Cannaday trial begins Monday

This post was written by Hatchet Staff Writer Amy D’onofrio.

The judge overseeing the drug and firearms trial of a former GW employee in D.C. Superior Court denied motions to suppress key evidence on Friday, allowing the trial to begin Monday morning.

Judge Russell Canan denied motions to suppress testimony of a government witness and evidence seized during an August police raid at the apartment of Lawrence Cannaday, a former counselor at the Multicultural Student Services Center. Cannaday, who is the brother of assistant vice president for Student and Academic Support Services Helen Cannaday Saulny, was charged with eight counts of drug and illegal firearms possession last year after police found marijuana, cocaine, firearms and drug distribution materials at his residence in Foggy Bottom.

Cannaday’s lawyer, Leonard L. Long, Jr., moved to suppress the testimony of a former GW student that prosecutors allege Cannaday sold drugs to beginning in 2007. Canan denied the motion, and prosecutors expect the student to admit to purchasing powder cocaine from Cannaday on a regular basis between late 2007 and the spring of 2008.

Long also moved to prohibit any evidence seized in the raid on the grounds that the search warrant was only obtained after police intentionally misled a judge about the credibility of a confidential informant working with police in the raid. Long said in court that the informant was known as a drug dealer and said if proper information had been presented to the judge, the search warrant would not have been issued. Canan, however, did not grant that motion either, and said no reference to the informant would be made at trial.