Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 23, 1991 TAG: 9102230185
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium
The motion to revoke bond was one of numerous government and defense motions argued before U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser.
Neely faces charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by disclosing secret grand jury information to one of his clients. It is alleged that Neely revealed his access to grand jury information to Michael Giacolone, a former Virginia Tech football player who was convicted last year of heading a marijuana distribution ring in Montgomery County.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Peters filed a motion Friday to revoke Neely's bond. The government alleges that Neely has violated one condition of his bond by contacting witnesses or potential witnesses in his case.
The government charges that on Feb. 7, Neely went to a federal penitentiary in Morgantown, W.Va., where Giacolone is in prison. He gave his reasons for being at the prison as an attorney-client visit with Jerry Whittaker, another prisoner from the Montgomery County area.
Neely urged Whittaker - a former pastor who ran unsuccessfully for Floyd County sheriff in 1987 and who was convicted of several state and federal offenses - to contact Giacolone in an effort to extract damaging admissions from him, according to the government.
Failing that, Neely sought to have Whittaker commit perjury anyway, the government has alleged.
"Therefore, it is apparent that while on bond facing trial for obstruction of justice, and while practicing law on probation, Keith Neely continues to obstruct justice and continues to attempt to make contact with Michael Giacolone and affect his testimony," the government charges.
Neely was sentenced last December to two years' probation and fined $5,000 on a federal misdemeanor cocaine-possession charge.
Kiser withheld ruling on the motion until a March 4 hearing. Peters said a witness who overheard Whittaker talking about Neely's visit is prepared to testify at the hearing.
Neely was indicted last year on allegations that he, Evelyn Marie Cotton of Lynchburg and Shirley Stanley Bassett of Roanoke conspired to defraud the U.S. government. The indictment alleged that Cotton, a court reporter, disclosed secret information from a grand jury to substitute reporter Bassett, who in turn passed the information on to Neely, her friend and sometime employer. The information involved testimony from a witness that implicated Giacolone and Neely.
A second count charged Neely, Cotton and Bassett with obstructing justice because it was known their disclosures would reach the targets of federal investigations.
The third count charged the three with criminal contempt of court for violating rules that require certain people to keep grand jury matters secret.
Cotton and Bassett pleaded guilty to the contempt charge. The two other charges against them were dismissed.
Ed Jasie, Neely's attorney, filed a number of motions, ranging from asking that the government turn over notes of agents who investigated the case to releasing Giacolone's income tax returns for the last four to five years.
Jasie argued Friday in the court hearing that charges against Neely should be dismissed.
"He had a responsibility to advise his client of that information," Jasie said of Neely's alleged disclosure of information to Giacolone. "It was . . . a legitimate approach to practicing law."
Peters argued that Neely "intentionally interfered with the machinery of the grand jury" to shield himself from a drug investigation.
His trial is scheduled for March 25.
by CNB