Old state rape, robbery charges may keep Woodfox behind bars

• By BILL LODGE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 1, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Old state charges of aggravated rape and armed robbery may be used to keep accused murderer Albert Woodfox in prison if a federal judge orders his pretrial release, Attorney General James D. “Buddy” Caldwell said Friday.

Woodfox was convicted in 1973 and 1998 for the murder of security officer Brent Miller at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1972. He spent most of the subsequent 36 years of his life sentence in solitary confinement.

But U.S. District Judge James J. Brady overturned the conviction in September, ruling that Woodfox’s defense attorneys provided ineffective counsel during the 1998 trial.

Caldwell has asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to reject Brady’s decision.

But the attorney general said Friday he will pursue six aggravated rape cases and six counts of armed robbery from 1967 and 1969 in Orleans Parish if Brady releases Woodfox prior to a retrial on the murder charge.

“If we let him out, we probably will never see him again,” Caldwell said. “We have said he should not be released because he’s dangerous.”

Nicholas J. Trenticosta, a New Orleans attorney for Woodfox, disputed Caldwell’s allegations regarding the old charges of aggravated rape and armed robbery.

“It’s a lie,” Trenticosta said. “It’s a flat-out lie. He (Woodfox) has never been charged with six counts of rape.”

Caldwell said the charges exist and speculated that they were not prosecuted because Woodfox was sentenced to a 50-year prison term for armed robbery in 1969.

Woodfox then escaped from custody in Orleans Parish, taking a jailer hostage, Caldwell said. In 1971, Caldwell said, Woodfox was arrested in New York for an armed robbery in that state. Woodfox then was returned to Louisiana to begin his 50-year term at Angola.

Christopher A. Aberle, a Mandeville attorney for Woodfox, said Friday that he does not believe Caldwell will be allowed to prosecute any charges from the 1960s.

“It sounds like a ridiculously absurd comment,” Aberle said. “He (Caldwell) is saying that because he knows if the 5th Circuit upholds… (Brady’s) decision, he won’t be able to go to trial again on the murder.”