Newburgh Man Gets Prison Sentence For Illegal Drugs, Perjury

NEWBURGH, NY — A Newburgh man who was found guilty of having $200,000 worth of cocaine and lying to a grand jury found out Monday that he will be going to prison.

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler said Sherlan Simpson, 37, of Newburgh was sentenced to an aggregate term of imprisonment of 20 to 22 years in prison to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.

He was convicted by a jury in Orange County Court of first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and first-degree perjury.

At sentencing, the court imposed an 18-year sentence on the drug counts and two to four years on the perjury count, with the sentences to be run consecutively.

Prosecutors said at trial, on Jan. 6, 2021, Simpson was stopped for a vehicle and traffic violation in near Route 32 in the town of Woodbury.

New York state troopers said they saw a backpack in the back seat of Simpson’ car. He then fled the traffic stop in his car, racing into the Woodbury Commons where surveillance video showed a backpack being thrown from the car.

State police recovered the backpack from where it was thrown.

Inside of it, police said, were Simpson’s personal belongings along with 2 kilos of cocaine, which had an estimated street value of $200,000.

Subsequent DNA analysis of the contents of the bag matched the defendant, authorities said.

When the evidence in the case was presented to the Orange County grand jury five days after his arrest, Simpson chose to testify on his own behalf.

Prosecutors said, after taking the oath to tell the truth, Simpson denied that he ever had a backpack in the car or threw it from the car.

Hoovler said that a huge quantity of drugs was intercepted by police before it could be spread throughout the community.

“The lengthy and appropriate sentence imposed on this defendant reflects the serious nature of his crimes and criminal history,” he said.

“The defendant’s bold lies before the grand jury strike at the very heart of our criminal justice system and merited the consecutive sentence imposed by the court,” Hoovler said.