Man released in 12-year-old's murder is arrested on drug charges

Travis Andersen

Globe Staff

A Fall River man who won a $14 million judgment in a civil suit after being wrongfully convicted in an infamous 1988 murder case has been arrested on drug charges, authorities said.

Shawn Drumgold, 45, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment today in Roxbury District Court to charges including possession of a Class A substance with intent to distribute, and was released on $500 cash bail, according to Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. Drumgold is due back in court on March 15.

His attorney, Rosemary C. Scapicchio of Boston, said in a phone interview that she believes he is innocent of the new charges.

‘‘It appears that he was back in Boston hanging around the wrong crowd,’’ said Scapicchio, who also represented Drumgold during his civil suit. ‘‘It was a poor choice of his to put himself in that situation, but I don’t believe he was out there selling drugs, no."

According to a Boston police report, an informant told police earlier this month that drugs were being sold out of an apartment on Cardington Street in Roxbury. Police raided the apartment on Wednesday, the report states, and recovered several bags of heroin and crack cocaine, as well as $304 cash from Drumgold’s person. He was arrested along with several other suspects, authorities said.

In 2003, Drumgold was released from prison after spending more than 14 years behind bars for the shooting death of 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore, who was struck by gunfire as she sat atop a mail box near her mother’s home in the Grove Hall section of Roxbury.

The killing, which police investigated as a gang shooting gone awry, stunned the city and spurred a massive investigation to hunt down those responsible. Drumgold, then 23, was charged with the murder on Aug. 29, 1988, 10 days after the slaying. He went on trial the following October with an alleged accomplice, Terrence ‘‘Lug’’ Taylor.

While Taylor was acquitted after a judge said there was insufficient evidence to sustain a murder charge against him, Drumgold was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

However, Drumgold was released in November 2003 after prosecutors said they believed he was wrongfully convicted because he did not receive a fair trial. In April 2008, a federal jury in Boston ruled that a city police detective violated Drumgold’s civil rights during the investigation by concealing that he gave money to a key prosecution witness before that witness testified in the murder trial. The jury awarded Drumgold $14 million, plus interest, in October 2009.

A call to a number listed for Drumgold was not returned today.

‘‘I’m excited,’’ he said in the courthouse lobby in 2009 after the jury announced the award. ‘‘It’s been a long battle, but we’ve still got a long way to go.’’

Scapicchio said Drumgold has been working as a day laborer but has not received any job training or counseling from the state, which is required by law under the wrongful conviction statute.

‘‘I’m sure that 15 years of demons [in prison] takes a lot of counseling to take care of,’’ she said.

William Sinnott, corporation counsel for the city, said tonight in a statement that the city is awaiting the court’s final judgment on the verdict before deciding whether or not to appeal the $14 million award. Drumgold has not yet received any of the money, city officials said.

The Moore case remains open but no additional arrests have been made, according to Wark.

He said tonight that the Roxbury apartment — not any one suspect — was the primary target of the most recent drug investigation. At today's arraignment, Wark said, a prosecutor referenced Drumgold’s four-page rap sheet, which included several drug and motor vehicle offenses.