Man acquitted of earlier murder charge acquitted again, in assault case

PHOTOGRAPHER: File Photo

Tyshawn Plowden and his attorney Cheryl Coleman react to a complete acquittal Wednesday, March 29, 2017.

SCHENECTADY — A man acquitted by a Schenectady County jury last year on a murder charge has been acquitted in a completely different assault case, attorneys said.

The latest acquittal for Tyshawn Plowden, 31, came this week in a first-degree assault case related to an Oct. 11, 2017, slashing on Second Avenue in Mont Pleasant.

Plowden faced up to 25 years in state prison, but the jury found him not guilty. He claimed self-defense in the case.

Plowden was early acquitted of acting as an accomplice in the May 2016 murder of Taquan Foreman on Paige Street. A second man charged in that case was also acquitted.

“He’s blessed. He’s a very fortunate young man,” said Plowden’s attorney in both cases, Cheryl Coleman, on Thursday. “Acquittals are not necessarily easy to come by in Schenectady County.”

The case that ended this week centered around a street fight that left a man with a slash-type head wound. A surveillance camera in the area captured most of the incident but did not capture four seconds of the altercation, according to prosecutor Nicolaus Brooks-McDonald.

The prosecutor argued Plowden’s claim of self defense did not fit with the video or the four-second gap.

Coleman argued a different interpretation of the video. She also argued there were credibility issues on the victim’s part and family members who were present at the fight. In the first 911 call from the victim’s phone, dispatchers took down an account of someone being attacked by two women, Coleman said.

Plowden took the stand in his own defense, and testified the injured man brought the blade into the confrontation and suffered the injury during the struggle, Coleman said.

Previous:

Man acquitted in murder faces new assault count, Oct. 19, 2017
Man acquitted in murder case faces old charges, March 31, 2017
Accused murder accomplice acquitted on all charges, March 29, 2017

The jury did convict Plowden on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, for which Plowden received time served.

Plowden remained in custody Thursday due to a 2013 non-fatal shooting case against him in Pennsylvania that remains unresolved. He had been out on bail for that arrest at the time of his October 2017 arrest.