Schenectady: Witness breaks down on stand
Not
Renee Rickson cries when asked about her sexual encounters with
Schenectady police officer
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer
First published: Friday, December 28, 2001
UTICA -- A former street prostitute and crack addict testified
Thursday that she cooperated with FBI agents investigating corruption
in the Schenectady police force because a cop had twice forced her to
have sex, but every time attorneys tried to get the witness to discuss
details, she burst into tears.
So after two hours on the stand, Renee Rickson never fully detailed
for a federal court jury her allegations that former Officer Michael
Siler, who was fired after pleading guilty to extortion and drug
distribution, raped her.
As part of a plea deal, Siler is expected to be a key government
witness against Lt. Michael Hamilton, 35, and Officer Nicola Messere,
42, who are on trial. The two suspended veteran officers face
racketeering charges, including paying street informants in drugs and
protecting them from arrests.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Katko backed off after the 29-year-old
Rickson started crying when he mentioned her "two unwanted sexual
encounters'' with Siler, a former patrol cop. Rickson said after being
arrested in November 2000 for drug sales, she refused to see FBI
agents who came to the Schenectady County Jail. But her mother and her
boyfriend, Steven Lloyd, who also testified, encouraged her to report
what Siler had done, and she agreed to see the agents.
Defense attorney Joseph Tacopina of New York City, who represents
Hamilton, tiptoed around the subject, but he did elicit from the
witness that Siler tried to date her and that she wasn't interested.
He also had her tell the jury that Siler took her once to his
apartment, where he had small bags of marijuana. And, another time,
Siler picked her up and took her to a hotel where he had sex with her
in front of other officers at a bachelor party. Rickson said she went
out of fear and that Siler stopped at the station to "get her
something'' to appease her.
Tacopina called Siler a rapist in his opening statement in an attempt
to discredit his testimony, but on Thursday he never asked Rickson to
elaborate. Rickson said she told Siler, "No,'' she wouldn't have sex
with him, and he reminded her he was a cop.
But the defense lawyer did harp on her testimony that Siler gave her
crack cocaine three times.
"Siler told the government he never gave you drugs,'' Tacopina said.
"He's wrong,'' Rickson answered.
"Siler will deny all three times because he said he never gave you
drugs,'' Tacopina said.
"Then he's lying,'' Rickson replied. Since recently being released
from a year in prison for selling drugs, she said she has straightened
out her life, has her two children, ages 14 10, living with her, goes
to drug and alcohol counseling and works at Mont Pleasant Middle
School in Schenectady. She wasn't asked her position.
Regarding Hamilton, who is accused of giving drugs to informants,
Rickson, who said she never worked as a police informant, told
Tacopina, "He's never given me nothing.''
But that wasn't the case with Messere. Under questioning by Katko,
Rickson said that in the summer of 1998 -- she thinks it was the
summer -- Messere pulled over his patrol car and told her he knew one
of the guys at the house where she was staying had drugs. She said
Messere told her to leave the back door unlocked or he would arrest
her. She said she did what she was told, and Messere entered the house
and arrested the suspect.
"What about me?'' she asked Messere, meaning she wanted something for
her cooperation. "Because I heard other people were getting drugs from
Nick,'' she added. She said he gave her two or three "bumps,'' rocks
of crack cocaine.
When Messere's attorney, Paul DerOhannesian, tried to question her,
she got testy. She said Messere was always bringing her home to her
mother and trying to get her off the streets. DerOhannesian indicated
she resented him for that. DerOhannesian, who was a veteran
sex-offense prosecutor in Albany County, also did not ask Rickson to
detail the incidents with Siler.
The case before U.S. District Judge David Hurd is in its second week
and has produced a string of Schenectady vice squad investigators, who
the defense claims harbored a grudge against the patrol cops for
infringing on their territory, and addicts, prostitutes and drug
dealers.
Lloyd, 29, Rickson's boyfriend, who lived in Schenectady for two years
before being sentenced to 3 /2 to 7 years in prison for drug sales,
testified against Hamilton. He said Darla Wharry, a major informant of
Hamilton's who has already testified, would get into Hamilton's car
"almost every day,'' take a short ride around the block and sometimes
come back with drugs.
Lloyd went toe-to-toe with Tacopina, admitting he was a drug dealer,
denying he was a pimp and claiming that while he never saw Hamilton
give Wharry drugs, it would have been "impossible'' for her to get
them from anyone else. "Nobody would deal with her when she was with
him,'' Lloyd said. "Everyone knew who he was.''
The trial continues today.