MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A Harlem man whose drug case was thrown into question by the involvement of a detective indicted for allegedly running a $6,000-a-day gambling operation was sentenced on a plea deal Tuesday after spending more than a year in jail.
Alshon Williams, 38, was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison plus another 1 1/2 years parole after pleading guilty to attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance. He may be eligible for release soon after he's transferred from Rikers Island to state custody because he has been in jail for nearly 14 months on the case.
The transfer should occur within 10 days, a spokesperson from the New York State Department of Corrections said.
Had Williams been convicted at trial, he faced a minimum of three years in prison on the felony. Williams, who has several prior felony drug convictions, is expected to get a significant amount of time served credit when he arrives at a state facility.
A mistrial, due to a hung jury, was declared in Williams' drug sale trial in October after the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor revealed that Det. Richard Palase, an indicted cop formerly of the Manhattan North Narcotics squad, was a "ghost," or observing officer, in the undercover arrest of Williams.
The absence of Palase's testimony was a factor in the inability of the jury to reach a verdict, several jurors told DNAinfo afterward.
Prosecutors did not reveal Palase's involvement until after the issued had been raised by another witness at the end of the trial. They defended their decision by saying that Palese, who did not testify, was not essential to the case.
The detective was arrested in August 2010 on federal charges he ran a $6,000-per-day gambling operation out of storefronts on Staten Island. His case is pending in Brooklyn Federal Court.
He also worked as an undercover "ghost" in the case of five Columbia students charged with being part of a campus drug ring.
Jurors on Williams' case said they did not vote to convict largely because Palase, who they only knew as "Undercover 0015," was not called to testify.
He may have been the only police witness that saw Williams leave his West 148th Street apartment, where he allegedly sold the drugs to another undercover, moments before he was handcuffed by officers waiting down the block.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Roger Hayes, who presided over the trial, demanded to know why prosecutors initially did not reveal Palase's connection to the case.
After the trial, prosecutors said the were ready to retry the case but the deal was reached and a plea was entered on Nov. 14.
Williams has had several felony drug sale convictions before pleading in this case. He declined to speak at his sentencing when offered the chance, but his attorney, Robert Georges, later provided a statement.
"In light of everything that transpired in this case, Mr. Williams felt a plea deal to 18 months imprisonment when he had already served 14 months was in his best interest considering the statutory minimum after a conviction at trial was three years and he could have been sentenced to much more," Georges said.
Prosecutors said they are pleased with outcome of the case.
“We are satisfied with the plea. Mr. Williams has admitted his guilt. Given his history of multiple felony convictions, securing a conviction and jail time in this case was appropriate. He will also be under correction department supervision for 1 ½ years after his release," Special Narcotics spokesperson Kati Cornell said in a statement.
