– after trying to back-out
Latoya Corley, who was caught last September at the JFK Airport with cocaine, says that she was raped after she indicated her desire to withdraw from the plan to travel to the US with the drugs.
Corley, who is set to be sentenced by Judge Leo Glasser on October 14 following a guilty plea, is seeking five years’ probation based on aberrant conduct, coercion, her attempts to cooperate with the government and her family circumstances. Arguing for a reduced sentence, Corley alleged that she was “threatened, beaten and raped” after she indicated her desire to withdraw from the plan and go home without any drugs. The woman, who said she was the sole caretaker for three children, ages three, four and five, said she had voluntarily agreed to transport the drugs because of her “dire” financial situation.
However, US Attorney Loretta Lynch, in a sentencing memorandum, obtained by this newspaper, argues that the woman should be sentenced to between 37 to 46 months, which would be consistent with statutory sentencing provisions. Lynch said that while Corley’s allegations are serious, the incidents were uncorroborated and were not disclosed to law enforcement agents until recently, despite several opportunities for her to do so. She said even after Corley was allegedly threatened with violence and told that she would have to swallow 150 pellets containing drugs she did not flee the hotel, despite having possession of her passport and return ticket and being left alone in the hotel room.
According to information sworn to by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Joseph Jerla, Corley arrived on Caribbean Airlines Flight 424 on a ticket purchased just days before her flight and on a newly-issued passport. She was questioned and a book found on her person was discovered to contain cocaine between its pages. Her briefcase was also checked along with the album and portfolio that was found in the briefcase and all three allegedly had cocaine. Jerla said the cocaine amounted to 535.6 grammes.
According to Lynch, after the defendant was intercepted on September 9, 2009, she claimed that she had met an individual named Mike British at a club in Georgia and he offered her US$5,000 to travel to Guyana and pick up one “key” of drugs and take it back to the US. Corley told the authorities that she knew the man was an ecstasy dealer and that he had paid the application fee for her new US passport and also cash for her trip to Guyana. The woman also claimed that when she arrived in Guyana, several individuals offered her US$10,000 to transport cocaine to New York and some tried to make her swallow “tablets” containing narcotics but she refused. Further, according to Lynch, Corley also said that some of the individuals wired money to her mother in Georgia, to prevent her from filing a missing persons report. She also said that her passport and luggage were held until the morning of her return flight. Corley said the individuals gave her the suitcase containing the cocaine and a telephone number for someone named “Shaun” in Guyana to call upon her arrival at JFK and they also told her to have her suitcase wrapped in plastic at the airport in Guyana.
When she was arrested, Corley made some consensually monitored telephone calls to the number she was given for “Shaun” in Guyana and Mike British in Georgia and she participated in other monitored calls until she was released on bail. After she returned home, she refused to assist the agents any further and when she was arrested for driving without a licence she provided a false name to the police.
Arguing against Corley being given probation instead of a jail term, Lynch said the woman made a series of conscious decisions with respect to the crime and she agreed to travel abroad for the express purpose of taking the drugs back to the US for her own pecuniary purposes. The attorney said upon her arrival in Guyana, Corley acquired the drugs and returned to the US with the intent of delivering those to another individual.
“In her pre-sentence interview, the defendant told probation that one of individuals who gave her the drugs ‘instructed the defendant she should leave the hotel room at certain times of the day’ and ‘act like a tourist’ so that the hotel staff would not become suspicious,” the lawyer said.
She did so for seven days and she had possession of her documents for several days before they were allegedly taken away from her and according to the lawyer she had ample time to inform the hotel staff of her predicament but chose not to do so. It was pointed out that she could have alerted the flight crew on her return flight to the US or the enforcement agents at the JFK airport but again chose not to do so.
