Former cop charged with extortion

Francis Ogaldez

The incident happened way back in 2007, but the trial against Francis Ogaldez started today in the Supreme Court. Ogaldez, a former corporal of police, is accused in a web of deceit and was charged for extorting money from a Ladyville resident. Windell White and Sonia Guerra reported to police that on August twenty-fifth 2007, White was socializing at Raul’s Rose Garden but was forced to leave because he was intoxicated and had broken a glass bottle inside the establishment. White says someone knocked him on the head and he lost consciousness as he exited the brothel and when he woke up, he was at home. Guerra told him that he may have been in an accident in which a Chinese man was hit. The next day White says he met Ogaldez at a gas station, and approached the officer for advice on what to do because he was not sure what happened. According to White, Ogaldez told him not to file a report and that he would look into it. White claimed that when he did not hear from Ogaldez days later, he called him and was told that there was no accident. But two weeks later, Ogaldez changed his story and allegedly told White that there was an accident and that he would spend the weekend in jail and appear in court the following Monday. Ogaldez is accused of offering to make the case disappear if White paid him four hundred dollars. White said he told Ogaldez that he would pay on September fourteenth, but instead, he contacted Attorney Audrey Matura Shepherd and she got the police internal affairs and the FIU involved. A sting operation followed and Ogaldez was paid with four marked hundred dollar bills. Officers waiting nearby moved in on him as the cash was reportedly handed over and he was quickly detained and charged. He addressed the jurors this morning and claimed that he was being set up, but he could not say by whom.  His case continues on Thursday before Justice John Gonzalez and a verdict is expected to be handed down by the end of the day.