Biography
Vernon LaFranque was an Attica prisoner prosecuted for possession of prison contraband after the September 1971 uprising. At a November 20, 1973 hearing in Warsaw, New York, Judge Carmen Ball refused to release him on his own recognizance and set $500 bail. Contemporary reporting described him as thirty-two years old and already imprisoned for ten years. Those earlier years are separate from the uprising-related prosecution. LaFranque later joined the Attica survivors' civil-rights litigation, alleging beatings, humiliation and lasting injuries after the prison was retaken.
The March 1973 Attica News roster prints Vernon LaFranque among the uprising prisoner defendants, linked to indictment 35: weapon possession and contraband. The table lists maximum statutory exposure, not sentences actually imposed or time served; no custody dates or duration are inferred. The January 28, 1973 statement on physical page 5 reports his gassing at Auburn two days before the January 26 assault on Otis McGaughy. This is a reported prison-punishment episode within existing confinement, not a new arrest. Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC510_scans/Attica/510.Prisons.AtticaNewsVol1No1.pdf#page=6
