Prominent Attorney, 3 California Highway Patrol Officers Arrested In 2012

Frank Carson, 60, and his wife Georgia Defilippo, 63, were arrested in connection with the death of Korey Kauffman who disappeared in Modesto, California, three years ago.

The nine suspects were arrested Friday and the 326-page arrest affidavit pegs attorney Frank Carson as the leader.

Three current and former California Highway Patrol officers and a prominent attorney are among those arrested on suspicion of killing a man whose body was found in 2013, authorities announced Friday.

Kauffman was reported missing in April 2012.

Baljit “Bobby” Atwal and Daljit “Dee” Atwal, who own the Pop N Cork businesses in Turlock, were also arrested, officials said. Kauffman supported his family by stealing or collecting scrap metal and selling it for recycling, the affidavit states.

However, his death was classified as suspicious and investigators found a letter in the mail box of Kauffman’s stepfather that read “heard your son was beaten, I hope he’s not dead, I heard he was dumped in a dumpster in Modesto”. Earlier on the day of Kauffman’s disappearance, he had complained to a Turlock recycler that he barely had enough money for cigarettes, so when a stack of irrigation pipes was laid out on property behind Cooley’s residence it was a temptation that proved too strong to resist.

Investigators say Carson thought that Kauffman was stealing valuable antiques placed in storage containers on his property.

That was the last time Kauffman was seen.

Carson has been an outspoken critic of the lady who will doubtless be prosecuting him, Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager, for years. Carson has emphatically denied any involvement in an alleged criminal conspiracy linked to Kauffman’s death.

If Cooley felt unease about the situation at Carson’s property, he had good cause.

“While our desire is to be as forthcoming and transparent as possible, we also do not want to say or do anything to jeopardize justice for Korey’s family, to whom I offer my deepest and most honest condolences”.

The two officers could not immediately be reached for comment about the allegations.

Robert Lee Woody, also charged with murder, was arrested in 2014. Woody is described in the affidavit as a known associate of Carson and the Atwals.

Walter Wells, a CHP officer out of Merced during the investigation, is also facing a first-degree murder charge with a firearm enhancement, along with conspiracy and false imprisonment charges.

Kauffman had reportedly made a living by collecting scrap metal. He is already in custody and was the only person originally charged in Kauffman’s death. The following year he ran to unseat Fladager as district attorney, but garnered less than 30 percent of the vote.

The district attorney’s office said formal charges against all involved should be filed by next week and an arraignment held, possibly on Tuesday.