By Laurel J. Sweet | Friday, January 28, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A man awarded — but not yet paid — $14 million by a jury for the 14 years he languished in prison after a wrongful murder conviction was busted by Boston cops Wednesday for allegedly peddling heroin and crack cocaine.
Shawn Drumgold, 45, of Fall River was rounded up from an apartment on Cardington Street in Roxbury with more than a half-dozen other individuals and what police executing a search warrant reported was seven bags of heroin and 12 bags of crack cocaine on the kitchen floor, five bags of crack inside a pill bottle and an open bag of crack with a straw sticking out on a bedroom table. Police said they found cut-off baggies on Drumgold.
“I can’t imagine he was intending to distribute anything. It certainly seems he’s made some poor choices. I talked to him at Christmas and he was doing great,” said Drumgold’s longtime defender, attorney Rosemary Scapicchio.
Drumgold, who is married and a father, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Roxbury District Court to possession with intent to distribute heroin and crack and two counts of violating the state’s drug laws. Judge David Weingarten released Drumgold on $500 cash bail.
In 1989, Drumgold was convicted of the notorious 1988 murder of 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore. In a crime that shocked the city, Moore — who was perched on a mailbox — was gunned down on a summer night by two masked individuals who fired into a crowd. The case remains unsolved.
Drumgold’s conviction was overturned in 2003, and a U.S. District Court jury awarded him $14 million in October 2009 for the freedom he lost while behind bars. That money has not yet been paid.
“The city is awaiting the (federal) court’s entry of a final judgment on the verdict,” said Bill Sinnott, the city’s corporation counsel. “It will then consider its options for the filing of post-trial motions.”
Drumgold “walks the streets, and people think he’s a rich man. He doesn’t have $2 in his wallet,” Scapicchio said. “He wants to go to school. He’s struggling to get a job. I feel bad for him.”
Meanwhile, Moore’s “case remains open,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office. He declined to comment on Drumgold’s arrest.
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