A federal jury has acquitted Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins who was charged on two counts of extortion for a cannabis investment.
Prosecutors had alleged Tompkins pressured his longtime friend, cannabis executive Frank Perullo, to sell him $50,000 of stock before Perullo’s company, Ascend Wellness Holdings, went public. And when the stock value plummeted, they say Tompkins used his position of power to get his money back.
But in closing arguments, the defense argued Perullo was the greedy one — and the government exploited that. FBI agents approached Perullo to testify against Tompkins, in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Perullo’s need to avoid prosecution, they argued, was leveraged by the government’s “awesome” and “coercive” power…