Rochester Mayor and her husband are hit with charges of firearms possession and endangering a child after unsecured guns were found in their home during raid
The Mayor of Rochester, New York, and her estranged husband have both been hit with weapons charges following a raid of their home in May.
Lovely Warren and Timothy Granison were both charged with criminal possession of a firearm, two counts of Endangering the welfare of a child, and two counts of failure to secure firearms in a home.
Mayor Warren has said she intends to plead not guilty to the charges.
New York State Police searched the mayor's home in Woodman Park together with a number of other properties following an investigation into an alleged drug operation in Rochester lasting several months.
Granison, 42, was pulled over by police in his car and was found to be in possession of a large quantity of cocaine, authorities said in May.
Investigators then carried out a raid on the home he shares with the mayor and seized two firearms - a semi-automatic rifle and a loaded handgun. The couple's 10-year-old daughter Taylor was home alone at the time.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren and her estranged husband, Timothy Granison are facing various weapons charges
Mayor Lovely Warren posted this Facebook message shortly after being charged with various weapons offenses on Friday
Granison together with seven others were charged in connection with the investigation, although the mayor was not among those charged.
Warren later hit out at the 'highly suspicious' timing of her husband's arrest, and insisted the couple have been separated for 'many years'.
After being presented to the grand jury, the latest charges were revealed on Friday.
Granison together with several others were arrested after what investigators said was a 'significant' mid-level drug operation.
The search of the mayor's home revealed a rifle and a handgun. The couple's 10-year-old daughter, pictured here, was allegedly left home alone at the time of the search
The Democrat's Rochester home (pictured) was raided in May while the couple's daughter was at home on her own
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is pictured with estranged husband Timothy Granison and their daughter in a 2013 Facebook photo
Investigators allege Granison was pulled over and had a 'large quantity of cocaine'.
Homes were then searched following the issuing of search warrants. The properties included the mayor's home.
More than two kilos of powdered and crack cocaine with a street value of around $60,000 were seized from the homes together with three firearms and one semi-automatic rifle.
One of the unregistered guns together with the rifle were also allegedly found in the mayor's house together with $100,000 in cash.
Seven people including Granison were arrested and charged in connection to the raids. They are: 39-year-old Dkeidron Dublin, 44-year-old Jason Siplin, 27-year-old Jason Siplin, Jr., 30-year-old Namon Brown, 19-year-old Ernest S. Gamble and 32-year-old Lytrice Jackson.
Granison was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a firearm. Warren was not charged in connection with the drug investigation.
Police officers said that Mayor Warren's daughter, Taylor, was home during the search while the Mayor was not.
State police conduct a search and carry items out of Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren's home in May
Officials revealed the raid on the mayor's home was one of seven raids on homes that day as part of a drugs bust
Two firearms were seized from the home of the mayor with Granison charged with the illegal possession of a firearm over one of them
Granison appeared via video (above) in Rochester City Court from the Monroe County jail, where he spent the night following his arrest in May
'What we did was that we took her father back to the residence, and we let him call her out so we could explain things to her and I contacted someone, and a family member showed up and removed her from the residence,' State Police Major Barry Chase explained.
'There's nothing implicating me in these charges announced today, because I've done nothing wrong,' Warren said in a prepared statement. 'I haven't spoken to Tim since his arrest, and I'm not standing here to defend him.'
Warren and Granison will be arraigned in Monroe County on the new charges next week.
Warren has spent the past year between crises. She was indicted in October on charges she broke campaign finance rules during her last reelection campaign, four years ago.
The treasurers of her campaign and political action committees were also charged.
Mayor Lovely Warren was indicted last October on charges she broke campaign finance rules during her last re-election campaign
She has acknowledged making errors in the handling and reporting of campaign contributions but said they were honest mistakes, not crimes.
Last summer, she faced calls to resign over her handling of the death of Daniel Prude, a black man who stopped breathing after police placed him in a mesh hood and pressed him to the pavement.
Police and city officials said almost nothing publicly about the death for months until Prude's family obtained and released body camera video showing his death.
In March, a probe into the official response to Prude's death, commissioned by Rochester's city council, said Warren lied to the public about what she knew and when she knew it. A special counsel to the city administration disputed those claims.
In April, a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed naming Warren and other city officials, accusing them of allowing a culture of police brutality against racial minorities.
Democrat Warren was decisively beaten in the party's mayoral primary last month by City Councilman Malik Evans.
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