MONSEY - A 42-year-old woman who contends she fled to Monsey after Maryland prosecutors falsely charged her with sexually abusing two girls and assaulting a prison guard was released today from the Rockland County jail.
Valerie Carlton’s release came after a state Supreme Court appearance during which Justice William A. Kelly dismissed the fugitive from justice charge lodged to hold her in jail after Maryland filed an extradition warrant for her.
Carlton’s released came after the 90-day limit expired for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign extradition papers, Rockland prosecutor Kevin Dunlap said in court during bail hearings before Kelly.
The extradition warrant remains and Carlton could be taken into custody if and when Cuomo signs papers, Dunlap said.
“My understanding, based on information I am getting from Albany, it will happen,” Dunlap told Kelly, referring to the governor eventually signing the extradition papers.
Carlton’s Rockland lawyer, Phil Murphy, said Cuomo’s office and the governor of Maryland were negotiating sending Carlton back to another jurisdiction in Maryland, not Harford County where she claims she has been persecuted and abused in jail.
Carlton and her supporters argue she is being railroaded by the state attorney in Harford County on charges of assaulting a prison guard in 2009. The guard ended up with a scratch on his hand from the confrontation, her supporters and lawyers said.
She was charged with assault while being held on $10 million bail on 28 charges involving sexual abuse of two girls. The sex abuse charges were dropped for lack of evidence after Carlton was held for nine months in jail.
After her release she left Maryland for Monsey in 2010. She claims she was brutalized in the jail and framed by a conspiracy involving her former husband, police, prosecutors and jail officials.
Carlton and her supporters contend she’s being railroaded because she wanted to raise her 6-year-old daughter as an Orthodox Jew against the wishes of her former husband, a Baptist from a evangelical family.
Harford County State Attorney Joseph Cassilly has denied that Carlton was being framed and mistreated, claiming her supporters are misrepresenting the facts.
She had been held in jail since her arrest Oct. 11 on the warrant.
“She’s happy to be released and we thank the District Attorney’s Office for their professionalism,” Murphy said.
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