Timothy Granison, the estranged husband of former Mayor Lovely Warren, has pleaded guilty to a drug trafficking charge that carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
Granison, 43, acknowledged before a federal judge that he conspired to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, according to a statement issued by the federal Department of Justice.
The penalty for the charge include a minimum of five and a maximum of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine.
Prosecutors had alleged that Granison was part of what they called a “mid-level” drug ring that peddled powdered and crack cocaine in and around Rochester.
He was arrested in May 2021 in a sweep that included a high-profile raid on the Rochester home he shared with Warren, and was charged with two felony drug counts and a felony charge of criminal possession of a firearm.
The mayor at the time decried his arrest as a politically-and racially-motivated ploy to derail her campaign for a third term in office.
A Democratic primary election in which she faced a challenge from Malik Evans was three weeks away at the time of the arrest. Evans went on to win the primary and the mayoralty in the fall.
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While Warren was never implicated in the drug operation, she was eventually charged with felony criminal possession of a firearm and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child and failing to secure firearms in her home.
The mayor claimed that she was estranged from her husband but shared a home with him and their 10-year-old daughter.
In October, Warren satisfied the charges by striking a plea deal that involved her pleading guilty to a violation of state campaign finance regulations in a separate criminal case that had been brought against her and by agreeing to resign from office early.
Granison is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 6 before U.S. District Court Judge Frank Geraci Jr.
David Andreatta is CITY’s editor. He can be reached at dandreatta@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2021.
