who added that the investigation was still underway and that further arrests and searches were planned. Over two kilograms of crack cocaine and powder worth $60,000, as well as more than $100,000 in cash, were discovered during searches of the seven people arrested, homes and other belongings.
